Belonging is Everything: Talking with Georgina Lawton

Posted in Africa, Articles, Autobiography, Caribbean/Latin America, Family/Parenting, Interviews, Media Archive, United Kingdom, United States on 2022-03-08 16:02Z by Steven

Belonging is Everything: Talking with Georgina Lawton

The Rumpus
2021-03-01

Donna Hemans

“My teacher’s methods were most definitely trash, but that day she taught me a valuable lesson about race,” Georgina Lawton writes in her memoir Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth about Where I Belong. “She let me know that whiteness is a wholly exclusive racial category based around notions of racial purity, and as such would never allow admittance to anyone like me.” While Lawton’s teacher had drawn boundaries around whiteness that excluded Lawton, her white, Anglo-Irish parents stubbornly insisted that their darker-skinned daughter was white like they were.

In her memoir, out now from Harper Perennial, Lawton describes her family’s silence around her racial identity, their refusal to acknowledge her difference, her own experience with racial reckoning, and the detrimental effects of growing up in a color-blind household. “As a child I spent a very long time trying to work everything out for myself before eventually becoming invested in upholding the story my parents told me: I was theirs and that’s all that mattered,” Lawton writes.

As her father is dying of cancer, Lawton and he briefly speak for the first time about the potential that their DNA is different. After her father’s death in her early twenties, Lawton embarks on a journey of self-discovery, traveling to and living in predominantly Black communities in the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa, in a bid to understand and claim her own identity. The memoir, though, is not solely about Lawton’s childhood and journey. She talks to sociologists, psychologists, and others who, like her, had a part of their identities obscured, to understand how identity is formed and its relationship with race.

I spoke to Lawton recently about the challenges of writing a memoir about a story her family would rather not confront, the necessity and value of family stories, and the lasting impact of silences…

Read the entire interview here.

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Netflix’s ‘Passing’ could have been me

Posted in Articles, Autobiography, Canada, Family/Parenting, Media Archive, Passing on 2022-02-14 00:56Z by Steven

Netflix’s ‘Passing’ could have been me

My Imperfect Life
2022-02-08

Asha Swann
Toronto, Canada

(Image credit: Netflix)

Anchored by Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, ‘Passing‘ on Netflix tells the story of racial passing back in 1920s New York. But it’s more relevant, and personal, than ever

In the film Passing on Netflix, two mixed-race women in 1920s America struggle to find their place when society can’t put them in the right box. It’s not an uncommon pain—talk to any mixed-race person and odds are they’ll be able to tell you at least a dozen horror stories about their identity being misunderstood, fetishized, or stereotyped.

In the Netflix film, the women, Irene (played by Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga), are two sides of the same coin. Both light-skinned, Irene “passes” as white accidentally, whereas Clare “passes” on purpose to gain social status. What follows is an incredibly complex story about what it means to be somebody when the world sees you as something else.

When my dad would pick me up from third grade, kids would always ask if I’m adopted. There’s no way that Black man could be my dad, not when I’m so pale. After my parents split up and I went to live with my white mother and her parents in the suburbs, kids were ready to call me a liar when I would talk about being mixed. Though I never chose to pass—ask any mixed person and they’ll show you that genetics are messy and don’t give you much of a choice…

Read the entire article here.

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An Artist Discovers His Black Heritage Through Photography

Posted in Articles, Arts, Asian Diaspora, Biography, Family/Parenting, Media Archive, United States on 2022-01-05 17:18Z by Steven

An Artist Discovers His Black Heritage Through Photography

VICE
2016-02-11

Beckett Mufson, Staff Writer

ZUN LEE, FATHER FIGURE. IMAGES COURTESY BAS BERKHOUT

German-born photographer Zun Lee documents the special non-special moments of black family life.

In his late thirties, Zun Lee discovered that he was not the son of two Korean immigrants to Frankfurt, Germany, as he had believed for most of his life. He was the son of one Korean immigrant—his mother—and a black man he’s never met. He’s been struggling with this shift in identity ever since, most recently in the form of three documentary projects, Father Figure, Black Love Matters, and Fade Resistance. Each series examines an underrepresented facet of black culture, often actively fighting harmful stereotypes that Lee has encountered…

Read the entire article here.

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Making Mixed Race: A Study of Time, Place and Identity

Posted in Books, Family/Parenting, Media Archive, Monographs, Social Science, United Kingdom on 2021-11-26 20:56Z by Steven

Making Mixed Race: A Study of Time, Place and Identity

Routledge
2021-11-24
208 pages
Hardback ISBN: 9780367462918

Karis Campion, Legacy in Action Research Fellow
Stephen Lawrence Research Centre
De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom

By examining Black mixed-race identities in the city through a series of historical vantage points, Making Mixed Race provides in-depth insights into the geographical and historical contexts that shape the possibilities and constraints for identifications.

