The Cheerios Debate: Was it Hate for Race Mixing or Just Plain Old Racism?

First, on the racism that was spewed on the internet in response to a cheerios advertisement which featured a black and white couple and their biracial daughter as casually and normally as commercials have always depicted all white perfect suburban families and more recently all-black and latino ones, I think it's a reminder both that post-racial America is a myth -- there is still racism and the internet and social media, because of their anonymity, has sadly more than demonstrated that - but it's also a reminder to mixed race folks that the racism is anti-black first and foremost, not necessary anti- mixed. And to push this as a potential "mixed race" galvanizing issue -- targeting interracial families is short sighted. In other words, this is not mixed race racism .. It is at end of day, as Jared Sexton calls Antiblackness.

It is not and has never been enough to simply tell the truth about Mixed Race in America and be effective in convincing folks about our struggle as multiracials... This was evidenced not only in the reflective "truth" of the cheerios ad, which came out just on the heels of the news that more Americans now consider themselves multiracial than ever before, but also around the celebration of so-called "Loving Day" which celebrates the interracial marriage of Mildred and Richard Loving.

Loving Day is an annual celebration held on June 12, the anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in sixteen U.S. states.  In the United States, anti-miscegenation laws were U.S. state laws banning interracial marriage, mainly forbidding marriage between non-whites and whites. The case was brought by Mildred Loving, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, who had been sentenced to a year in prison.  The decision was followed by an increase in interracial marriages in the U.S., although not necessarily all "black/white" ones, and is remembered annually on Loving Day, June 12th.

The Lovings were arrested in Virginia for supposedly having violated the state's anti-miscegenation statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between people classified as "white" and people classified as "colored." The Supreme Court's unanimous decision held this prohibition was unconstitutional, overturning Pace v. Alabama (1883) and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.  The story is quite complicated and mixed race activists have been trying to find ways to teach this history to everyday Americans.

But is simply telling the truth of this monumental achievement enough to pierce the consciousness of most Americans?   Mixing has been going on so long and it's like-- nothing, not a dent. How can we fit the struggle into a tweet, or a soundbite as they used to say? It is an important question because the message about what this struggle has been about is finally starting to get through... Thanks largely I might add to what Steven F. Riley has done with Mixed Race Studies.org. What I would like to know is what can we do to get more black folk supportive of things like Loving Day because if all of this were about the "truth", then approximately 85% of the African-American population should be supportive of Loving Day, multiracialism, checking both boxes on the census, and half the other things we talk about in this group -- since that is roughly the population of African Anericans mixed with some other race-- hence multiracial. Yet, as we know, many (though not all) African-Anericans largely ignore these kinds of efforts or are unsupportive at best, unless they themselves are first-gen mixed or are in interracial relationships. How do we fit that into a tweet? Because until this movement finds a way to tie itself to blackness in a way that resonates and excites in the larger black community, it will always be at odds with some very long standing and important forces in our society. Yes, better believe it. We need to continue to find creative ways to push this work and sadly, the slippery "truth" as Fanshen Cox called it may not always be completely at the heart of it. And, actually, as Andrew Jolivette has pointed out, epistemologically speaking, it is not incorrect to say that Loving made interracial marriage in the US legal. I think to NOT say it that way also undermines the struggle of the Lovings.

Marcia Alesan Dawkins: Giving Loving Day Its Due

Original Article:Marcia Alesan Dawkins: Giving Loving Day Its Due - Truthdig

Giving Loving Day Its Due

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Posted on Jun 11, 2011

Associated Press

Namesakes: Mildred Loving and her husband Richard in 1965.

By Marcia Alesan Dawkins

If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably been invited to commemorate or at least think about Loving Day this year. And with good reason. In 1958, newlyweds Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving were indicted on charges of violating Virginia’s ban on interracial marriages and were banished from their home state. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the law in 1967.

