An earlier thought...Come think Mixed Race with Me

(previously posted on another site February 2009...)

So far, I have had the most amazing time finding collaborators and doing preliminary interviews with them. Everyones’ stories, regardless of racial composition, are so similar even though the participants are so different. I think it is one of the things that delights me the most about mixed race. It doesn’t seem to matter if folks are Asian/Black/White/Latina/First nations, etc. everyone has similar experiences as mixed race people. “What are you?” seems to be how every one of the folks I have talked to have located their mixed raceness (in that question) - it is kind of how you know you are mixed race. I have hopes - I hope that this blog will invite people to think with me about mixed race. Mixed race for me is not a black and white/Asian and white/native and spanish, etc. type of thing, it is a self-identifying thing. So anyone who self-identifies as mixed race please come think with me. I have fears - I fear the rejection I have already received from some of my “critical race” peers. I have been told that mixed race is a) not an identity; b) not a community; and c) not worth studying. Fortunately, people of mixed race tell me EXACTLY the opposite. I am privileging people of mixed race as being more knowledgeable about their own lives than “we” scholars, so I am eager to hear about mixed raceness from mixed race people. I will be encouraging my students, collaborators, and project participants to start sharing their ideas on this blog as well. Another thing, this is my FIRST blog experience. It is going to be rough, but at least I will be writing every day like my adviser wants me to
Be special always