Whilst popular representations of mixed-race often conceptualise it as a contemporary phenomenon and are couched in discourses of futurity, this book dislodges it from the current moment, to explore its emergence as a racialised category, and personal identity, over time. In addition to tracing the temporality of mixed-race, the contributions show the utility of place as an analytical tool for mixed-race studies. The conceptual framework for the book – place, time, and personal identity – offers a timely intervention to the scholarship that encourages us to look outside of individual subjectivities and critically examine the structural contexts that shape Black mixed-race lives.

The book centres around the life histories of 37 people of Mixed White and Black Caribbean heritage born between 1959 and 1994, in Britain’s second-largest city, Birmingham. The intimate life portraits of mixed identity, reveal how colourism, family, school, gender, whiteness, racism, and resistance, have been experienced against the backdrop of post-war immigration, Thatcherism, the ascendency of Black diasporic youth cultures, and contemporary post-race discourses. It will be of interest to researchers, postgraduate and undergraduate students who work on (mixed) race and ethnicity studies in academic areas including geographies of race, youth identities/cultures, gender, colonial legacies, intersectionality, racism and colourism.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Introducing Birmingham
  3. The making of mixed-race in place
  4. From bun down Babylon to melting pot Britain: the manifestations of mixed-race over time
  5. Mixed-race privilege and precarious positionalities: the personal politics of identity
  6. The making of mixed-race families: past, present and future
  7. Conclusion
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My Boyfriend’s Parents Are Ignorant About Race. Why Should I Have to Teach Them?

Posted in Articles, Family/Parenting, Identity Development/Psychology, Letters, Media Archive, United States on 2021-11-26 01:06Z by Steven

My Boyfriend’s Parents Are Ignorant About Race. Why Should I Have to Teach Them?

The New York Times
2021-11-25

Philip Galanes


Miguel Porlan

A reader seeks advice on dealing with people who undermine her experience as a mixed-race woman.

I am a mixed-race college student and identify as Black. For a year, I’ve been dating a white guy. We’ve never had an issue with race — until now. When I met his parents for the first time, ahead of the family’s big Thanksgiving feast, his father told me that being mixed race is “the best of both worlds.” I didn’t follow. So, he explained: You’re “really white,” but you get the advantages of being Black in college admissions and diversity hiring. I was stunned! My boyfriend, on the other hand, doesn’t see the problem. He says his parents are clueless about race, and it’s our job to help them understand. But I’m not interested in that job. I canceled my Thanksgiving visit, and now my boyfriend is mad at me. Advice?

TRACEY

Your boyfriend and his dad both owe you apologies, for different offenses…

Read the entire letter here.

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Film Screening with Director Ines Johnson-Spain in Attendance: “Becoming Black”

Posted in Africa, Autobiography, Family/Parenting, Media Archive, Videos on 2021-11-19 20:34Z by Steven

Film Screening with Director Ines Johnson-Spain in Attendance: “Becoming Black”

Black Germans
2021-11-17

Sponsored by Waterloo Centre for German, German at University of Toronto, and Africana Studies at Rutgers University-Camden
November 17, 2021

SYNOPSIS: Becoming Black (dir. Ines Johnson-Spain, 2019, 91 min.):

In the 1960s, the East German Sigrid falls in love with Lucien from Togo, one of several African students studying at a trade school on the outskirts of East Berlin. She becomes pregnant, but is already married to Armin. Sigrid and Armin raise their daughter as their own, withholding from her knowledge of her African paternal heritage. That child grows up to become the filmmaker Ines Johnson-Spain. In filmed encounters with her aging stepfather Armin and others from her youth, Johnson-Spain tracks the strategies of denial developed by her parents and the surrounding community. Her intimate but also critical exploration comprising both painful and confusing childhood memories and matter-of-fact accounts testifies to a culture of repression. When blended with movingly warm encounters with her Togolese family, Becoming Black becomes a thought-provoking reflection on identity, social norms and family ties.

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House Arrest, A Novel (2nd Edition)

Posted in Books, Family/Parenting, Media Archive, Novels, Religion, United States on 2021-11-11 21:16Z by Steven

House Arrest, A Novel (2nd Edition)

Red Hen Press
2014-09-01
216 pages
6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-59709-418-4

Ellen Meeropol

Home care nurse Emily Klein usually loves her work. But her new assignment, prenatal visits to a young woman under house arrest for the death of her toddler daughter during a Solstice ceremony, makes her uneasy. Maybe it’s Pippa Glenning’s odd household and the house arrest monitor. Or the court involvement that reminds Emily of her parents’ political activism and her father’s imprisonment. But when she can’t get out of the assignment, Emily is determined to do right by her high-profile and unconventional patient.

Pippa’s racially mixed Family of Isis is in turmoil. Without Tianthe cult leader and Pippa’s lover, who is in jail awaiting trial for the deaths of two toddlers, the group struggles to keep the household and their Tea Room business functioning. If Pippa follows the rules of her house arrest, she may be allowed to keep her baby, but as the pregnant woman in the family it’s her duty to dance for Isis at the upcoming winter Solstice ceremony. To escape the house arrest without being caught, she needs Emily’s help.

