JC
The Los Angeles Times reviews “Tea“, the new production by Velina Hasu Houston about war brides and their lives and families. The show is currently running at the International City Theater in Long Beach, CA. This reviewer doesn’t have many nice things to say and seems to think that it is all done in a […]

CVK
Mariah Carey graces the cover of Essence’s April issue. Though the coverline takes a one-drop stance (”Mariah Carey: America’s Most Misunderstood Black Woman”), the article inside deals almost completely with her mixed identity, and makes for pretty interesting reading. Here are some excerpts:
So this isn’t a twenty-first-century version of Imitation of Life. Still, race and […]

JC
Deborah Santana, wife of Carlos Santana, discusses her experiences, relationships, and mixed identity in new memoir, Space Between the Stars.
Born Deborah King in San Francisco in 1951, Santana is the daughter of a biracial marriage. Her father, African-American blues pioneer, guitarist, and distinguished tenor, Saunders King, cut the first significant electric blues record, 1942’s “SK […]

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 […]

CVK
Director Eric Byler, best known for his critically acclaimed indie romance Charlotte Sometimes, will begin shooting his next project at the end of this month, and there are some big names in the cast:
Hi, I’m shooting a film called American Knees that starts March 21. Cast includes Chris Tashima (Oscar winner for Visas and Virtue), […]

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 […]

ES
Sort of not very timely now, but I noticed that Sandra Oh’s character in Sideways had a biracial daughter. We first see her in photographs on the fridge, where she looks black and Asian American, but when she appears in the flesh for the first time, a different girl portrays her. The actress […]

CVK
The Toronto Star reviews a new exhibit at the Harbourfront Centre by artist Michael Chambers. Titled Sandbox, the exhibit showcases photographs and writing from 15 mixed children, arguing that people shouldn’t be categorized into any one racial or cultural box:
In July, Chambers approached his niece, Nadine Chambers, with the idea that some people feel the […]

CVK & JC
After we posted our thoughts on Printakid’s problematic racial assignations to skin tones on February 3, the founder and president of Printakid, Noemi Berlus submitted a comment to our post, explaining why they did things the way they did. Here’s the letter we sent her in response.:
Noemi,
Thank you for posting your comment on […]

CVK
The Canadian Press has an article about a new childrens book publishing company called Printakid, which offers parents the ability to personalize books, so that the protagonist of the book has the same name and physical characteristics of their child. The child’s family members’ names can also be inserted into the book. And of course, […]

CVK
The New York Times was pretty harsh on Essie Mae Washington-Williams’ memoir “Dear Senator,” but today’s Washington Post review is even more damning.
“Dear Senator” shows no concern about Thurmond’s inappropriate, abusive appropriation of a vulnerable young household servant; instead, it offers only the hearts-and-flowers version of the story. (The corner of each page is adorned […]

CVK
VH1 will mark Black History Month with an array of original documentaries and specials including “Ego Trip’s Race-O-Rama,” which will air February 21-23 at 9 PM.
I’m looking forward to it, as I thoroughly enjoyed VH1 and Ego Trip’s last collaboration, “TV’s Illest Minority Moments,” a hilarious look at the way minorities have been misrepresented […]

CVK
The New York Times reviews “Dear Senator,” the new memoir by Essie Mae Washington-Williams, the illegitimate biracial daughter of the late segregationist Strom Thurmond. The review does little to offset the widespread impression of Ms. Washington-Williams as…how do I put this…a total pushover?
Now she also has a ghostwriter: William Stadiem, who recently made himself […]

JC
So many of us played with Barbie back in the day…today, young girls have the multiracial Bratz to look to for cues. Scarily enough, they aren’t the best cues. When I first saw these dolls, a friend’s niece was playing with them. I thought, great! These dolls are diverse; I thought some of them looked […]

CVK
Phil Tajitsu Nash has written a beautiful ode to his late mother, Yoneko Tajitsu in AsianWeek. He talks about how she very effortlessly created a safe, diverse community for her biracial children to thrive in. She did this so that racism would never have to be a part of her children’s lives, as it had […]