A lot of links this week

So just as a heads up for everyone, the university semester has begun, and so I may not get around to posting a lot this week but I will try to provide links to others in the blogosphere highlighting various stories and/or interesting websites that hopefully readers of Mixed Race America will find thought provoking.

So today let me offer a tip of the hat to Angry Asian Man for posting this piece by Allan Pineda Lindo aka Apl.de.Ap. This latest single and video, "Mama Filipina" comes from his latest solo album U Can Dream. Of course most folks will recognize Apl.de.Ap as being part of The Black Eyed Peas.

R.I.P.: Senator Ted Kennedy

Ted Kennedy is being memorialized and buried today. He has had a troubled yet remarkable life. He seems to have been a man of contradictions: born into incredible wealth and privilege yet a champion of the poor and powerless. A white man who used his white privilege to champion on behalf of people of color and civil rights. An irresponsible womanizer who actually killed a woman due to vehicular negligence yet an inveterate supporter of women and gay rights throughout his senate career. The baby of the family forced to become its patriarch after the untimely deaths of his older brothers.

But perhaps what he is, most importantly, is someone who cared about family, as this moving speech by his eldest son, Edward Kennedy Jr. clearly demonstrates.



Rest in peace Senator Kennedy.

[For a particularly introspective and respectful yet honest assessment of Senator Kennedy's life, see Tenured Radical's post here]

Stop fussing with the Obama family!

Ok, I know that I had all but drunk the kool-aid with the Obama campaign a year ago. It will come as no surprise that I was a HUGE Obama supporter--and that I continue to have faith in this administration, even though President Obama has not taken the kinds of progressive stands I would like him to take, most especially with respect to issues of same-sex marriage, benefits for same-sex couples, and the issue of "don't ask, don't tell" in the military. In point of fact, I am disappointed that he has not been a stronger advocate for these issues--although I have not given up hope that he will make great strides in this area in the future.

But really, there are some really ridiculous things going on in the media/public/popular culture with respect to critiques of Barack Obama and his family (perhaps with the exception of Sasha & Malia and the family dog Bo--people don't seem to have sunk as low as critiquing these youngest Obama family members).

What am I talking about?

*The Birther phenomenon--you know those people, no let me amend, those CRAZY people who insist that Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen because he was born in (A) Kenya (B) Indonesia (C) Australia (D) their home planet--because these people must be from another planet not to believe all the evidence that Barack Obama was born in the U.S.

*Michelle Obama's wardrobe. I mean, I know that people have always been interested in the FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States). And we are a fashion obsessed nation. But really people--is it such a slow news month that we need to have polls asking people what they think about the appropriateness of the first lady wearing shorts on a family vacation to the Grand Canyon and/or while disembarking from Air Force One? And all that flap before about her bare arms--esp. back in February during President Obama's first address to Congress. Don't we have other things to worry about and preoccupy ourselves with? Leave Michelle Obama alone! Stop the no-news stories!

*Where the First Family is vacationing. The President and his family will be spending their family vacation time on Martha's Vineyard. And apparently they have caught some flack about this because of its bougie associations--that the only African Americans who vacation on the Vineyard are Buppie snobs. Well, this piece in The Root does an excellent job of refuting those notions and explaining the history of African Americans vacationing on Martha's Vineyard. But more to the point of this post, really people, why should we care about where the Obamas are spending their vacation? If they owned a private home in Kennebunkport or upstate New York or rural Texas I'm sure people would find a way to critique and criticize their private homeownership and/or having more than one home. Again, if people want to criticize the Obama administration, focus on real issues--substantive issues--like health care (I wish Obama would go farther and was highly disappointed that the public option was taken out).

Essentially, I wish the public at large would hold off on the silly stuff--the personal critiques of the Obama family--where they are born, what they wear, where they vacation. Lets just leave them to be a family and do the things that families do. There are too many important things to concentrate on than us sweating the small stuff. And THIS is definitely the small stuff.

Teaching not preaching

It's that time of year -- you can see it in the panic stricken eyes of children trying to squeeze the last moments of pleasure in the waning days of summer. You can see it in the frenzied back-to-schoool shopping ads and the parents hunting down the best bargains. You can see it in the sprightly steps of teachers and school administrators gearing up for a shiny-brand-new school year.

So of course my own thoughts turn to the classroom, a place I know well since I've been teaching constantly and consistently since 1996. Of course, it's the college classroom I know best and college students.

I think that when we think of teaching issues of race and racism, we often think about getting to kids while they are young and impressionable--and the challenges of talking about race and racism in a way that will be explicable and honest but not too overwhelming or even scary/anxiety producing for kids.

