Mixed Experience History Month 2008 Recap

We’ve come to the end of the 2^nd Annual Mixed Experience History Month.  I hope you found some worthwhile bit of information in this month’s profiles.  If you're just tuning in now, here are some of the month's highlights: naturalist John James Audubon; sculptor Isamu Noguchi; wife/activist Mildred Loving; and artist Wifredo Lam.  In sum, there are 20 people profiles and one of a place.  Check it out!

 

I’m happily exhausted from all of the homework this project required.  Many of the subjects were new to me too.  Also, the research proved more difficult than I expected, in large part because, the subjects’ mixedness had often been erased.  In many instances, people were described as African-American, but with a father of Swedish descent or some other Nordic country.  I took that to mean they had a white father—though of course, I KNOW that is changing—vive la change!  Or the subject might be described as Japanese-American with a white mother.  Sounds mixed to me.

 

I can imagine that many may feel uneasy that I am claiming these great minority historical figures as Mixed rather than Asian-American or African-American.  In response I can only say: I am not hoping to wrestle great historical figures from African-American, Native American, Hispanic American or Asian-American history.  My hope is to simply show that we have long been a nation of multiracial individuals—multiracial and multicultural individuals of achievement (not tragic mulattoes).  Multiracial folks didn’t just show up in the 1960s in an age of Free Love! 

The importance of “knowing your history” is widely accepted.  It should be true for multiracial and multicultural people too.  Most importantly, I hope to show through these portraits that our history—as one people—is very much a common one.

Finally, my apologies to those of you who nominated someone for inclusion in the profiles who didn't.  One nomination did not qualify because the subject is still alive and kicking—novelist: Jackie Kay.  But Kay deserves a mention because her work is extraordinary.  Make sure to read her book Trumpet!  The other nominations I will save for next year.  And oh yeah, what about the name for the month?  Mixed Experience History Month isn’t very catchy.  Suggestions?