CVK
Sex, Murder And A Double Latte sounds like it would be a fun summer read. The protagonist, like the author herself, is black and Jewish. Here’s the book description:
When a mystery writer cries bloody murder, everyone blames her overactive imagination . . .
Thriller scribe Sophie Katz is as hard-boiled as a woman who drinks […]

CVK
NPR’s All Things Considered did a story on Mavin’s Generation Mix tour. You can listen to the feed online here: A Generation of Mixed Race Youth Speaks Out. The story is pretty basic, but at least it doesn’t further reinforce any of the awful stereotypes out there about mixed folks. Sometimes, that alone is […]

CVK
California paper Red Bluff Daily News covers Ward “Moneybags” Connerly’s recent speech at a Republican fundraiser. Interesting that the paper refers to affirmative action as “racial preferencing.” Anyway, here’s Ward’s usual load of bull:
“It shouldn’t be controversial for me to say that giving a person 250 bonus points simply because of his or her race […]

CVK

Last week’s New York magazine had an interesting article about how gentrification is affecting one single block in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a neighborhood long known as one of the most dangerous slums in Brooklyn, but now being prized for its supply of well-maintained brownstones and proximity to Manhattan.
The article points out that many of the neighborhood’s new […]

CVK
The Philadelphia Inquirer interviews former NBA star Charles Barkley, who is promoting his new book, Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man? in which he interviews 13 influential Americans - from Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to Tiger Woods and George Lopez - who speak frankly about race and racism:
Barkley’s complexity enhances his controversial nature. […]

CVK

Woah. Last night’s episode of America’s Next Top Model was… interesting. They did a photo shoot where each model was transformed into an ethnicity different from their own, and were supposed to emote that ethnicity from within, or something. In one priceless moment, Tyra berated a model for not emoting “Eskimo” enough, saying: “Think about […]

CVK
The Office for National Statistics has published a new report on inter-ethnic marriage statistics in the U.K:
Two per cent of marriages were between people from different ethnic backgrounds (219,000). Of these inter-ethnic marriages, most (198,000) included a White person…
The most common inter-ethnic marriages were between White and Mixed race people, 26 per cent of all […]

JC
UCBerkeley News follows up on their article of last week about four mixed students in order to highlight some additional thoughts from other members of the Berkeley community.
Thus, for me, race is an artificial construct, which isolates me from those unknowledgeable of the biracial experience. At the same time, my races help me […]

RN

Years ago filmmaker Cheuk Kwan was in Istanbul and came across a Chinese restaurant. Kwan had heard that the owner had actually walked from China. The discovery and amazing story sparked a life-long obsession that resulted in a 13-part documentary series that took Kwan and his crew to more than 13 countries. Kwan’s camera […]

JC

The New York Daily News reports on a team of three from Israel (Law students Aviva Cohen and Nevo Vandimo, along with lawyer Abaynesh Tessema) who visited with Queens College’s Hillel as part of their US tour for Black History Month. They shared their thoughts on what it means to be Ethiopian and Jewish in […]

JC
Diversity Inc. interviews Nina Tassler, President of CBS Entertainment. She appreciates her own mixed heritage and considers it a tool that has helped her to be more proactive in showcasing diverse talent.
Developing diversity from within is the philosophy Nina Tassler, president, CBS Entertainment, applies to her inclusive stable of writers, producers, directors and actors. […]

CVK

There’s a good article on UC Berkeley’s NewsCenter that explores what it’s like to be a mixed student at that school, where 22.9% of undergrads self-identified as mixed in a 2004 survey. (Across the UC system, the average was 25.8 percent. ) The article details the divergent experiences of four students, but also does a […]

JC
The New York Times reviews new release, Angry Black White Boy - Or, The Miscegenation of Macon Detornay, by Adam Mansbach. Main character Macon Detornay is a “down whiteboy” who attempts to atone for his people’s sins and find acceptance within the black community by attacking and terrorizing other white people.
A graduate of Newton South […]

JC
Mixed artist Laura Kina will have one of her pieces from Hapa Soap Opera displayed at the Korean Cultural Center as part of their 2005 Group Exhibition (March 11-24). At her site, Laura describes her motivation for creating the Hapa Soap Opera series:
My works draw inspiration from Asian film posters as well as European history […]

JC
A story in the Kalamazoo Gazette takes a look at the rising numbers of interracial marriages, the changes in anti-miscegenation laws, the attitude shifts, and then asks, have things really gotten better?
Davidson said it might be hard to determine how big an impact interracial marriages are having on race relations as a whole, but if […]

RN (a new MMW contributor!)
I just wanted to give everyone the heads up on French chanteuse Keren Ann, whose second album, Nolita, was just released on Blue Note. She was born in Israel to a Jewish dad and a half-Javanese mom, grew up in Paris and now spends half her time in NYC. Her second […]

JC
Sounds a little crazy, no? I have definitely met a few proselytizers in my day. People who try to persuade others to “mix it up!” They plead, “Help to contribute to the browning of our world!” They are the cheerleaders of our brave new world: “Blend people, blend!!” This is all usually said with a […]

CVK
Those of you in NYC may want to check out a rally in Union Square this Friday protesting the racist actions of local radio station Hot 97. It’s a community event organized by a coalition of hip hop artists and activists (the “Hip Hop Coalition“) to celebrate the true hip hop culture with guest speakers: […]

ELW
I too saw ‘In Race We Lust’ last night. I agree that it did a pretty good job of talking about lots of the stereotypes.
What i did not like were the sections where they polled the various interviewees about which mixed celeb is more this or that (insert race). Like asking people who they […]

CVK
Tragic mulattos, of course! The last segment of Ego Trip’s Race-O-Rama aired on VH1 last night and it was very funny, and really quite good. The episode was titled “In Race We Lust” and explored all the taboo and stereotypes surrounding interracial couples and their mixed-race offspring. People in the mixed community probably wouldn’t have […]