Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

My favorite trivia question in baseball is, “Which Italian American player for the Brooklyn Dodgers once hit 40 home runs in a season?” Nobody ever gets it right, because the answer is Roy Campanella, who was as Italian as he was black. He had an Italian father and a black mother, but he’s always classified as black. You see, American racial classification is totally cultural, and it’s based on the unfortunate and sad legacy of racial distinction based on this ridiculous metaphor, the purity of blood.

You’re identifiable as having black ancestry because we can see it. I mean, who’s Tiger Wood, who’s Colin Powell? Colin Powell is as Irish as he is African, but we don’t classify him as that.

No, we have a really screwed up classification. To think it’s biological is just plain wrong. It’s based, flat-out, on the legacy of racism and the metaphor of the purity of the blood. It’s a very troubling issue.

“RACE—The Power of an Illusion: Background Readings: Interview with Stephen Jay Gould,” Public Broadcasting Service (2003). http://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-01-09.htm.

I am so disillusioned by the whole notion of ‘race’ at all.

…but I’m honestly moving away from biracial & even mixed—I am so disillusioned by the whole notion of ‘race’ at all.

Fanshen Cox, “One Drop of Love: A Daughter’s Search for her Father’s Racial Approval,” #swirlchat, July 27, 2012. http://storify.com/swirlinc/one-drop-of-love-a-daughter-s-search-for-her-fathe

Tags: Fanshen Cox

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Mixed Race Studies

I am so disillusioned by the whole notion of ‘race’ at all.

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