JC
We have been noticing a recent rash of “thug” and “ghetto” parties. This past week, one at Highland Park High School and one at the University of Chicago. At Highland Park High, students came dressed up in afro wigs, sporting gold teeth, and wearing baggy jeans. These special kids don’t limit their mimicry to blacks, […]

JC
The Richmond Times Dispatch ran an article about Iman’s new contribution to the world of beauty, The Beauty of Color: The Ultimate Beauty Guide for Skin of Color. We told you about her line of cosmetics for women of color in a previous article. Putting products and resources out there for women of color seems […]

CVK
(Thanks to sandandfoam for this!) Salon.com’s Since You Asked advice column answers a letter from a woman who self-identifies as “a light-skinned African-American” and signs her letter “Not a Caublinasian.” [sic] The woman is tired of always being asked what she is. This letter is interesting because she’s essentially dealing with the same problem as […]

CVK

Does anyone else find it strange that in the poster of the upcoming Memoirs of a Geisha film, Zhang Ziyi has blue eyes? Is it supposed to make her even more exotic and alluring by giving her a “mixed” look? Or is there a legitimate reason that I don’t know about? (I have to admit […]

CVK
Sharlene Brown just wrote an opinion piece for the Harvard Crimson decrying the fact that Harvard University “recategorizes” its mixed students back into just a single box even if they checked more than one race on their applications:
Once a multiracial student gets to Harvard he finds that he’s been shoved back into one box. Upon […]

CVK

Wow, Apple wasted no time in pimping out Rosa Parks’ memory to sell their crap. From Gawker:
Think Exploitative
Because the greatest tribute is always to be posthumously whored out to sell flimsy, overpriced, glorified walkmen to yuppies and aging boomers.
Unless the message here is that had Rosa Parks had an iPod, she wouldn’t have even heard […]

JC

The legendary Rosa Parks passed away on October 24th. We thank her and honor her for her courage to stand up to unjust practices, and we look forward to continuing in the fight for equal rights in this country.
Keep an eye out for some national organizing that will take place to commemorate her work […]

CVK
Am I the only who’s bothered by the way people talk about adopting kids from other countries as if it’s some kind of retail therapy? From People.com:
One thing Angelina Jolie has realized since becoming a mom to Maddox, 4, and Zahara, 9 months is that she wants to adopt again.
“I’m planning on it,” Jolie […]

CVK
It sounds like Korea is experiencing some growing pains as its population becomes more ethnically diverse. Last week, we told you about a group of Korean women petitioning the government to pass laws that would make it illegal to discriminate against interracial couples or mixed children. Today, The Korea Times profiles Jeon Man-kil, who founded […]

JC
Black Entertainment reviews Razia Said just as she comes out with her new album, Magical. She is likened to Sade with regards to her sound as well as her mixed heritage. Razia’s mother is Afro-Arabic and her father is Indian. I listened to some samples of her music and I honestly don’t see that huge […]

JC
Anthony let us know about the mixed family that has just been highlighted on the UCLA website. Rafer Johnson (’59) was recognized as an award-winning athlete and dad. Nothing much is said about the fact that his family is mixed — although the visual *is* placed right alongside the spotlight. Hmm…maybe a function of Cali? […]

CVK
The BBC reports on the situation in the Lozells area of Birmingham, England, where violence has broken out after a pirate radio station DJ aired allegations that a black teenage girl had been gang raped by Asian men. The story points out that even though there are definitely economic tensions between blacks and Asians in […]

CVK
Another story to file in the “Media about black relationships being inherently dysfunctional” folder. Washington Post columnist William Raspberry discusses a new report just released by the New York-based Institute for American Values. The report was supposed to make a case for why marriage is a good thing, but interestingly enough, buried in the data […]

CVK
(Thanks to Darla for this tip!) PostSecret is a community art page where people send in their secrets on homemade postcards. New cards are posted every sunday. Some of them are funny, some sad, some dark. But two of this week’s posts are about ethnic identity. One reads “I wish I had been born anything […]

CVK
I highly recommend this book to everyone–I’m about two-thirds of my way through it right now. Helen Oyeyemi finished her novel The Icarus Girl when she was only 18. The novel is about Jess, a girl who–like Oyeyemi herself–has a Nigerian mother and English father. Much of the plot surrounds her imaginary friend TillyTilly, who […]

CVK
The Indianapolis Star interviews CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien, whose mother is black Cuban and father is Australian Irish descent:
Question: Your full name is Maria de la Soledad O’Brien, which kind of says it all for a diversity conference speaker. How did your parents deal with the issue of race as you were growing up, or […]

CVK
Stars and Stripes reports that a group of Korean and Korean-American women have come together to appeal to Korea’s National Assembly to pass anti-discrimination laws that would make it illegal to discriminate against Korean women married to foreigners and the children from those relationships:
This week, about 75 Korean women from 12 different countries gathered in […]

CVK
Sigh… this is the dilemma with blogging. By writing about something horrible like this, are we just giving them more publicity? So it’s with ambivalence that I let you all know about this story, which has been making the rounds. Lamb and Lynx Gaede are 13 year-old twins who perform as “Prussian Blue.” Basically, they’re […]

JC
Tony gave us the heads up on a commercial that Spike TV is running to promote conversation around Martin Luther King day. It features a biracial woman who says that blacks do not accept her for black, whites do not accept her for white, and that she wishes that people would just accept her for […]

CVK
(Thanks again to dmwiese for this one!) The Washington Post ran an article today about the “ethnic” beauty pageants that are springing up all over the country as a reaction to the Eurocentric beauty pageants that dominate the landscape.
Robertha Budy heard the insult when she was a little girl, and now, even at Georgia […]