Links, links, links
CVK
A round-up of articles and blog posts I’ve come across recently.
The Challenge of Being Me
InterfaithFamily.com
…Except I don’t feel radical. I feel like a normal person going about my life. I also don’t feel like a societal misfit, but according to daytime talk shows the Jews in my life are supposed to hate blacks and my black friends are supposed to be severely anti-Semitic. Based on most media reports I should be rejected by everyone even while I plead for acceptance. But that hasn’t been my experience nor has it been the experience of any of my multiracial friends…
Immigration in Black, White, Yellow and Brown
Poplicks.com
…What role/obligation does the current immigrant rights movement (IRM) owe to the African American community especially in light of the ways in which the IRM has adopted (co-opted?) civil rights rhetoric? … what role do Asian Americans (APAs) play in the IRM? There have been several articles noting their relative absence despite the fact that they constitute a massive immigrant population… This is an interesting contrast: one community that feels left out of the conversation, another that presumably wants to stay out yet the IRM - whatever its successes and failures - is never going to stay contained to just brown/white color lines…
Dissed
KimchiMamas.com
…Being hapa, I wonder if the majority of full Koreans consider me a “white girl?” Because my daughter’s Korean blood is even more dilute than mine, is it laughable to full-Koreans that I even bother to mention that my daughter is 25% Korean? At what point does one become “white?”…
Books offer insights into Asian heritage
InsideBayArea.com
Of 64 children’s books published in 2005 about Asian and Pacific Americans, 60 of those were written by Asian Americans. Compare that to just four years ago, when 46 of 91 books about Asian Americans were written by Asian American authors, according to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which gathers data on multicultural children’s books.
Celebrating Being Black and Jewish
The Philadelphia Inquirer
…Temple Beth El is one of about 20 African American “Jewish-identified” communities in the area, said Lewis Gordon, the Laura H. Carnell professor of philosophy at Temple University. Gordon, who describes himself as a secular Jew, is the founder of the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies at the school. Gordon estimates there are 1.2 million Jews of African descent in the United States, and the numbers are growing. The figures are estimates because of the scarcity of empirical data…
Roundtable: Sexual Media Images of Black Women
NPR News and Notes With Ed Gordon
The alleged rape of an African-American exotic dancer by white Duke University lacrosse players has raised questions about how the news media is portraying the woman in the case. Guests: Mark Anthony Neal, associate professor of African-American studies at Duke University; Karrine Steffans, a former video dancer and author of Confessions of A Video Vixen; and Shaheem Reed, hip-hop editor at MTV News.
Chinese adoptees, families share cultural riches
NorthJersey.com
…Families with Children from China is an advocacy group for American families who have adopted children — primarily daughters — from Chinese orphanages. More than 45,000 Chinese children have arrived in this country — with at least 7,000 of them living in the New York area — since the early 1990s, when the Chinese government began allowing such adoptions…
chuka wrote:
a good question about when one becomes “white.” i know that in Kenya, if one of your parents is white and the other kenyan, you are black-by the standards of the non-kenyan race-but to your kenyan agemates you are not one of them. same happens when two people from different tribes intermarry. the children are on their own.
on the books issue, whatever Kenyan history i studied in primary and high school was written by Britons or Americans. recently, i read several books by african (kenyan) historians and the scope is totally differnt. i can see the far we’ve come as an achievement, rather than seeing myself as an overdependent savage without a culture. why would someone say that they discovered Mt. Kenya. it was there long before the British discovered ships, and my forefathers believed that God dwelled on that mountain.
Posted 19 Jun 2006 at 5:41 am ¶
liz wrote:
Unfortunately, as long as you have relatives that you associate with that are non-white then you will always be non-white. As stupid as it sounds, by American standards, your blood has been tainted and you are foreover an “Other”. Perhaps your daughter’s granddaughter can pass for white, if she marries a white guy and her child marries a white guy. That may provide enough social distance from the Asian side of the family. So sad! Why r u so eager to be white?
Posted 19 Jun 2006 at 1:47 pm ¶
brad wrote:
Liz,
I disagree with your assessment. I think that it’s common for people now who are mixed-race to consider themselves “white” if they want. As you point out, of course, the questions is why would one want to be considered “white” or “black” or “Asian,” etc. For example, although Wentworth Miller has always stated that his father is black and mother is white, I haven’t seen many stories identifying him as “black.” I think most people look at him and see fair skin and blue/green eyes and think “white.” (When I first saw him, I thought he probably had African ancestry since he looked like a lot my relatives
I think the One Drop Rule is less regarded now than even ten or 15 years ago.
Ironically, on the “View” last Friday, Sandra Bernhard made a comment about how Mariah Carey started to call herself “black” to boost her career. Things got snippy when Star Jones responded that Carey had always identified as biracial. Barbara Walters jumped in and said that 8 years ago in an interview Carey also spoke about her African heritage.
It was very interesting watching this and thinking that someone perceived Carey as cashing in on the cachet of having African ancestry for coolness. How strange is that from a historical perspective?
Posted 19 Jun 2006 at 4:42 pm ¶
lyonside wrote:
Brad:
So if Mr. Miller DOESN”T say he’s black, he must identify as white? That’s the only option, hunh? I think it’s fairly obvious that he probably checked multiple boxes on the last census, if his public statements also match his private POV (I make no assumptions - don’t know the dude).
It’s not strange necessarily (re: Carey) - her core audience at the moment is R&B, whose producers, artists, and fans are still overwhelmingly African-American (although w/ exceptions, crossovers, etc.). Considering the ups and downs of her career, I’m not shocked that as hiphop/R&B get mainstreamed (but still stereotyped, of course), her career rides along and seems mainstreamed as well.
Posted 21 Jun 2006 at 12:21 am ¶
chuka wrote:
its not about whether you consider yourself black, white, asian etc. its how others look at you. there would be no racism or any talk of race if we were all similar in appearance.
we should stop looking at others as asian, black, caucasian etc and also quit the “not white enough” crap. the question should be, are you “human” enough?
Posted 27 Jun 2006 at 4:54 am ¶