Half and Half

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

The Slavery Democracy prates and chaters about ‘negro equality, ‘Black Republicans,’ and ‘nigger stealing,’ to use its classic phrase and improved orthography. It has or affects to have, a great horror of ‘niggers.’ And any one who advocates the principles of human Freedom, as they were enunciated and laid down in enduring forms by the Fathers of the Republic, is a ‘woolly head,’ and these same Democrats have learned to speak of them with a peculiar nasal twist. You would suppose that these gentlemen, whose olfactories are so sensitive and acute, never saw a nigger except in a menagerie. And yet, would you believe it, the very first service rendered to him on earth is performed by a nigger; as an infant, he draws the milk, which makes his flesh and blood and bones, from the breast of a nigger; looks up in her face and smiles, and calls her by the endearing name of ‘mammy,’ and begs, perhaps, in piteous tones, for the privilege of carrying ‘mammy’ to the Territories; he is undressed and put to bed by a nigger, and nestles during the slumbers of infancy in the bosom of a nigger; he is washed, dressed and taken to the table by a nigger, to eat food prepared by a nigger; he is led to school by a nigger; every service that childhood demands is performed by a nigger, except that of chastisement, which, from the absence of good manners in many cases, it is to be feared is not performed at all. When down appears on his lip, the tonsorial service is performed by a nigger; and when he reaches manhood, he invades the nigger quarters, to place himself in the endearing relation of paternity to half niggers. Finally, if he should be ambitious, it may occur that he will come to congress to represent a constituency, three-fifths of whom are niggers, and talk about ‘Black Republicans,’ ‘amalgamation,’ ‘nigger equality,’ ‘nigger stealing,’ and the offensive odor of niggerism.”

The Honorable Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois (and “conductor” on the Underground Railroad), “The Democracy and ‘Niggers’,” Franklin Repository, April 20, 1859, page 5, column 6. http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/news/fr1859/pa.fr.fr.1859.04.20.xml#05.

Half and Half

Half and Half

The Cornell Daily Sun
Ithaca, New York
2012-03-28

Rebecca Lee

Just about the only thing I am looking forward to about graduation is finally being able to meet all of my best friends’ parents. In high school, we knew our friends’ parents almost as well as our own, calling them by their first names, even dropping a playful “Mom” now and then. Au contraire, we go through college barely having met the creators of the people with whom we share everything, from our rooms to our nights to our secrets. Meeting a friend’s parents is an “aha” moment in which you are almost in awe of the physical representation of genetics in front of you.

Ah, genetics. It’s where I get my mom’s smile and idealism, my dad’s olive skin and innate quietude. It’s why I can both wear a “Kiss Me I’m Irish” shirt on St. Patrick’s Day and send out Chinese New Year cards when my family misses the traditional holiday season. It’s why some people think I’m adopted. It’s why I proudly refer to myself as a halfie.

In all honesty, my Chinese dad grew up in Great Neck and I am not even that good at using chopsticks. But even though I am thoroughly Americanized, I still feel close to my distinct Chinese heritage. For one, I am perceptibly Asian, whereas the other half of my genes are a little more, well, recessive. I even spent the first seven years of my life in Chinatown, at a public kindergarten where I was the only kid who didn’t know how to speak Chinese. But I have to wonder whether I would feel as close a connection to my Asian heritage if my last name wasn’t Lee, if my hair wasn’t naturally dark and stick straight, if I didn’t grow up knowing my Chinese grandparents…

…When people say that they only want to be with someone of their same race or religion, I take it as somewhat of a personal offense, since my own mixed-race existence was in such clear defiance of those beliefs. I used to think it was closed minded of my Catholic friends to only follow up on Catholic advances. I used to think it was cruel and unusual for my Indian friends to have to only date other Indians. I used to see it as a kind of discrimination, even. I used to protest, caught up by a combination of romantic whimsy and defensiveness — Give everyone a fair chance! You can’t help who you fall in love with! People are people!

And it’s true, people are people, but people are also products of their cultures and beliefs. Is it really discrimination to prefer to be with people who share those things with you?…

Read the entire article here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2012 at 23:11Z and is filed under Articles, Asian Diaspora, Campus Life, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United States. 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

Half and Half

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