The Untragic Mulatto

Mixed Roots Stories’ mission is: Supporting and advocating for diverse Mixed communities through the power of sharing stories. To that end we offer our platform to promote storytellers @ https://mixedrootsstories.com/promote-your-story/, so we are sharing an essay by Chad Davis originally posted on Dissident Voice.

The Untragic Mulatto


CMRS 2018 Storytellers Wanted

2018 Critical Mixed Race Studies
Call for Papers DEADLINE EXTENDING TO AUGUST 18TH!

Resisting, Reclaiming, and Reimagining
March 1 – 3, 2018
University of Maryland
Deadline: AUGUST 18, 2017, 11:59 PM
Notification: Mid September 2017
Presenters at the conference must be members. https://aaichicago.wufoo.com/forms/r1skfsoa0z4uu2q/
Subject Fields: We welcome submissions from scholars from all fields, cultural workers, and activists.

Formats: We welcome individual papers, panels, round tables, workshops or Mixed Roots Stories is looking for live performances and video. For example the live performances can be stand-up comedy, spoken word, dance, short scenes, monologues, vocalists, musicians – or other forms of live performance for our #CMRS2018 LIVE event. Please note the performances and/or video can also submit as a Workshop.
For more info: https://criticalmixedracestudies.wordpress.com/cmrs2018-ca…/

The conference will be hosted at the University of Maryland, March 1-3, 2018 and will include film screenings and a live performance showcase produced by Mixed Roots Stories.

THEME

Resisting, Reclaiming, and Reimagining, the next Critical Mixed Race Studies conference seeks to highlight resistance against white supremacy around the globe, the reclamation of community, kinship, and identity within the mixed-race community, and the reimagining of racial difference. Recent events demonstrate that white supremacy, coupled with sexism, xenophobia, transphobia, homophobia, and unchecked capitalism, is still central as an organizing principle and tool of domination. For example, borders and walls (both real and imagined) are being invoked by the current United States administration to marginalize people and combat the inevitable demographic shifts which will see this country become majority minority. By focusing on the resistance, reclamation, and reimagination of multiraciality, this interdisciplinary and transnational conference will be a forum dedicated to fostering relationships between people of color, dismantling racial hierarchies, and affirming an ethics of love to subvert dominant paradigms of social identity.

Apply online: https://goo.gl/forms/2Qwm0Sqw60FlLVzw1


BOOK REVIEW – Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children in a Post Racial World

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Sharon H. Chang’s inaugural book, Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children in a Post Racial World, lays out a blue print that outlines the history of white supremacy and how it has corrupted the way people treat each other, specifically Mixed Race/ Multiracial and Multiracial Asian individuals. She develops an important foundation that provides a glimmer of hope for moving forward toward improving our future world, despite the powerful suppressive system before us.

The title might make you think it is a parenting book, and it is (or could be), but it so much more! The language/verbiage used in the book makes this potentially academic/research strong book accessible for those who might have the most questions…parents. Though this book has a focus on multiracial Asian children, it is not just a book for parents of multiracial Asian children. It is a book for all children of color…and even for parents of white children! This book is for anyone who comes in contact with children in any way. This means if you are a teacher/educator, a child care worker, do research with children or on race and intersectionaility…or if you are a parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, grandparent, or once was a child. This book is for everyone!

The book is based on Chang’s interviews with 68 parents of 75 young children living in Washington State. She does not go into detail about her recruitment and method, however she does discuss this in my recent interview with her (see Part 1 of 2 below). She intertwines her findings with current and historical events, existing scholarly research and reports, her expertise in tracking dialogue across social media, her own multiracial Asian experience and more.

The focus is on children from 0 to 5 years old. This is an age that has been neglected in most parenting books and research with a multiracial focus. This is also an age during which many parents think that their children do not recognize/see race; however Chang shows us that they absolutely do. Young children are learning from the subtle and often unspoken systematic racism that is infused throughout every aspect of our society.

Chang makes it clear that the understanding of race begins in the home. In a world that is fearful to discuss how white supremacy has been engrained into society and families generation after generation…it is time families start having these difficult conversations. Chang warns that race is not easy to discuss, but essential and does not have to be done alone. It can be done through community. Her last chapter provides specific examples of how to address race in the community, school, and home.