But an education on race and racism is really a never ending lesson. And I really mean that--because I feel that even though I'm technically on the other side of the podium now, I'm still in many ways a student--trying to educate myself about the ways in which our understanding about the dynamics of race and racism continue to mutate and change, and the ways in which I try to see race from a variety of perspectives, not just from my position as an Asian American woman.

One of the struggles I do have as an anti-racist educator of college students is trying to teach rather than to preach. Because all college students are wary of the "hidden" agenda and don't want to be told what or how to think. And like it or not, the classes I teach, which either have explicitly or implicitly an attention to ethnic American literature (sometimes this is announced in the course title, like a class on Asian American women's writing--but sometimes in a 20th C. American lit class, the "ethnic" content seems obscured until you get to the syllabus and realize that we'll be reading a variety of multiethnic literature and talking about issues or race in all of the works on the syllabus), are often labeled "ideological" or "political"--since somehow we think that a course on Asian American literature does not have the same objective weight as a course on Jane Austen.

So I'm careful as I can, in the classroom, not to get into preaching mode. And to that end, I have a few guidelines that I try to use (and to be transparent about with my students) when starting the semester:

*I tell my students we aren't going to call one another racists. We're not going to use the dreaded "R" word. And I explain, as I have on this blog, that when you call someone a racist, it immediately shuts down conversation--because the person you have called a racist now feels so affronted and offended on being called the "R" word that whatever issue you were trying to discuss gets hijacked by the invocation of that word.

This isn't to say that you don't talk about racism. And I am clear with my students that I believe the U.S. was founded on institutional racism--and I use 2 examples, the transatlantic slave trade and displacement of American Indian tribes as a clear example of U.S. imperialism's use of racism in expanding its powers. I also try to make clear that this type of racism is NOT a thing of the past--the Civil Rights movement did NOT create an instant even-playing field. That's a harder thing for them to see, but we have the entire semester to work through these issues.

*I tell my students I'm not interested in either blame or guilt. When talking about issues of race and racism, I don't want people to feel bad--to feel like I am singling them out if they are white and telling them they are bad people or if they are a person of color that they are exempt from racism or have an automatic higher authority. We are ALL implicated in racism--affected and impacted by it. And so we are all capable of being allies in the struggle against racism.

At this point I do talk about white privilege, but again in a way not to make white students feel guilty but to show that there are differences that are a consequence of racism between people of color/racial minorities and white people. You may not have asked for white privilege but none-the-less if you look white in this society you are more often treated as white and accrue those benefits, even if they seem to be minor--like not being asked what language you speak or where you are from. This is something most white students never have to worry about or deal with and that many Asian American and Latino students are constantly grappling with.

*I tell my students that we are going to create a safe and comfortable atmosphere to talk honestly and openly about race and racism. That part of the problem is that we often treat discussions of race and racism like we do cancer--something to talk about in hushed terms behind closed doors--that somehow it's not OK to talk about race and somehow it shows bad manners or is shameful or to have questions about race and racism isn't OK. And one key thing I try to do each semester is to allow students to have a space to have conversations about race--which is hard.

Really hard.

Because people are on different pages when it comes to race and racism--and this comes from a variety of factors--their own racial identity, their experiences, their families and friends, the things they've read, their classes, their trust in and relationship with me, their trust in and relationship with their fellow classmates. Conversations can get pretty heated, and my job is to act more as a moderator than as a teacher in these moments.

And that's the part that is often the hardest for me and where I sometimes fail. Because I want them to work it out and talk it out amongst themselves--to have the dialogue and the conversation and not just be talked to about race by an authority figure (me). Yet there are moments when I've thought I need to intervene--to push them to think about the language they are using. For example, in one discussion students talked about an author being biased because he was Latino and therefore he was already pre-disposed to champion a Latino cause. And I asked them what would happen if they changed the word "bias," which they agreed had a negative connotation, to the word "advocacy," which has a more positive feeling to it. And what would happen if we talked about this author being an advocate of Latinos because he was Latino?

I realize that a college classroom is an artificial place in many ways. We meet for an hour a day for 3 days a week, and there is an authority figure (me) to act as moderator and to handle things when the conversation gets a bit heated. Talking to your neighbor or co-worker is trickier because there is no moderator and you aren't sure it's a safe space. But I think in a lot of ways the guidelines I establish in my classroom are ones that could be modified in our day-to-day interactions for those of us who want to be anti-racist educators outside of the classroom. Namely:

1) Don't call someone a racist.
2) Don't try to blame or guilt someone into your point-of-view
3) Do believe that a positive or at least productive conversation is possible and to speak your mind, speak truth to power, but in a way where the other person will hear you rather than get wrapped up in his/her defenses.

