Light-skinned-ed Girl

My Interview with NPR's Codeswitch: Racial Imposter Syndrome

It was a real thrill to talk with Gene Demby for this episode of NPR's Codeswitch.  Our wide-ranging talk lasted more than an hour.  It's condensed to seven minutes in the podcast episode.  The whole episode is great, but if you want to hear me I think my interview starts around minute 23.  What do you think?

 

 

 

My Interview with the Washington Post

I was very excited to talk with the Washington Post about the importance of mixed race stories.  You can read the full interview here.

Obama And The Future Of Mixed-Race And Multiracial America

I wrote this piece for the Huffington Post last week in a moment of trying to find the bright side of this regime change in American politics.  Let me know what you think!

 

Obama And The Future Of Mixed-Race And Multiracial America

It is fitting that President Obama would bookend his official press conferences with an unscripted comment and nod to his mixed-race heritage.

Obama had originally campaigned for the presidency, in part, on the complexity of his racial background. As the brown-skinned son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, he offered his candidacy as the symbol of hope and harmony for our country.

I was elated by his message as a woman who is also mixed-race and who grew up lonely in my silence about my own racially and culturally complicated background.

We live in a country that subscribes to the one drop rule which insists that one drop of “black” blood defines you as black.

So, there wasn’t room in America’s imagination in the 1980s for a young woman with brown skin and blue eyes to be both black and Danish, fully Afro-Viking. I was black. I was light-skinned-ed, yes. But that was simply another variety of being black.

When Obama ran for the presidency, the word biracial lost its scientific ring and became part of the country’s lexicon. I felt like suddenly people could see me for all of my complexity: I wasn’t excited that people could now recognize that I had “white” blood, but that people could recognize I had an experience of growing up betwixt and between two cultures and two languages and that those experiences mattered.

I laughed with delight listening to Obama speak at his first press conference after he won the 2008 election. When a reporter asked what kind of dog the family planned to get for the White House (an election promise to his daughters) Obama said: “There are a number of breeds that are hypoallergenic. On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but, obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me.”

Many people expressed outrage about his remark. I thought it was funny: an insider’s joke. It was a wink . . . READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE

Is This a Multiracial Moment or a Multiracial Movement

I have become what I jokingly call a "professional mulatto."  That means when the Census numbers come out every ten years and show that there are more multiracial people and the multiracial population is growing rapidly (this is "news every 10 years by the way), or a story like the Rachel Dolezal case break, media folks often call me for comment.  

My phone isn't exactly ringing off the hook, but because biracial people (people passing as biracial people) are making the news I do hear from producers and reporters pretty often.  It makes me think: are we in the midst of a multiracial/biracial moment or is this truly a multiracial/biracial movement?

My thoughts on this are still evolving, but right now I am thinking: There is no multiracial/biracial movement and there won't be for some time.  Let me tell you why:

1. Yes, our numbers are increasing.  The Pew Research Center report on multiracial Americans released in June provided a portrait of an increasing multiracial American demographic, but it's a portrait of a demographic NOT a community.
2. We are an ahistorical bunch. As soon as a young person has had difficulty dealing with their mixed-race experience, s/he starts a Facebook group, or Tumblr or Twitter account to express their discomfort, or pride or confusion.  The same is true of the parents of multiracial kids who are suddenly experiencing difficulties with the way that society deals with their multiracial families.  But I wonder if they have bothered to see what the resources are before they begin their enterprises.  Essentially we have believed that we are alone in our experience so long that we don't even look to see what other people are already doing or have done.
3. We have become enamored with the dominant narrative of mixed-ness being beautiful or the way of the future.  And we love photos of ourselves and families.  But where are our stories? We need to start sharing stories.
4. We look to Census activism, and parenting groups to lead us as a community rather than our artists.  I think it is only through the poetics of social justice that we will be able to move the needle on this conversation about mixed race experience and identity.
5. We haven't taken our conversation to the mainstream.  Our discussions are too insular.  We have to explain as well as recognize that our stories are also part of the stories of white, black, Asian and Latino populations.  We are part of "them" and importantly, they are part of "us".

I want to flesh out some of these points in future posts so stay tuned.  In the meantime, I'd love to hear what you think! 

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A Fundamental Belief in "White Goodness"

I moved back to America at 11-years-old and got schooled in what race means.  

