Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Link Love for Anti-Racist & Multiracial Families

There are a few blogs that I have been meaning to plug for a while because I think that they're smart, interesting, and most importantly, they are great resources for parents and families (and quite frankly for anyone interested in our next generation--so that includes all educators and social justice activists and child advocates).

You are going to think that I'm getting paid to plug Tami, but the truth is, she is just fabulous and recently she's taken over as editor of Anti-Racist Parent (or ARP for short). It's a great site for anyone interested in anti-racist education--for adults and for children (truthfully, we all need to educate ourselves before we can educate kids--and the further truth is, we ALL need continuing ed when it comes to issues of anti-racism--persons of color and non-persons of color both need to keep open minds and try to have open dialogue, as painful as it can be sometimes).

ARP has an on-going feature where they answer letters from readers--and this one, "How Can White People Join the Anti-Racist Discussion," is a must read. Both the letter and the response are very honest, direct, heartfelt, and spot on.

A great educational tool is to get kids to think about giving back. And what better way to give back than to the teachers who are trying to do good work in the world. Rice Daddies--a blog of Asian American Dads, or largely Asian American Dads--is sponsoring a diversity challenge on the site DonorsChoose.org--a website that matches teachers in need of resources with donors who want to help out sorely underfunded teachers (I think they are largely public school teachers, although I'm sure there are a few independent school teachers in the mix). Anyway, if you are interested in helping teachers with multicultural education, stop by the "Rice Daddies Empowerment in Diversity Challenge" where you can read proposals from teachers and choose one (or more) to help fund. And if you're a parent, you can get your children involved, which seems like a double-bonus--help a teacher and help your child learn the value of giving back.

Finally, there's the Mixed Heritage Center (MHC). I've given a plug for them in a previous post, but I really want to encourage people to check out their site. In just six months it has truly grown and expanded and it really IS a great resource for mixed heritage topics and resources. And if you are a political junkie like me, you'll see that in their "links" section they have many devoted to mixed-race presidential candidate Barack Obama.

5 comments:

browngirlspeak said...

I found your blog, and I enjoy reading your posts! I am forever on the search for blogs that celebrate diversity, especially with an emphasis on the biracial and multiracial facets. I am in a mixed marriage and have a biracial daughter and am expecting again this year. I would love to see representation in the entertainment and social medias that highlight these qualities, instead of forcing people to choose between them. As we grow in population, so do our voices, and I think they need to be recognized. Love your blog! Keep blogging!

Unknown said...

I love your blog, thanks for the links! Don't forget about www.mixedracefamilies.com, which is a good one. Also there are some great resources on ivillage for those of us in mixed marriages.

Jennifer said...

browngirlspeak & jessica,
Thanks SO MUCH for your comments and for your appreciation of my blog. I blush!

Jessica, thanks for the additional reminders of mixed-race resources. And browngirlspeak, I absolutely agree--I wish that there WAS more representation in the media of mixed-race people who actively identify as mixed-race--we can only hope to see more representaitons increase. I will say this--with Barack Obama as the presidential nominee for the Democrats, I do think that there has been an increase in discussions about interracial relationships and the complications (pleasurable as well as problematic) of identifying racially.

Anonymous said...

So glad I found your blog! Thanks for the great links in this post; as a mixed-mama of a multi-racial son, I truly appreciate it. Would love to support your blog by adding you to my BlogRoll and/or adding a button/badge, if you have one.

All best,
Maura Alia Badji
The MoxieBee
http://www.themoxiebee.com

p.s. Have you heard og SwirlInc? http://swirlinc.wordpress.com/

Or The MAVIN Foundation? http://www.mavinfoundation.org/

Jennifer said...

Hi Maura,

Thanks for stopping by and for your kind words. I'd be very happy to be added to your blog roll (I just left a comment there on your latest post). And thanks for more link love--I actually have The Mavin foundation listed on my own links (see the left sidebar) and will check out the other site soon.