Mixed Race Studies

An African American’s Perspective on the Korean Wave

The Chosunilbo
Seoul, Korea
2013-07-09

Emanuel Pastreich, Associate Professor
Humanitas College, Kyunghee University

I received an unexpected email in February 2013, from a young woman who was studying public health at Harvard University. Mariesa Lee Ricks explained that her mother was Korean and that she had a great interest in Korean culture. Mariesa said that she hoped to find out how K-Pop and Korean social media can play a role in bringing positive messages to youth around the world.

Mariesa added that she hopes to visit Korea to carry out research. I wrote back to her telling her that I would be in Boston soon for a business trip and we agreed to meet up while I was there.

I did not recognize her at first. I was taken aback for a split second when she introduced herself because she turned out to be African American, and I had imagined a half-Korean, half-Caucasian woman who looked like my daughter Rachel. I was impressed that Mariesa did not display the slightest sense of discomfort or uncertainty in the few seconds that it took me to get over my embarrassment. She was clearly an extremely mature and composed woman with a strong sense of herself…

…That vision is linked to the critical role Mariesa’s Korean and African heritage has played in her cultural and intellectual development. Her Korean heritage was essential when she grew up in Atlanta. Her grandmother and mother maintained close ties with Korean culture and the Korean community, which was made easier by the burgeoning Korean population in the part of the city where they lived.

“My father’s family had a limited understanding of Korean culture, but fortunately my mother and grandmother were eager to introduce their culture, whether through funny stories from their childhood in Korea or through cooking kimchi jjigae (spicy Korean stew), for everyone, or teaching some Korean phrases,” she said. “So I developed an appetite to try new things and to explore new combinations of culture. That is the appeal of the Korean Wave for me.”

“Thanks in large part to my Korean heritage, I have developed an intense desire to honor my parents and family — a trait that has spurred me to be extremely aware of how my decisions and actions impact others,” she said. “At the same time, American values of individuality have allowed me to feel comfortable takings risks and exploring my own interests.”…

Read the entire article here.

A Postracial Society or A Diversity Paradox? Race, Immigration, and Multiraciality in the Twenty-First Century

Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race
Volume 9, Issue 2, Fall 2012
pages 419-437
DOI: 10.1017/S1742058X12000161

Jennifer Lee, Professor of Sociology
University of California, Irvine

Frank D. Bean, Chancellor’s Professor of Sociology
University of California, Irvine

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Southern states decreed that one drop of African American blood made a multiracial individual Black, and even today, multiracial Blacks are typically perceived as being Black only, underscoring the enduring legacy and entrenchment of the one-drop rule of hypodescent. But how are Asians and Latinos with mixed ancestry perceived? Based on analyses of census data and in-depth interviews with interracial couples with children and multiracial adults, I find that the children of Asian-White and Latino-White couples are much less constrained by strict racial categories. Racial identification often shifts according to situation, and individuals can choose to identify along ethnic lines, as White, or as American. Like their Irish and Italian immigrant forerunners, the Asian and Latino ethnicities of these multiracial Americans are adopting the symbolic character of European, White ethnicity. We appear to be entering a new era of race relations in which the boundaries of Whiteness are beginning to expand to include new non-White groups such as Asians and Latinos, with multiracial Asians and Latinos at the head of the queue. However, even amidst the new racial and ethnic diversity, these processes continue to shut out African Americans, illustrating a pattern of “Black exceptionalism” and the emergence of a Black–non-Black divide in the twenty-first century.

Read or purchase the article here. (Read for free until 2016-03-04!)

“The One and Only Cheerios”~ The “NEW” American Family?

Mixed Race Radio
Blog Talk Radio
2013-07-10, 16:00Z (12:00 EDT)

Tiffany Rae Reid, Host

Join us on Wednesday July 10th, 2013 as we explore the newest General Mills Cheerios commercial that recently debuted. We will discuss the backlash and speak with an all-star guest line-up while exploring what many of us have known for years: The “NEW” American family is mixed, blended, and splendid!

Listen to the episode here.

Earnest Harris Declares: NO MORE RACE

Mixed Race Radio
Blog Talk Radio
2013-07-03, 16:00Z (12:00 EDT)

Tiffany Rae Reid, Host

Earnest Harris, Producer/Director/Talent Manager/Writer
No More Race

Earnest Harris has written extensively on matters related to race relations, especially focused on moving beyond “racial” concepts and getting our society to a place where color and cultural differences might play less of  volatile role in how we work, play and deal with one another. His study and focus on this issue comes from seeing the unfortunate ways in which so many of our societal dealings, whether it be politics, dating, religion, neighborhoods and education are impacted by “racial” influencers. It has been his mission for most of those years as a journalist and writer to help bring people together and get beyond these superficial ways of living our lives.