Many multiracial individuals and interracial couples celebrate the anniversary of the Loving v. Virginiadecision, June 12, as Loving Day. While celebrating this important civil rights milestone, we should remember that increased visibility of interracial couples and offspring does not promise increased racial harmony. Let’s face facts. It’s very sexy to congratulate ourselves based on reports that today’s interracial families can live harmoniously in the former Confederacy. We’re entertained as we watch Khloe and Lamar’s relationship work out. It makes us feel good to think that we have overcome, that we have reached a state of racial harmony and that we are all finally equal—and becoming equally beige and beautiful.

But a desire to congratulate ourselves doesn’t erase the fact that racial mixing has been occurring in our nation and hemisphere for more than 500 years. Colonists and indigenous people married and engaged in extramarital sexual relations. White indentured servants mixed with African indentured servants and then with African slaves. And there’s a long history of black freedmen and freedwomen intermarrying with Native Americans, as well as white males (often forcibly) having sex with black females. There are the interracial children fathered by U.S. soldiers and born to foreign lovers and “comfort women” in war-torn Asian and Middle Eastern nations. Add this to centuries’ worth of Asian and Hispanic immigration and 40 years’ worth of official interracial marriage patterns and you have what many might call the recipe for a melting pot where race doesn’t matter.

Sadly, this isn’t the case. 

Think about it. If the mere presence of interracial intimacy was enough to bring about racial harmony, it would have happened long ago. Instead, laws were passed to keep races apart. Punishments, including fines, imprisonment and death, were instituted to keep people from crossing the color line. Loving Day is a time for us to celebrate that many of these laws and punishments have been overturned—and it’s also a time to remember that the racism inspiring such laws and punishments lives on in many communities. As Diane Farr put it recently, some of us continue the interracial struggle having “been told there was a right and an ‘over my dead body’ [racial] choice for love.”

Some of us have been told that there is a right and wrong gender choice for love too. In light of this, Loving Day is not just a commemorative anniversary for heterosexual interracial families and multiracial individuals. Loving Day is increasingly celebrated by supporters of same-sex marriage—a right that Mildred Jeter-Loving supported in her later years. Currently same-sex marriage is permitted in five of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, even though the Williams Institute reports that 9 million adults identify as LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender]. Compare that 9 million to the 9 million people in the 2010 census who identified themselves as being of two or more races and you’ll see that we’re talking about a population that deserves just as much attention and acceptance. Unfortunately, reliable data about how many LBGT people are multiracial or are partners in interracial romantic relationships is hard to find. However, discussions about Loving Day, multiracial identities and interracial romantic relationship issues are taking place within LGBT communities. Loving Day communities should return the favor.

As we celebrate Loving Day, we might also remember that some people choose not to have interracial romantic relationships and that this choice does not necessarily make them racists. Take singer-actress Jill Scott. About a year ago Scott came under fire forconfessing that she sometimes winces in her spirit when she hears about black male-white female romantic relationships. Let’s add a bit of context here. Discrimination and violence have resulted in unequal racial populations and beauty standards. Our history of slavery, lynching and imprisonment has had a disproportionate effect on black males as a demographic. Black women face particular challenges when it comes to being considered beautiful candidates for long-term relationships. While many of us may not agree with Scott’s comments, it is important to acknowledge her perspective in context. That way we can create a space where it’s safe to escape our comfort zones and have conversations about race, love and relationships in the spirit of openness that Loving Day represents. 

So as we celebrate Loving Day this year, let’s do it justice. Let’s remember our ongoing interracial history, diversity and struggle. Let’s remember the truth that the Lovings fought so hard for—that every race, ethnicity, gender and faith is lovable.

Example Workshop on "Black" Multiracial Identity

Example of a Workshop Delivered at:

The 6th Annual Pan-Collegiate Conference on the Mixed Race Experience

April 14, 2002

Zebulon Miletsky, Ph.D. Candidate, Workshop Facilitator                                                                                                                       

Workshop Theme:
Beyond the One Drop Rule: Exploring "Black" Multiracial Identity

Most people who identify as biracial or multiracial have been told by society at one time or another that they have "the best of both worlds". It is an ideal that flies in the face of traditional notions of race in American society and is at times a difficult one to live up to.  This workshop will discuss the reality of being mixed in a country that has since its inception thought within the very narrow terms of black and white.  Is it possible to have the best of both worlds?  Do people with one parent who is black feel more pressure to identify monoracially than other multiracials?  How does the so-called "one-drop rule" affect "black" multiracial identity?  What is "black" multiracial identity?  Hasn't the African-American community, because of its legacy of slavery, always been mixed?  We will discuss these and other issues while we explore the possibilities for a “black” multiracial identity beyond the one-drop rule.