Despite their differences, Emily and Pippa’s friendship grows. Emily’s friends, her cousin Anna with whom she lives, Anna’s ex-husband Sam who shares in caring for their young daughter Zoe with spina bifida, her best friend Gina, all warn Emily that Pippa is trouble. When her grandfather dies, Emily reluctantly agrees to accompany Anna to the island in Maine where she was sent to live when her father went to prison. On the island, Emily begins to grapple with her parents? choices a generation earlier.

At home, the media hypes the Frozen Babies Case. Anti-cult sentiment in the city escalates to angry protests and increasing violence. As the winter Solstice approaches, both Emily and Pippa make decisions about their responsibilities to their families, their communities, and to each other– decisions that put their lives, and Pippa’s unborn baby– in jeopardy.

Set in Springfield, Massachusetts and on an island in Penobscot Bay, the story is told from the alternating points of view of Emily, Pippa, Sam, and Gina. House Arrest explores the meaning of family loyalty when beliefs conflict, and questions the necessity of sometimes breaking rules to serve justice.

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Acculturation of mixed-race people and/or adoptees

Posted in Family/Parenting, Live Events, Media Archive, Social Work on 2021-11-02 14:10Z by Steven

Acculturation of mixed-race people and/or adoptees

MAIF Social Club
37 Rue de Turenne
75003 Paris, France
2021-11-09, 18:30 CET (Local Time)

For its 4th edition in France, the National Adoption Awareness Month, organized by the director Amandine Gay, offers a comparative view between the experience of transracial adoptees and mixed-race people.

“Acculturation of mixed-race people and/or adoptees” conference will welcome:

The event is free, with subscription and in French.

The conference will be recorded and available later on, at the MAIF online channel.

For more information, click here.

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A qualitative examination of familial racial-ethnic socialization experiences among multiracial American emerging adults.

Posted in Articles, Family/Parenting, Identity Development/Psychology, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, United States on 2021-10-20 02:10Z by Steven

A qualitative examination of familial racial-ethnic socialization experiences among multiracial American emerging adults.

Journal of Family Psychology
Volume 35, Issue 7 (Oct. 2021)
DOI: 10.1037/fam0000918

Annabelle L. Atkin, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Scholar
T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics
Arizona State University

Kelly F. Jackson, Associate Professor of Social Work
Arizona State University

Rebecca M. B. White, Associate Professor of Family and Human Development
Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics
Arizona State University

Alisia G. T. T. Tran, Assistant Professor in the Counseling and Counseling Psychology Program
Arizona State University

This qualitative interview study investigated the types of parental racial-ethnic socialization messages received by Multiracial American youth over the course of their development. The Multiracial population in America is the largest demographic group among individuals under the age of 18 (Saulny, 2011), but there is a dearth of research about the development of this rapidly growing population. Multiracial youth are members of multiple racial-ethnic groups. Thus, racial-ethnic socialization is particularly complex for Multiracial families because parents typically have different racial backgrounds and experiences compared to their children. Interviews were conducted with 20 Multiracial emerging adult college students (Mage = 20.55; 10 male, 10 female) of diverse racial backgrounds to identify the types of parental racial-ethnic socialization messages they received growing up. Using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), nine themes of racial-ethnic socialization content emerged: Cultural socialization, racial identity socialization, preparation for bias socialization, colorblind socialization, race-conscious socialization, diversity appreciation socialization, negative socialization, exposure to diversity socialization, and silent socialization. This research advances the literature by (a) identifying domains of racial-ethnic socialization messages for Multiracial American families, (b) examining a diverse sample of male and female Multiracial youth, (c) differentiating monoracial versus Multiracial socialization messages, and (d) distinguishing the unique connotations of egalitarian socialization messages (e.g., colorblind, race-conscious, diversity appreciation). The findings have important implications for understanding the development of Multiracial American individuals and families.

Read or purchase the article here.

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High Yella: A Modern Family Memoir

Posted in Autobiography, Biography, Books, Family/Parenting, Gay & Lesbian, Media Archive, Monographs, United States on 2021-10-11 18:20Z by Steven

High Yella: A Modern Family Memoir

University of Georgia Press
2021-10-01
280 pages
Trim size: 5.500in x 8.500in
Hardcover ISBN: 9-780-8203-6031-7

Steve Majors

They called him “pale faced or mixed race.” They called him “light, bright, almost white.” But most of the time his family called him “high yella.” Steve Majors was the white passing, youngest son growing up in an all-Black family that struggled with poverty, abuse, and generational trauma. High Yella is the poignant account of how he tried to leave his troubled childhood and family behind to create a new identity, only to discover he ultimately needed to return home to truly find himself. And after he and his husband adopt two Black daughters, he must set them on their own path to finding their place in the world by understanding the importance of where they come from.

In his remarkable and moving memoir, Majors gathers the shards of a broken past to piece together a portrait of a man on an extraordinary journey toward Blackness, queerness, and parenthood. High Yella delivers its hard-won lessons on love, life, and family with exceptional grace.

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