In case you missed it…
by Jen Chau and Carmen Van Kerckhove
Every Friday afternoon we sum up the week’s best posts from New Demographic’s various projects. Here we go!
RACE CHANGERS
a community of people working towards an anti-racist future, one week at a time
- Assignment 7 - Talking about international adoption: This week, grab a friend, a co-worker, or a family member (or all!) and have a conversation with them about international adoption. Jumpstart your discussions by checking the links below:
CONSCIOUS MEDIA MAKER
a blog for entertainment, media, advertising and public relations professionals who are committed to bringing about more realistic, three-dimensional representations of people of color
- Today’s WTF moment, brought to you by The New York Post: Check out today’s lead story in the Post, ‘Guinea Pig’ Kids Stir Furor: City Allows Racial Studies In Schools. And what are these evil, evil, “racial studies?”…Oh the moral outrage! How dare these researchers investigate racial discrimination and harrassment in our public school system?
- Latinos: codependent, not punctual, fatalist and macho: Wow, so this is what multicultural marketers do, huh? Reduce an entire population into a stereotype?
- Ed Bradley’s legacy: If you believe…: The students didn’t know much about what made the man special at the beginning of the class, but by the time they heard him talk about journalism ethics, saw some of his best work, and heard from people who had known him from the earliest days of his career, they understood why he was so worthy of study.
ADDICTED TO RACE
a podcast about America’s obsession with race
- Sorry, there was no new episode this week, but we’ll be back on Monday!
ANTI-RACIST PARENT
a blog for parents who are committed to raising children with an anti-racist outlook
- It’s been a quiet week at ARP, but we’ll be back to normal next week. In the meantime, check out our gallery of gratuitous cute kid pics from anti-racist parents Meera, Terri, Jensboys and Ryan!
RACIALICIOUS
a blog about the intersection of race and pop culture
- Herbal Essences: Asian women can’t be blonde or Swedish?: The woman turns around, there is a gong sound, and it is revealed that she is an Asian woman with apparently dyed blonde hair.
- Comic strip explores being a “Single Asian Female”: I’m kind of disappointed that it’s not actually written by a woman… there are a lot of really dicey gender issues in the Asian-American community, and I guess I just hope that this comic will try to be as realistic and balanced as possible.
- Blackface at Texas A&M: dialogue, not just condemnation, is needed: Condemning these racist acts is important. But at the end of the day, if the perpetrator doesn’t understand why what he/she did was wrong or offensive, nothing is going to change.
- Sacha Baron Cohen comes clean about Borat in Rolling Stone magazine: the only interview he’s done out of character. It’s our first time hearing — in his own words — what he was trying to accomplish with Borat.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Ryn wrote:
Dear Carmen and Jen,
It’s nice to see so much good stuff, especially before Thanksgiving, when I can rest and catch up to Racialicious. After reading the study about race in schools, I thought, “How ironic,” especially what after happened in my school. Sorry for what will surely be a long post.
I am a high school student, and my chemistry teacher, in order to demonstrate groupings of elements in the period table, decided to organize us. I suppose you can see what’s coming. Initially it was our zip code, and then the fun began.
The Irish-descended girls were in one row, the Irish-Italians in another, then the Irish, then the one Portugese girl (a “metaloid”), the Latina girls, and finally the “girls of African descent.” Where was I? Well, I asked if I would be considered African. My mother is white, mostly Irish, and my father a Dominican, who identifies as mixed race, but had ancestors (obviously) who came from Africa.
I was told that I was the “fun one,” no doubt because I could have been classified as Irish, Latina or black. I was hydrogen, an alkali metal, and yet a gas, meaning I’m sorta white, but kind of not really. Yikes.
I wasn’t outrageously offended by the whole thing, except that a few kids were asking me why I was standing with the black kids, when my skin is so light. Racism, maybe? Not overt, certainly, but I don’t think groupings of race was the best idea.
Happy Thanksgiving!
BTW, I’m 99% sure my teacher is Asian. Guess I was wrong in thinking she was extra-sensitive racial issues, but I learn. ;|
Posted 17 Nov 2006 at 2:48 pm ¶