Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

By the 20th century these stories had morphed into stereotypes about “mixed-race” black women, which migrated into popular culture, where we now had the privilege of being represented as “tragic mulattos”; according to white supremacist discourse, the mulatto did not have the “right to live” the US senator Charles Carroll said in 1900. We were an abomination who disrupted the racial order, and as a result of our pathology were emotionally unstable, yet we were still perceived as seductresses. And that’s why it’s no coincidence that when these online imposters post as their light-skin black alter egos they post thirst-traps with sultry eyes and pouty mouths, yet in photographs as their white selves, they remain smilingly wholesome girls next door. They are operating in familiar terrain, reinforcing topes that emerged out of slavery and which have been developed and refined via mass media throughout the 20th and 21st century. None of this is about flattery, it’s about power, desire and ownership. A sinister reminder that people who once owned our bodies, still can, and of the troubled history and deep seated taboos that continue to define race relations between black and white in the 21st century.

Emma Dabiri, “white girls reinventing themselves as black women on instagram has to stop,” i-D, November 20, 2018. https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/nepzyg/white-girls-instagram-blackface-blackfishing.

The Johnstons’ friends seemed to realize that the family had not been passing as white, but as Americans.

The Johnstons’ friends seemed to realize that the family had not been passing as white, but as Americans.

Robert McG. Thomas, Jr., “Thyra Johnston, 91, Symbol Of Racial Distinctions, Dies,” The New York Times, November 29, 1995. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/29/us/thyra-johnston-91-symbol-of-racial-distinctions-dies.html.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 20th, 2013 at 21:18Z and is filed under Excerpts/Quotes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Mixed Race Studies

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