Mixed Race Hall of Fame

Our community has been hidden and disguised, but ALAS we do have some super stars among us...
take a look at some of the powerful representatives of mixedness....

PHOTOS Ann Curry, Derek Jeter, Jessica Alba, Cameron Diaz, Tia and Tamara Mowry, Tiger Woods, Keanu Reeves








Did you know that these celebrities were mixed? Test your mixedar and take the Race Quiz.

My Mixed Friend takes on the New York Times

Yesterday, a good friend of mine made his New York Times debut talking about multiracial identity and Barack Obama in the article Who Are We? New Dialogue on Mixed Race.

I can't tell you how excited I was to see this on the front page. Yes, Barack Obama is great... but it's even better to hear people my age getting a chance to talk about being mixed on a national stage.... gosh.. the NY TIMES IS A BIG DEAL

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the article... enjoy!

p.s. James McBride is one of my favorite authors... his book the Color of Water helped me gain a better sense of who I am

From James McBride:

“I really wanted to be like all the other black kids. It was the larger group around me.” And through life, because of his brown skin, society has imposed its own label. “If cops see me, they see a black man sitting in a car,” he said.

But being proud to call himself African-American, Mr. McBride said, does not negate his connection to his “Jewish part,” his mother’s heritage. Asked which part of him was dominant, he said, “It’s like grabbing Jell-O.”

“But what difference does it make?” he added. “When you’re mixed, you see how absurd this business of race is.”

(Photo Phillip Handy from NY Times.com)

From Phillip Handy on Barack Obama:

“He’s really having to play the field and know his audience really well,” said Phillip Handy, 21, a junior at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., whose mother is white and father is black. “In the end, when I hear his message, I don’t think he’s bailing out on any of us.”


Last thing... I promise it's worth it... The article features Carmen Van Kerckhove who runs racialicious.com. Her blog is pretty darn fabulous!

The song that brings multiracial tears to my eyes

I know what your first question... other than what's the song... is... tears have a race? Since my post about my ears, I've been doing some research on the racial identity of my body parts. Here is what I've found out. My hips are white. My butt is black. And apparently, my nose and eyes are mixed. Thus, since tears come from eyes, they must also be multiracial. And so are my boogers. That may have been too much information. Sorry.

Anyway back to the cause of the tears...

Kevin Michael and his song , "Don't Make a Difference to Me," have gotten me hooked. I've grown up hearing songs about race (hiphop loves the topic), but could never really connect to them. His song talks about his biracial identity and the struggles of his parents' interracial marriage. i.e.MY LIFE! I have to admit that i put this song on when I need a pick me up after a bad mixed moment (an incident where someone or some event brings up or questions my racial identity). It feels so good to finally have a song about race that I can fully connect with.

I wonder how BET feels about him... is he black enough to be played there? Or, Hot 97 (my favorite nyc hip hop station)? I wonder if they'll play him... and if their audience will accept it... Barack Obama almost wasn't "black enough"... but Halle Berry was... let's see how this one plays out...

p.s. It also doesn't hurt that this gentleman is quite adorable... he can sing to me any day!

Tell me what you think about him.

Gray's Guide to Racial Rhetoric... i.e. words I use to talk about race

Before I start delving in to race, I just wanted to give you a little heads up about how I talk about race. We all have our preferences on word choices and understandings of words. Just in case you were wondering about mine, now or in the future, I started a mini dictionary below. I'll try to update this as issues come up in posts. Please let me know in a comment if you see any changes that should be made or explanations that need to be added.
Forgive me if the following lacks alphabetical order.

the basics:

black --> Other people choose to use African- American and in the past it was Negro. I personally prefer the term black. Not all people identified as black in the US are directly from Africa or feel a direct connection to Africa. Here's a few people's perspectives on black.
white--> some people prefer Caucasian, but I like the contrast of black and white when writing. You'll notice that I often refer to "people of color" versus "white people". If speaking about a specific ethnicity or country of origin, I will use that identity. For example, I will often refer to my mother as Italian instead of white.

**Note: I never capitalize either of these words or any racial identity, unless it's for emphasis.**

Words that mean the same thing, and some that shouldn't be used:
Multiracial-->A person who identifies with more than one race. Not to be confused with multiethnic, someone who identifies with more than one ethnicity.
Mixed --> Someone who identifies as having a multiracial background.
Mulatto--> A person who identifies as being half black and half white. Many people consider this a racial slur. I used to, but as I learn more about it my opinion may change. Click here to learn more about the history of the word Mulatto.
Mut--> In my mind, a pretty blatant racial slur meaning a person who is a combination of many races. To prevent fights, I wouldn't use this term to describe someone who is multiracial unless they say it's ok.
Zebra, Oreo, Half Breed --> Racial Slurs for multiracial people. aka... fighting words
Swirl --> Used to identify people of multiracial AND multiethnic decent. Created by the mixed community. Also the name of "a national multi-ethnic organization that challenges society’s notions of race through community building, education, and action." Check out Swirl.

Words I've created (I think):

Mixedness --> Short for: Multiracial Identity. That phrase was too long and mixedness just rolls off the tongue a little easier.
Brite--> A combination of the words brown and white. When I was a wee little girl (a little older than I am in the picture to the right), I wanted a word that represented my skin colors. So, with the help of mom, I put the colors of mommy and daddy together. (daddy is called black, but his skin color is much closer to the brown Crayola crayon. mommy isn't really white, she's more peach, but I only had the set of 10 crayons)

*** How to Create a Made Up Word ***