Mixed races, mixed messages |
UWM News
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
2013-08-02
A recent Cheerios commercial featuring a white mother, black father and their daughter attracted a few nasty comments, followed by a huge outpouring of support, with 95 percent of viewers “liking” the commercial.
The recent advertisement is just one reflection of America’s long history of strong feelings about interracial relationships.
Greg Carter, an assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, traces the history of how such relationships have been both demonized and praised in “The United States of the United Races: A Utopian History of Racial Mixing.” The book looks at the ways Americans have thought about racial mixing from Colonial times to the present.
“There has been a lot of attention, and an increase in visibility of people of mixed racial heritage,” says Carter. President Barack Obama and golf champion Tiger Woods, in particular, have raised the profile of people of mixed race in recent years. In addition, the Census Bureau and other government agencies have broadened the number of choices people have in filling out the “race” box on federal forms…
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Tags: Greg Carter, UWM News