An award-winning journalist, Earnest has written on this topic for New York Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Dallas Morning News, The Riverfront Times (St. Louis), National Review magazine, Politico, The Huffington  Post, Hispanic magazine and many others. He has also been a political columnist with the daily paper, The Austin American-Statesman, the editor-in-chief of a weekly newspaper in Washington, D.C., The American Weekly News, and the host of his own talk radio shows in Austin, Texas and St. Louis, Missouri.

Earnest has also directed and produced one feature film that was nationally distributed, “A Simple Promise,” and is currently working on several other films at the moment. Earnest also oversees Harris Management, a talent management company in Los Angeles, where he manages actors, directors and recording artists. Additionally, Harris taught communications for two sessions at the famed Lyndon Baines Johnson Graduate School for Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin as a Woodrow Wilson Program Instructor.

He is married and has two children.

Listen to the episode here.

Ethnic Identity Problems and Prospects for the Twenty-first Century – Fourth Edition

AltaMira Press
June 2006
436 pages
7 x 9 1/4
Hardback ISBN: 978-0-7591-0972-8
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-7591-0973-5

Edited by:

Lola Romanucci-Ross, Professor Emerita of Family and Preventive Medicine
University of California, San Diego

De George A. Vos (1922-2010), Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
University of California, Berkeley

Takeyuki Tsuda, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Arizona State University

In this thoroughly revised fourth edition, with ten new chapters, the editors provide thought-provoking discussions on the importance of ethnicity in different cultural and social contexts. The authors focus especially on changing ethnic and national identities, on migration and ethnic minorities, on ethnic ascription versus self-definitions, and on shifting ethnic identities and political control. The international group of scholars examines ethnic identities, conflicts and accommodations around the globe, in Africa (including Zaire and South Africa), Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, the United States, Thailand, and the former Yugoslavia. It will serve as an excellent text for courses in race & ethnic relations, and anthropology and ethnic studies.

Lola Flash: [sur]passing

Jefferson School African American Heritage Center
420 Commerce Street
Charlottesville, Virginia
Contemporary Gallery
Exhibition Dates: 2013-06-07 through 2013-08-30

For more than 20 years Lola Flash has been committed to deconstructing racism, sexism and homophobia through challenging photographic imagery. [sur]passing is a work in progress that confronts the phenomenon known as pigmentocracy. The term, coined by cultural critic Kobena Mercer in 1994, describes a hierarchy wherein a slave’s socio-economic position could be determined by their skin color. In [sur]passing, Flash analyzes the impact of this condition on contemporary society.

Posed in front of the varied yet undefined skylines of London, New York, and South Africa, Flash’s models, both male and female, represent an array of skin-color. Their youthful energy suggests they have transcended the pecking order that has historically been the source of contention throughout the African Diaspora.

According to Flash, these portraits represent a “new generation”—one that is above and beyond “passing.” They represent a fresh pride and strength; where ambiguity and blurred borders create individuality that elevates consciousness, and advances a plethora of complex and positive imagery of [black] people all over the world…

For more information, click here. View the [sur]passing gallery here.

Q&A with artist and author Laura Kina

Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb
2013-07-11

Deborah Kalb

Laura Kina, the Vincent de Paul associate professor of Art, Media, and Design at DePaul University, is the co-editor of the new book War Baby/Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art and the co-curator of an accompanying art exhibit. She lives in Chicago.

Q: How did you select these particular authors and artists to include in the book?

A: I’m a visual artist, a painter, and much of my work has been about Asian American and mixed race identity and history. As a result, I’m tapped into a network of artists, scholars, and activists working on similar topics. My co-editor Wei Ming Dariotis and I also teach classes on mixed race and Asian American studies so we were also both seeking out work by relevant artists and authors to share with our students.

This is actually how we met. She was using my art in her classes at San Francisco State University and I was using her articles on “hapa” mixed Asian American identity in my classes at DePaul University.

The kernel for our book and the related traveling exhibition happened organically over several years of research and teaching and involvement with community multiracial organizations such as MAVIN in Seattle and iPride and Hapa Issues Forum in San Francisco and then later working together with my colleague Camilla Fojas to found the Critical Mixed Race Studies biennial conference at DePaul University in Chicago…

Read the entire interview here.

Miscegenation, 1936

W. E. B. Du Bois Papers
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963
Special Collections and University Archives
W.E.B. Du Bois Library
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
13 pages

More finalized version Du Bois’s piece on the nature and evaluation of the biodiversity of the human race, prepared for use in the Encyclopedia Sexualis. See mums312-b229-i061 for earlier version and fragments.

For more information, click here.

Negro and mulatto families questionnaire, 1928

W. E. B. Du Bois Papers
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963
Special Collections and University Archives
W.E.B. Du Bois Library
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
2 pages

Biographical and demographic data on W. E. B. and his family.

For more information, click here.