It's not easy--like I said, an education in race and racism is on-going. But I think we're all capable of being both students and teachers when it comes to anti-racist education. And I certainly think we ALL need to be students and teachers and allies when it comes to recognizing white privilege and fighting against racism. The really amazing thing is, we really can do this work--it's hard, but I'm convinced we can do it.

Celebrating 89 years of voting

89 years ago, on August 26, 1929 the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote was finally passed.



So in honor of this day let me just direct you to two sites commemorating this historic date:

*For a quick and dirty overview The History Channel has a description of events



*For a more thorough examination of how the 19th Amendment came to fruition check out this very thorough site that goes through the major players who made this happen.



And for all you female U.S. citizens who have been participating in the process of voting throughout your adult lives, let us all recognize the contributions of the suffragists who fought long and hard to make sure that we could have this very basic right: the right to vote.

Re: U of Texas researcher needs help!

I received the following email message from Chelsea McPeek, a research assistant for Dr. Eun-Ok Im who is at University of Texas at Austin's School of Nursing. Since I am in the academic business, I thought I would help out a fellow colleague by posting this request for research subjects--specifically Ms. McPeek and Dr. Im are looking for women of all ethnicities between the ages of 40-60 for the following research:

"The purpose of this study is to explore attitudes of midlife women from four ethnic groups [Hispanic, Non-Hispanic (N-H) White, N-H African Americans, and N-H Asians] toward physical activity while considering the relationships between their attitudes and their actual participation in physical activity within the ethnic-specific contexts of their daily lives. Data will be gathered via Internet survey and ethnic- specific online forums to allow for a national sample."

[Aside: They omit American Indian/Native American women, and I'm not sure how they will categorize mixed-race women, but I think that's a great question to ask/bring up with Ms. McPeek and Dr. Im]

If you have questions about their study, their contact information and website addresses is listed below:

=====================================

My name is Chelsea McPeek and I am a Research Assistant for Dr. Eun-Ok Im at the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing.

Dr. Im is conducting an Internet study on the physical activity attitudes among diverse groups of middle-aged women (40-60 Y/O). Your blog aims at a variety of populations (Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, African American), so we believe that the women who read Mixed Race America might be interested in participating in our study. The more women that we can recruit to participate will make our data more complete. Each diverse category of women’s opinions and experiences are very imperative and cannot be neglected, because ethnic populations are expanding quickly in the United States. We will use the data from our study to identify cultural trends in attitudes towards physical activity. This information will help us improve communication between health care providers and minority midlife women.

If you feel that the women who read your blog would be interested in participating, could you please help us announce this study by posting the following link (http://mapa.nur.utexas.edu/MAPA/) on your blog, announcing the study through a newsletter, or forwarding to your readers through an email list?

We would really appreciate it if you posted this announcement on your website. If an announcement fee is required, please provide us with the necessary information.

In this study, each participant will be reimbursed with a gift certificate of 10 dollars per Internet survey.

The survey will begin by asking participants a series of eligibility questions. If the study has filled our sampling quota for an ethnic category, the participant will receive a message that states so. Below is some background information and the study announcement.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about our study. Thank you for your time!

Sincerely,

e-MAPA Research Team
Chelsea McPeek, Research Assistant
School of Nursing, University of Texas at Austin
1700 Red River, Austin, TX 78701
E-mail: cgmcpeek@mail.utexas.edu


Background Information

eMAPA is a NIH/NINR funded study (1R01NR010568-01) entitled "Ethnic Specific Midlife Women's Attitudes Toward Physical Activity".

The changing racial and ethnic makeup of the U.S. will require health professionals to practice with cultural competence in areas such as promotion of physical activity, where cultural beliefs may mediate health promotion behaviors. Although the benefits of physical activity are now widely accepted, midlife women, especially ethnic minority women, have low participation rates in physical activity, and prevalence rates of cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, and all-cause mortality among ethnic minority women (that can be effectively reduced by increasing physical activity) have been reported to be much higher than those of White midlife women. A plausible reason for the low participation rate is that the women's ethnic-specific attitudes toward physical activity have rarely been incorporated into relevant interventions.

The purpose of this study is to explore attitudes of midlife women from four ethnic groups [Hispanic, Non-Hispanic (N-H) White, N-H African Americans, and N-H Asians] toward physical activity while considering the relationships between their attitudes and their actual participation in physical activity within the ethnic-specific contexts of their daily lives. Data will be gathered via Internet survey and ethnic- specific online forums to allow for a national sample.



Study Announcement

Eun-Ok Im, PhD, MPH, RN, CNS, FAAN, School of Nursing, The University of
Texas at Austin and her colleagues are conducting a study to explore ethnic
differences in midlife women's attitudes toward physical activity.

You are eligible to participate in this study if you are a midlife woman
aged 40 to 60 years old who does not have any mobility problems; who can read and write English; who is online; and whose self-reported ethnic identity
is Hispanic, non-Hispanic (N-H) White, N-H African American, or N-H Asian.