This is the first book that I have seen, that looks at racial identity development, and puts systematic racism and white supremacy where it belongs…. at the beginning and linked over and over again to the end. To understand and address race issues with our children, we must begin with its origin story. When attempting to comprehend the lens in which race issues are created, we must understand the frame in which that lens is held together – white supremacy. Chang tells it like it is. She lifts the curtain on age-old white ideas of race, breaks down history, language and concepts that have created divisions between people who look different or do not follow the prescribed norms. For example, she breaks down how the trending term microagression was created from a white lens and points out there is nothing small or mirco about them! She deconstructs terms used in medical spaces, such as “Mongolian Spots” that have racist origins; and many individuals have just come to believe that is what they are called (See Part 2 of 2 below for more on this). Additionally, she provides a fantastic response to the common question/idea “But aren’t we all mixed?” in one of the most eloquently written explanations I have seen. Watch Part 2 of 2 below to hear about how she responds to the question and her new elevator response to this question!

The book is coming out just in time for the holidays, and will make a great gift. It should be on everyone’s 2016 reading list! You can order the book on the publisher site  or on Amazon.

Be sure to join Sharon on December 11th for her Facebook launch party. She will be partying all day and giving away some great prizes. Don’t miss it!

You can find the Multiracial Asian Families community and blog page on Facebook, the book page on Facebook. You can fin her on Twitter @mutliasianfams, Pinterest, or on her blog MultiAsian Families.

 

Watch my recent interview with Sharon!

Part 1 – She shares her mixed roots story, how the book came to be and more!

Part 2 -We discuss content from the book including: “Mongolian spots”, miss-education and the need for reeducation around racist terms, how to respond to -“Everybody is Mixed”, Culture vs. Race, Anti-bias curricula, learning environments and more.



Chandra Crudup, PhD, MSW
 is a board member and co-founder of Mixed Roots Stories. She is the Vice President of MAVIN and the Production Manager for One Drop of Love. Chandra is full time Lecturer and Faculty Associate Coordinator in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University. She has over six years of practice experience in K-12 schools. Her research interests are centered on multiracial identity and interracial relationships. Her research utilizes video technology as a qualitative data gathering tool. She is also interested in using the arts as a medium to build positive self-esteem in youth.


Yuletide Angels – a celebration of many cultures and faiths

UnknownMargaret Bacon Schulze is a freelance writer of Okinawan/Anglo heritage. Her first book of fiction, Yuletide Angels, was published last year by electio Publishing. It’s the story of a mixed race family enjoying the many customs and traditions of the Yuletide season. A celebration of many cultures and faiths!

More on the book:

Dina is searching for a special angel to top her Christmas tree, one that looks like her Japanese, Irish, German, and Mexican sons. Her husband Julio struggles with his disdain of holiday hype.

Would you like to order this book? Here’s a link for more info: http://electiopublishing.com/index.php/bookstore#!/~/product/id=31016183


“I Didn’t Know What I Didn’t Know: A Southern White Woman’s Story About Race”

IMAG00271-150x150Thanks so much to Kaypri for letting us know about her mother’s book “I Didn’t Know What I Didn’t Know: A Southern White Woman’s Story About Race.” You can learn more about this moving and important story here: www.dorothystory.com – why not make it a holiday gift for a mother or grandmother on YOUR list!?

Here’s the description Kaypri sent us:
Dorothy Hampton Marcus is a Civil Rights Activist, truly ahead of her time. She jumped into Race Relations before it had a name, (in the fifties), and was one of very few Whites to do so. A Winston-Salem, North Carolina native, she grew up in the Jim Crow Era, not fully knowing what that really meant. In her undergrad years at Meredith College in Raleigh she had her first one-on-one inter-racial experience which this progressive all-womens school arranged. This event changed her life and by the time she graduated, she’d found a new passion. Determined to enlighten others with what she had begun to know, she found answers in the most unexpected places witnessing history along the way. For the next two decades she worked in a succession of “Human Relations” jobs throughout the U.S. putting off marriage and motherhood to do so. Even after marrying “late” at age 40, she never gave up on improving civil rights for all people. She was determined to share what she now knew well past her retirement when she started writing this story. She dedicated herself to finishing the book right up until the onset of dementia made it impossible for her to write another sentence. It was at that point that I realized it was up to me to pick up the baton which I started by completing the first draft of her book for her 80th birthday in 2012. It took me nearly two more years to flesh it out and publish it, adding my Daughter’s Notes along the way. I am truly proud to share my mother’s story with the world!


