CVK
People Magazine reports that Kimora Lee Simmons and Russell Simmons are getting a divorce:
Russell issued his own statement Friday afternoon, saying: “Kimora and I will remain committed parents and caring friends with great love and admiration for each other. We will also continue to work side by side on a daily basis as partners in […]

mtevc (a new MMW contributor!)
There’s a new character on CBS soap opera As the World Turns…introduced as a biracial girl originally thought to be the illegitimate daughter of character Lily Synder’s dead sister (given up to an orphanage run by nuns)…
Yes, a convoluted thing the soap opera plot is! She was dangerously evolving into the […]

CVK
Another great Asian Pop column from Jeff Yang for SFGate.com. He discusses Kip Fulbeck’s Part Asian, 100% Hapa book and uses it as a jumping-off point to discuss larger issues surrounding Hapa identity and mixed race identity in general–and he was kind enough to include our input. As MMW readers already know, Jen is not […]

JC
An article in the New York Times explores online matchmaking and explains that couples where partners are actually more similar than not, are the ones that actually stay together for a longer amount of time.
During the first five years of marriage, the divorce rate for a couple of the same religion hovers around 24 percent, […]

CVK
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of the way “The L Word” has handled issues around mixed race identity and interracial relationships. David Swerdlick from Alternet is too. But check out the vicious comments in reaction to his article that praises Bette Porter’s character (played by Jennifer Beals) and her mixed identity. The comments […]

CVK
(Thanks to Tomoko and Philip for the tip!) The New York Times published a very thoughtful article profiling several first-generation Chinese-born girls adopted by white American families. But blog Twice the Rice expressed dismay at a quote from one of the white mothers interviewed in the story:
“With an African-American child we had no guarantee that […]

CVK
I’m really enjoying blog Reappropriate’s recaps and analyses of each episode of Black.White. Check them out here:
Black.White. episode 1
Black.White. episode 2
Black.White. episode 3
And if you haven’t already, please check out our latest episode of Addicted to Race, in which Jen and I share our thoughts on episodes 1 and 2 of the show. We also interview […]

CVK
Ah, good to see that the model minority myth and the hybrid vigor myth are alive and well, even across the Atlantic. (sarcasm, of course) The Herald reports that among fourth-graders in Scotland, Chinese students and mixed students are ahead academically:
the analysis suggests that the 181 Chinese pupils in Scotland performed best in 2004-5 – […]

CVK
We’ve seen quite a few articles lately discussing the fact that many college students who choose not to identify themselves racially on admissions applications are not mixed–as administrators had previously assumed–but rather, white. They left the race box blank because they worried that being white would work against them in this era of affirmative action.
Cari […]

CVK
Robert Towne’s adaptation of the Depression era novel, Ask the Dust, has received mixed reviews. I haven’t seen it yet, so if any of you MMW readers have, I’d love to know what you thought of it. At the heart of the story is a mixed couple: an Italian-American man and a Mexican-American woman played […]

CVK
You can file this story in the “why are we talking about race like it’s still the 1950s?” file. Harold Ford Jr., a Tennessee congressman, has stirred up controversy by declaring that his paternal grandmother was white. His father and uncle back him up, but his aunt disagrees and says that Vera Ford was black. What effect […]

CVK
I feel like a broken record already, but hey, somebody needs to point this stuff out. As you may remember, back in October, Jen told you about Gallup’s annual Minority Rights and Relations poll, part of which asked questions about attitudes towards interracial relationships. From Jen’s original post:
The survey asked white, latino and black correspondents […]

CVK
Oh boy. I’m starting to think that in addition to our “Exotic Watch,” we may need to start a new section of MMW–a “Utopia Watch.” This is something we’ve discussed a lot on MMW and on Addicted to Race. Many people seem to believe that just as Atreyu was the only one in The Neverending Story who […]

CVK
(Thanks to Anthony Yuen for this tip!) This is a heartening story. As evidenced by the recent riots in Paris, many European countries are struggling to adapt to the ever-increasing immigrant populations. Of course, the changing demographics bring up many questions of identity, authenticity and legitimacy, i.e. what makes you German? Just your citizenship? Or […]

CVK
You know how people often talk about the power of hip hop, and how because so many young people listen to hip hop, it’s made them more open-minded about race? Well, just because you enjoy black music or hey, even dabble in a little sex with black people, it doesn’t mean anything about your fundamental […]

CVK
(Thanks to Ben Jackson for alerting us to this story!) A magnet school in Hartford, CT has been stirring up a ton of controversy after its principal Eduardo V. Genao (pictured) allegedly coerced several mixed students to change their racial identity to white so that the school would qualify for more funding. Genao claims he […]

CVK
(Thanks to Sarah for this tip!) In the latest issue of Allure, Eva Longoria talks about her relationship with NBA player Tony Parker. Parker, who was born in Belgium and grew up in France, is the son of Tony Parker Sr., who was an African-American professional basketball player and Pamela Firestone, a Dutch model.
According to FemaleFirst.co.uk, […]

CVK
This article is a couple weeks old, but I thought it would be interesting to put it up on MMW for discussion. The writer posits… well actually he seems a bit confused about what he wants to say. On the one hand, he lists many recent TV shows or films that have dealt with racial […]

BS
A recent New York Times article discusses the current situation of single mothers by choice and their options in sperm donors.  One woman discussed her desire to find a sperm donor of a different race:
She was also attracted by the idea of a donor of another race. ‘I believe in multiculturalism,’ she said. ‘I would […]

JC & CVK
A brand-new episode of Addicted to Race is out! If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our podcast in iTunes. Click here to launch iTunes and subscribe today, it’s absolutely free. Here’s a rundown of episode 19:
DISCUSSION OF BLACK.WHITE.
We break from our usual format and spend the entire episode discussing the new reality […]