Category: Identity Politics
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Dear Black People: An Open Letter to the Black Families on Philly’s Main Line
Dear Black People on the Main Line, No, not all the Black people. I’m sure some of you are super happy there and if you are, please feel free to completely disregard everything I’m about to say. I’m actually talking to the Friday family that was profiled in the depressing and disheartening story in the…
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The “PeanutizeMe” Game Works for Families with Different Colors
Hi Meltingpot Readers, Because you need something else to procrastinate with online, I offer up the opportunity to turn yourself into a Peanuts character. Yes, this is just some slick promotion for the upcoming Peanuts movie, hitting theaters on November 6, but I’m willing to overlook the obvious publicity play. Why? Because it’s so fun…
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Defining Blackness: My Take on Rachel Dolezal
It’s not as though there hasn’t already been enough written about Rachel Dolezal, the White woman from Montana who has been passing for Black for the last decade. Still, I feel I have to add my two cents to the raging controversy over this woman’s actions. Actually, I have more than two cents to add…
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Will “White People Believe Anything” About Race?
Hello Meltingpot Readers, Pardon the delay in posting, but we had some technical difficulties. But I’m back now. And so happy to be here to tell you about a great event I went to on Monday in Brooklyn. In honor of Loving Day, the Brooklyn Historical Society hosted a screening of Lacey Schwartz’s amazing documentary,…
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Asian Americans and Skin-Color Politics
Hello Meltingpot Readers, As most of you know, I’m hard at work on my new book, Same Family, Different Colors. In the book, I’m trying to document how skin color politics play out in American families, across different cultures. In addition to the fact that people of all ethnic backgrounds get squirmy when you bring…
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#WomensLives: Life on the Border Between Europe and Africa
Hello Melitngpot Readers, If you’ve read my memoir, Kinky Gazpacho, then you know I’ve lived in both Spain and Morocco, so these recent stories about life in the border city of Ceuta have caught my attention. Ceuta is a city on the cusp of Africa, but it is a Spanish territory. Ceuta’s citizens are Spanish,…
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May is Mixed Experience History Month!
Hello Meltingpot Readers, Happy Monday! Happy May! Happy Mixed Experience History Month 2015! If you’ve been a regular reader of the Meltingpot, then Mixed Experience History Month is nothing new. But if perhaps this is your first time traveling through our cyber world, then you’re probably wondering what we’re talking about. Well, my cool friend…
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Yo, Is That Colorist?: Australian Newscaster Praises Light Skin Twin
Hello Meltingpot Readers, I think you all know I’m working on a book called Same Family, Different Colors where I’m looking at skin color variations in nuclear families and how those skin color differences affect family dynamics. Often times I’m hearing stories about minute variations between brown and browner, but every now and again there…
