JC
Thanks to Tony for the heads-up on this article — it was actually published several months ago, but we hadn’t seen it. Through the DNA testing of her mother’s hair, Mwamaka Sharifu, a 19 year old Kenyan girl, found out that her descendents were Chinese sailors who settled in Kenya in the latter part of the 14th Century. After […]

CVK
(Thanks to Nishan for this tip) Two teenage white boys have been charged with an absolutely horrific attack against a Latino boy. From The Washington Post:
Authorities said the two dragged the boy from a house party Saturday and into the yard, where they sodomized him with a plastic pipe from a patio table umbrella and poured bleach […]

CVK
If I have to hear Jade on America’s Next Top Model say one more time that she’s a “beautiful biracial butterfly” I will throw up.

CVK
Okay this item is really just pure gossip and has no analytical value whatsoever, but hey, they’re an interracial couple okay? According to the New York Daily News, talk show host Maury Povich “vowed yesterday to fight the lawsuit that threatens to tarnish his storybook marriage to Connie Chung - but never denied the […]

CVK
By now you’ve probably heard the “much ado about a hairdo” hoopla surrounding Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. Today we just heard (thanks Tariq!) about this story, in which a woman is suing the Dillard’s chain of hair salons because they charged her extra for having “ethnic” hair.
It’s interesting how political hair can be for women, particularly for black women. The […]

JC
We just recently reported on the advocacy that was being done via Senator Simitian’s (D-Palo Alto) office and in conjunction with community groups that serve mixed-race people. Here’s the exciting update! The bill has passed the senate panel with a vote of 3-1 in favor of the bill). The bill will require that all California state government forms allow respondents to […]

CVK
Just when you thought it was safe to watch TV again because Black.White. finally wrapped up its six-episode run, here comes Tyra with yet more undercover exposes! She gets in on the race-swapping game on the episode that’s coming out this Thursday. Here’s the description:
Are people treated differently based on the color of their skin? […]

CVK
(Thanks T for this tip!) Woah… talk about racial scripts. Check out the description of this new chick lit novel, Becoming Latina in 10 Easy Steps, about a Latina woman who finds out her dad was actually a white guy, and goes through a bit of an identity crisis:
With no marriage prospects and a high-powered […]

CVK
These articles are all worth a read…
Acting Your Race
In These Times
(Thanks to Bryce for this!) Author Kenji Yoshino calls this behavior “covering,” which is also the title of his recent book exposing the shortcomings of civil rights legislation. He defines covering in the context of race as the pressure to “act white” by eliminating or […]

JC
The “cross-race effect” is discussed in this article. Basically, it is the idea that it is much harder for individuals to distinguish differences amongst people from a race/ethnicity not their own. Basically it confronts the “all ____ people look the same” phenomenon. Shortcomings due to this inability are discussed — I love that this article […]

CVK
Months after the movie Something New made its debut, articles are still coming out referencing the “new trend” of black women dating white men. The latest one is in The Miami Herald, where the reporter attends a speed-dating event designed specifically to set up white men with black women.
The article is not bad overall–it covers […]

CVK
We’ve talked in the past on MMW about the widespread belief that if you’re in an interracial relationship, you can’t possible be racist. I guess we can consider this story to be Exhibit A proving exactly why this concept is a load of bull. There can be plenty of racism within an interracial relationship, and this […]

CVK
On the latest episode of Addicted to Race, I ranted about the limitations of racial satire. Specifically, the problems that are inherent when people take the satire at face value and laugh for the wrong reasons.
I recently came across a couple of articles that are related to this issue. First is this interview that Alternet […]

CVK
Ah… the race absurdity continues in the health field. Last week Jen posted about the article in The Economist on the use of race in medicine. According to The Washington Post, the hot new thing is race-based vitamins!
The GenSpec brand of dietary supplements, proclaimed to be the “first genetically specific product line,” aims distinct products […]

JC
I am beginning to think that we should have a “Changing Face Watch” category given all of the recent stories that point to the acceptance of mixed people within their communities of color, and the recognition that the faces of these communities are changing (Miss Chinatown in LA, all of the Hines Ward stories :), etc.). This is a short mention […]

JC
I can’t control myself. Every time I hear something new about the effect Hines has had on Korea’s mixed community, I have to automatically post. This story talks about how school text books are going to be changed in order to include mention of mixed Koreans. I think this is huge — for kids […]

JC
This story is from last month (actually — oops! Carmen already posted about it…), but I just wanted to post it because it’s another example of how people place all of their hope in the hands of biracial babies….Something along the lines of: “Oh, yes, it will be a long time before racism ends, but perhaps more […]

JC
Bobby sent us a tip on a brief story in which Halle Berry remembers dreaming that she was white as a child. I don’t think that she is alone in having this sort of memory. I sometimes talk about the dreams I would have of fitting in — I also became white sometimes, but with an […]

CVK
Wow, props to blac(k)ademic for consistently unearthing gems like these. A woman has started a business selling lesbian identified action figures that she called DYKEdolls. The concept is great, the execution eh… not so great.
All the dolls are white, except for Badness, billed as “the first black lesbian action figure. A fierce female with kick-ass […]

JC
Wow. Apparently, we have been watching too much of Hines Ward instead of the other Ward…Ward Connerly. He’s at it again. This time, he has worked through his org (American Civil Rights Institute — quite a misleading name) and along with his conservative friends (Linda Chavez at the Center for Equal Opportunity) to cut scholarships that […]