It wasn't easy or comfortable, but most of all it was perplexing.  I had always been American.  I suddenly needed to embrace a hyphenated identity as a black American (we hadn't become African American just yet).  And even though I was biracial, I had to identify as black.

As I grew older and struggled with the identity I'd been assigned (particularly because it didn't reflect my complete experience), I think I was most saddened by the realization that many of the black people I knew (in a mostly black neighborhood and school) could articulate a sense of uneasiness about being around white people whether in a business setting or a social situation.  Their earliest experiences with coming into contact with white people had often been fraught.

I thought of this because of a Wall Street Journal article I read this week about the ways in which babies register racial difference.  A new scientific reports has found something scientists are calling the "other-race effect". 

"Our brains distinguish race insanely quickly, within tenths of a second. An other-race face tends to activate the amygdala, an ancient brain region central to experiencing fear and anxiety. Another brain region, the fusiform, helps us recognize individuals, read their expressions and make inferences about their internal state. When we see an other-race face, there is less activation of the fusiform, and we are less accurate at reading facial expressions."

It's disturbing to realize that babies are making their own meanings around difference at such an early age.  But it does explain why some of my friends had those feelings of unease even when they didn't have or know of experiences that should make them feel uneasy.

I didn't have those kinds of uneasy feelings.  I think because I was in a multiracial family where I was exposed to different kinds of faces and they all meant love.  As the kid of an interracial couple and part of a multiracial family, I started to believe in "white goodness" from the very beginning.

The question is: is it possible to provide monoracial families the same kind of experience?  Or is there a way to fill in the meaning of difference for children that are so young?  

If we could answer those questions, we'd go a long way in healing racial divides.  And as the journalist writes: "[I]f our early environment is racially mixed, race doesn’t become an Us/Them dividing line."  Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing?

 

Loving Beyond Difference:TED Talk by Andrew Solomon

I loved this talk about parents who love their kids beyond difference.  I think it speaks to blended families as well.

We Are the 15 Percent!

I love this response to the racist rants against the Cheerio's ad that featured a multiracial family.  "We're not just reacting to negativity, we're boosting representation, elevating the conversation and hopefully giving context that reaches beyond Madison Avenue. These families exist; we eat breakfast and walk our dogs and love just as hard as families in other cereal commercials," said co-creator of the website:  We are the 15 percent!

Founding Roots of Marriage Equality from Hippo Reads

Please check out this great piece on the founding roots of marriage equality that I curated for Loving Day.  Hippo Reads is a great resource to learn a lot about a topic very quickly.  Read the article here.

My First New York Times Essay Piece: Is Interacial Marriage Still Scandalous?

This is my first New York Times essay piece.  It's called "It's OK to be Intrigued."  Please check it out and leave a comment!  (This is a photo from my parents' wedding in Denmark.)

Mixed Experience History Month 2013: A Recap

Well, we've come to the end of Mixed Experience History Month for 2013.  I hope that you've enjoyed the profiles and stories about the diverse and long past of folks in the Mixed experience.  This year's profiles included a number of people with Native American heritage which was wonderful to learn about.  In my own family we claim at least one Cherokee ancestor on my father's side, but all we have is a picture and no stories.  Some of the stories that have really fascinated me were the stories of the performers: Mance Lipscomb, Illinois Jacquet, Manuel and Johnny Woodson.  I started to wonder whether there is something inherent about growing up in the Mixed experience that draws one to performing or to the arts?  I'd say yes in my own life.  I grew up knowing that other people's "math" about me didn't add up: I wasn't half this or half that--I was a whole me with what might be considered a more complicated experience with two cultures and two languages at home.  Making myself "seen" on stage and on the page meant something in particular to me.

I think I have more than a 100 profiles in this yearly series--and it's getting more and more difficult to find new people to profile--not because there weren't a lot of accomplished folks in the Mixed experience but because the stories have been erased.  So a plea: if you have ideas for me please send them along--the only requirement is that the person must be deceased -- this is history after all! 

Thanks again for tuning in as always.  Thanks also to the wonderful Zerflin!  My go-to graphic design firm and really good peeps.  Zerflin designed the logo which features the amazing painter William H. Johnson.  (If you need a graphic designer, please check them out!)

 

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Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience.  Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog!  Thanks for reading.  And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013. Copyright 2013.

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