Beyond the One-Drop Rule: Exploring “Black” Multiracial Identity

Overview: ·       Introduction ·       Brief History of Mixed Race in America Discussion Questions: ·       Is it possible to have the best of both worlds? ·       Do people with one parent who is black feel more pressure to identify monoracially than other multiracials? ·       How does the so-called “one-drop rule” affect “black” multiracial identity? ·       What is “black” multiracial identity? ·       Hasn’t the African-American community, because of its legacy of slavery, always been mixed? ·       How do “black” multiracials fit into the mixed race movement?

Resources: Korgen, Kathleen Odell. From Black to Biracial: Transforming Identity Among Americans. Westport, CT.: Praeger, 1998. Malcolmson, Scott. One Drop of Blood: The American Misadventure of Race. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2000. Spencer, Jon Michael. The New Colored People: The Mixed-Race Movement in America. New York: New York University Press, 1997. Spencer, Rainier. Spurious Issues: Race and Multiracial Identity Politics in the United States. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press, 1999.

Biracials Learning About African-American Culture or B.L.A.A.C.

The idea for this blog came from several discussions with students and young people who come from mixed-race backgrounds, especially so-called "white and black" biracials who, for whatever reason, grew up without learning very much about African-American life, history or culture. Whether they be trans-racially adopted, grew up in a home without the biological black parent or were perhaps raised in an area without many black people, the probability for people of mixed race descent to grow up without a solid, positive grounding in the black experience is much higher for reasons that will become fairly obvious. Not so obvious at times, however, is the more complicated truth of racism in America, a past deeply rooted in the ugly practice of white supremacy and centuries of stigmatization of African-American culture, heritage and contributions. This phenomenon, known to some scholars as "Anti-blackness", has done more to confuse and ultimately divide than perhaps any other factor.

Those scholars have identified a specific preference for a mixed race identity based on whiteness, and argue that the new multiracial identity, what some call generation mix, as nothing more than good, old fashioned racial denial--that any identity is better then the dreaded "curse" of blackness. Consequently, many mixed race or multiracial Americans of African descent in particular, grew up believing and internalizing some of the ugliest and worst myths about African-American culture, which obviously has a negative impact on their self-perception, self-esteem and general sense of self worth as an African-descended person of mixed race. Sometimes it is a racist parent (or one that holds strong racial views, which more often than not is the black parent). `Especially complicated are things such as the one-drop rule, which says that any person with any black ancestry whatsoever (one drop) is considered black.
These factors have contributed to all kinds of racially detrimental identity choices, bullying, and the pressure to identify with blackness, which considering the historical experience of African Americans, is understandable. On a deeper level, the accusation often hurled at people who identify as biracial and or multiracial (even when this is is now the case) that they would rather identify with anything before black is often the result of simple ignorance on the part of mixed race people (especially young people). This blog proposes the rather simple notion that with more knowledge about African-American culture and history, using techniques and pedagogies borrowed from the discipline of Africana studies, that biracial, multiracial and mixed race people of African descent will gain a greater understanding and respect for their own culture, no mater how divorced from or alienated they may have felt from it in the past. These lessons can be offered as part of this blog in the form of current events, articles, news items and information regarding race and mixed race.

In addition, this may be expanded in the future to include a curriculum as well as speaking events, workshops and broader education of the general public through media events, interviews and social media. Our motto is "learn the truth and then you decide." Give our B.L.A.A.C. experts a chance to challenge your previously held assumptions about race, whiteness, America and the true nature of American history. Although we may not have invented or been responsible for these circumstances, we are stronger when we face history together. Race is a social construct and only when we do the crucial work of deconstructing race, do we begin to find healing and a satisfying, healthy black adulthood. We made race... we can unmake it.