Data will be collected through an Internet survey among 500 midlife women
in the U.S. starting Feb. 1, 2008 and ending May 21, 2011.

Your involvement will consist of about 30 minutes to complete the Internet survey questionnaire. You will be reimbursed with a 10 dollar gift certificate for filling out the Internet survey.

For more information and to begin the survey, please visit our project
website (http://mapa.nur.utexas.edu/MAPA/) and/or contact us.

Contact Information:

Chelsea McPeek, Research Assistant
School of Nursing, University of Texas at Austin
1700 Red River, Austin, TX 78701
E-mail: cgmcpeek@mail.utexas.edu


Eun-Ok Im, PhD, MPH, RN, CNS, FAAN, Professor
School of Nursing, The University of Texas at Austin
1700 Red River, Austin, TX, 78701
Phone: (512) 475-6352
E-mail: eim@mail.utexas.edu
Project Website: http://mapa.nur.utexas.edu/MAPA/

I want my America BACK!

When people say that they want "My America" back, I always wonder what they mean? I should start out by saying that this post was inspired by one from Stuff White People Do. It is also where I found this great clip from The Daily Show that provides a humorous yet accurate spin on the rhetoric coming out of these town hall meetings in which people have been decrying that they want THEIR America back (and as Larry Wilmore points out, there is a monochromatic cast to the people who are looking back nostalgically on the past and the way America used to be):

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Reform Madness - White Minority
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

So I have been thinking about what MY America looks like. Because I don't think it's the same one that the people in the clip above are lamenting is past.

My America probably doesn't exist...yet. So the whole idea of going "back" to my America is just not a possibility. I certainly wouldn't want to go back to the 19th C. where being a Chinese American woman would make me the focus of extreme racial hostility and accused of being a prostitute and thus subject to deportation and, worse, sexual harassment and violence.

[True fact: most people assumed that if you were a Chinese woman in the late 19th C. you were a prostitute--there is some factual basis for this belief since many Chinese women were brought to the U.S. as prostitutes, often tricked into coming to the U.S. or sold by their families into prostitution...does any of this sound familiar? I mean, things are not so different for women in TODAY's society, where women from Moldova are tricked into prostitution or sold by their families to work as prostitutes in the United Arab Emirates. Just makes you think that it's quite tragic that the conditions for women, worldwide, haven't improved in this respect in over a century]

Of course, this idea of a sentimental return is not uncommon. I mean, in the Asian American community (and for that matter, for many children born to immigrant parents) there is this nostalgic idea that you can "go back" to a place where you've never really been before: the place of your parents' home and/or your ethnic ancestry.

I felt that way the first time I went to China while in grad school. And I blogged about going to Jamaica for the first time as an adult already. So in some ways, this idea of going back to a place that you've never experienced--to long for a connection to a past that you are supposed to feel this affinity for, seems to be a rather common if complicated human response.

So in some ways, when I hear these people talking about wanting their America back, I do understand what they mean. Except that, again, my vision of America and my desire for America to be the place that, on paper, it is supposed to be is probably markedly and radically different from the nostalgia for a simpler, easier, less p.c., less diverse and whiter existence. A time when you could just have Christmas pageants and not worry about saying "Happy Holidays" because you will offend Jewish Americans or others who don't celebrate Christmas. A time when women stayed in the home and men worked jobs that were handed down to them from their fathers--whether they wanted to work those jobs or not. And the women who stayed home cooked and cleaned and cared for children--even though they may not have wanted to have children, or have so many children, or maybe they had dreams of having a career as a journalist or lawyer, but in these simpler times, way back when, they had those choices foreclosed and were left with the simple title of wife and mother. The America of the past that people seem to long for was a time when we consumed with reckless abandon, when queer people stayed in the closet, when the word "green" signaled money and not environmental consciousness, and a time when people of color lived with daily oppression and racial hostility.

Of course, my America is also not the same as the America of those who never had to arrive--who were already HERE when various European explorers and settlers decided to come over and colonize the land. American Indians have a radically different take on wanting to go back to THEIR America--and it's really hard to argue against the fact that of all the people who have a moral authority to want to go back to an originary America, THEY do.

Anyway, as I said above, I don't really think my America exists yet...but because I'm a glass half-full kind of gal, I am hopeful that one day in my lifetime I might see glimpses of the real potential and promise of what America can be--one in which the adjectival descriptor of "mixed race" will be a given rather than a wish.

Barney Frank says it best

Barney Frank responds to a woman who asks him why he is supporting a "Nazi" policy:



Enough said. Thanks for playing lady--and take your parting gift back to the mothership--clearly your time is over.