Book: Contrast: A Biracial Man’s Journey To Desegregate His Past

Devin C. Hughes recently filled in our ‘Promote Your Story‘ link to tell us about his book Contrast: A Biracial Man’s Journey To Desegregate His Past

From Amazon.com:

In 1967, the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage in America. Devin Hughes was born two years later to a black father and white mother who fled to Washington DC to escape the racism of the Deep South. Bigotry still ran rampant up North, and light-skinned, greeneyed Devin felt its pull from both ends: strangers who didn’t know he was half-black and friends who didn’t care he was half-white. In racial limbo, Devin found himself more consumed with his dysfunctional family life—a father who offered an alternative “street” education and a mother whose drug use zombified her for most of his childhood. Despite his parents’ flaws, they were Devin’s greatest believers. From his dad founding a neighborhood baseball team to his mom advocating for him in school, they taught Devin that anything imaginable was within reach, that their mistakes needn’t be his choices, and that his destiny was for greatness. Ultimately, Contrast: A Biracial Man’s Journey to Desegregate His Past isn’t a book about race; it’s a book about acceptance, perseverance, and love.

Purchase the book from Amazon by clicking here: Contrast: A Biracial Man’s Journey to Desegregate His Past

Follow Devin C. Hughes on Twitter: @devinchughes
And support his work with a ‘like’ on his facebook page: facebook.com/ChiefInspirationOfficer




Storytelling Website: Narrative.ly

We love the concept behind the website Narrative.ly (voted by TIME magazine one of the 50 best websites of 2013). Take a look, and get motivated to share your own story. Then click our ‘PROMOTE YOUR STORY‘ link and tell us more about you – or perhaps you’d like to become a Guest Blogger for Mixed Roots Stories?

Here’s a little more about Narrative.ly from their About page:

Narratively slows down the news cycle. We avoid the breaking news and the next big headline, instead focusing exclusively on untold, human-interest stories—the rich, intricate narratives that get at the heart of what a place and its people are all about. 

Each week, we explore a different theme and publish a series of stories—just one a day—told in the most appropriate medium for each piece. We might feature a longform article on a Monday, followed by an animated documentary on Tuesday, then a photo essay, an audio piece or a short documentary film. Every story gets the space and time it needs to have an impact—an approach we call “slow storytelling” or “slow journalism.” (Stay up to date on our latest stories by signing up for our weekly and weekender emails.)

Our community of writers, editors, photographers, filmmakers, illustrators, and designers have worked extensively for top media outlets like the New York Times, New York magazine, CNN, NPR, MediaStorm, the New Yorker and the BBC, among other innovative and experimental publications. And we’ve subsequently gotten press from leading outlets like Forbes, PBS, Yahoo! Finance and others.

http://narrative.ly/


Paul Robeson Theatre Festival Taking Submissions – until 3/15/14

The deadline has been extended! They are looking for 20 minute plays that address Robeson’s passions: dignity, intelligence, artistry, scholarship in law and music, social consciousness in the arts, his creativity, values, his fierce resistance to inequality and defense of freedom for all, his recognition of the brotherhood of man, his constant struggle against the status quo, all that he stood for, and the price he eventually paid is the stuff of dramatic tension, and it leaves ample room for a myriad of theatrical scenarios. Please note the play need not be about Paul per se but simply inspired by and reflect some of the above mentioned attributes his life and career contained (from the Robey Theatre Company website). Keep us posted if your piece is accepted – we will help promote it! Click here for more info: Paul Robeson Theatre Festival