Sunday, March 29th 2009

I am in the process of completing the first draft of my documentary; a large part of my dissertation. My belief is that the audio-visual, sensory expressions captured in the documentary are more powerful and accessible than written theory. What I have captured is far beyond my wildest dream. My assumptions that mixed race is a chosen political identity is apparent in the deep self-reflection and careful relation of experience produced by my collaborators during interviews. The major themes that are emerging: choice - that mixed race people choose mixed race, unlike historical occurrences of mixed race that originate in oppression, dominance, and coercion. stability - that mixed race is a stable identity with fluid characteristics that are often misinterpreted as confusion and displacement. resistance - that mixed race is a resistant identity that pushes against the binary racial system of categorization that polarizes whiteness and "the other". intimacy - that mixed race is an intimate choice that transcends race, culture, and familial expectations. There are more themes and sub-themes but these are the ones that occur in every single interview. What is most remarkable about these themes is their expression by collaborators no matter the age, race, gender, education, or social class. These themes do not disappear even when the collaborator is bi-cultural; where part or all of the collaborator's ideas of race come from outside of the United States. These themes, and their consistency across collaborators, point to the reality of mixed race as a shared identity and as a global culture not just as an exceptional phenomenon.

More soon...