Posted in Family, Identity, Mixed, Race, Uncategorized, tagged children, mixed, parenting, race on June 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Originally published at Color Magazine
Desmond Williams is a freelance writer and JUNO magazine columnist. He lives in Brooklyn, NY, is half of a mixed-race couple and father to a rambunctious, comedic, and inquisitive six-year-old (all great fodder for parenting articles). His writing, with its injected wit and humor, tends to add a light touch to the general gravity of parenting. Desmond is currently working on a graphic novel for mixed-race parents titled ‘The Painted Man’.
Posted in Community, Identity, Mixed, opinion, Race, Reflection, tagged community, identity, multiracial, race on June 23, 2011 | 1 Comment »
by Ariel Joseph
“Return to Africa” they say. Proud of their heritage and sure of their connectedness to a continent and a peoples, an ocean and generations removed, they remain certain that they have a motherland, a place – perhaps the only place – on this lonely planet where they belong. (more…)
Posted in Family, Identity, Mixed, Race, Reflection, tagged childhood, family, identity, interracial, multiracial, race on June 16, 2011 | 4 Comments »
by Anita Gill
When I was a little girl, I had a crush on a particular boy in my grade. I told my mom that I liked him because I felt I could tell her anything. She asked me, “Why do you like H—?”
Posted in opinion, Privilege, Race, tagged colorblindness, race, reality on June 6, 2011 | 3 Comments »
by Christopher Bowers
In white, liberal culture people often think of themselves as “colorblind”, seeing only humans, not their race. It seems reasonable enough. We want to be humanists and believe that we see people for who they are inside, for what we have in common with them. It is important to ask, is what we feel inside really a commonality or could that also be as different as the color of our skin? (more…)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged mixed, parenting, race, thepaintedman on November 2, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Desmond Williams is a JUNO magazine columnist, freelance writer and dad living in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently putting the finishing touches on his book, The Painted Man: What My Young Son Taught Me About Race, a collection of coming of race memoirs that finds a dad confronted by racially charged questions posed directly by his young son and the people with whom they come into contact.
Posted in Reflection, tagged activism, mixed, race, racism, structural racism, Swirl on October 16, 2009 | 10 Comments »
by Jen Chau, originally published at The Time Is Always Right
This is – I think – our favorite game to play when it comes to race. Locate the racist, focus on the racist, blog and tweet the crap out of that racist, and shame that racist as much as possible. The racist shouldn’t be able to carry on life as he knew it. I too hope for change in the person who took a misstep, but I think we are missing the bigger picture. We use magnifying glasses to focus on individual events rather than seeing the connections and the patterns that point to larger societal problems.
Posted in Analysis, tagged politics, race, structural racism on October 15, 2009 | 9 Comments »
by Leotis Martin
Acquaintance: “So what are you doing in Florence?”
Me: “Spring vacation…I’m studying in Paris.”
A: “Oh, so where are you from in the States?”
Me: “Well, I’m originally from South America, but I grew up in the Bronx…”
A: “Oh, how is that?”
Me: “It’s the Bronx, so all the rumors you’ve heard are definitely true.”
A: “Hah. Well you made it to [insert private institution of higher learning here], right? That means you had to be, like, extra super smart huh?” (more…)
Posted in opinion, tagged activism, census, data, race on September 28, 2009 | 3 Comments »
by Lynda Turet
The 2000 census marked an apparent victory for multiracial America. By gaining the ability to “check all that apply,” many gained legal recognition for racial identities which were formerly rendered invisible by rigid “check one only” rules. Many in the multiracial community heralded the change as one of the few tangible advocacy gains of the emerging community’s efforts for recognition. The “check all that apply” rule allowed self-identifying mixed-race people the ability to count, and thus recognized as both ingredient and evidence of this complex and messy racial plutocracy we call America. (more…)
Posted in Reflection, tagged activism, race, racism, Swirl on September 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
We’ve been running an experiment. What happens when you put five people in a room to read, learn, debate and struggle with how to translate our multiracial community into a catalyst for action? (I know what you’re thinking, and no, arm-wrestling was not involved). Five brave SwirlNYC members gave four afternoons of their lives (and then some) to collectively developing an analysis on race, justice, and what it means to do something about it. Led by Jen Chau (Founder and Executive Director of Swirl) and Lynda Turet (former Managing Director of Swirl), we piloted a semester of learning called “SwirlCamp,” meant to serve as a boot camp for Swirl members ready to take their involvement to the next level. Our sessions ran the gamut of exploring structural racism to discussing the impact (or lack thereof) of having a black and multiracial president. We also sharpened our leadership skills through self-reflection and skill-building. Our purpose was simple: how do we make our collective need for community into a tool to change what has impacted us all–racism? (more…)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged comicstrip, mixed, parenting, race, thepaintedman on September 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Desmond Williams is a JUNO magazine columnist, freelance writer and dad living in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently putting the finishing touches on his book, The Painted Man: What My Young Son Taught Me About Race, a collection of coming of race memoirs that finds a dad confronted by racially charged questions posed directly by his young son and the people with whom they come into contact.
