I am CONFIDENT that Barack Obama would have been publicly blasted had he identified himself as "White", in spite of the fact that he was raised by three "White" people. In fact, I firmly believe the same would have happened even if his physical features had people typically mistaking him for having no African ancestry.

To go one step further, I believe his political career would have suffered had he simply identified as mixed/mulatto/biracial/multicultural/etc. If he insisted that people recognize that he is Black AND White, there would have been issues. There most definitely still exists a double standard.

I used to subscribe to that age-old brainwashing that ONLY allowed a mixed person to call themselves either mixed or Black. I understood why some mixed people would call themselves Black based on their upbringing, appearance, etc. BUT, I thought it was shameful for a mixed person to pass themselves off for White. I believed the lie that this was always done out of self-loathing, hatred of Blackness, etc. Well, the more mixed people I have met of various phenotypes and upbringings, and the more I have learned about mixed folks historically, and the more I have pondered this age old double standard, the more convinced I became that a whole bunch of wool has been pulled over a whole bunch of eyes.

Some mixed/mulatto/biracial folks are Black (regardless of their appearance) and that is why they identify as such. Some mixed/mulatto/biracial folks are White (regardless of their appearance) and I think it's high time that they be afforded the same courtesy of being able to identify as what they are. Me? I am mixed in every way and have always identified as such. I don't get too much flak for that, because of how I look. Yet, it's 2009 and some mixed folks with more obvious African ancestry still get harassed for identifying as mixed. Sad

Worse yet is that society and government records tend to just consider us all Black anyway, no matter what we say. Rudeness!

Guest Author Sonia, Chameleon

Despite my previous post - where I wrote a rant on the seemingly blatant display of the entertainment industry’s discrimination towards members of the foreign entertainment world - I can’t help but admit the growing numbers of foreign influences in today’s television shows, films, and music.

Within the last decade, the United States has seen a major increase in the number of immigrant artists and ethnic artists within the Hollywood limelight. More actors, singers, musicians, and even film directors in the United States have either immigrant parents or grandparents or have come from afar themselves, with the dream to succeed in the world’s biggest stage.

Today, we are able to find more ethnic actors on television and on the big screen, since, relatively speaking, our country’s ethnic population has risen in the last generation. In the past, many ethnic actors, like the Hispanics (Puerto Rican, Cuban, Mexican), struggled in Hollywood and Broadway, since many studios disliked the use of foreigners because of their accents - and other stereotypes. But after the success of Jerome Robbins’ and Robert Wise’s unforgettable classic, West Side Story, which featured Rita Moreno (one of Hollywood’s trailblazers for Hispanic actors and actresses), many fans have caught onto the belief that foreigners can too live the Hollywood dream.

Today, like the Hispanic’s thespain boom in the industry in the 60’s and 70’s, we are seeing more Asians and Asian Americans on both small and big screens; some members which include Kal Penn (House, the Harold and Kumar films), John Cho, Maggie Q (Mission: Impossible III, Balls of Fury), Michael Peña (Crash, Observe and Report), Mizuo Peck (Night at the Museum), America Ferrera (Ugly Betty, Real Women Have Curves), Tim Kang (The Mentalist), and Mindy Kaling (The Office, The 40 Year Old Virgin).

In today’s American music, many singers and musicians have incorporated foreign tastes or have come from a foreign country themselves. Santogold, an American-born singer, has a unique style which meshes the influences of 80’s pop, reggae, and Fela Kuti (Nigerian musician). The internationally-known Mathangi Arulpragasam - aka M.I.A. - is a British-born singer song writer of Sri Lanken descent, who is known for her eclectic music, which incorporates world music, jungle, electro influences and more. In this year’s Academy Awards, Slumdog Millionaire’s hit song, “Jai Ho!”, performed by Indian singers Sukhwinder Singh and Rahman, won the prestigious award for best song in a film. After the film’s success and international popularity, the song was made into a “reinterpreted” version by the Pussycat Dolls, who have Americanized the lyrics, yet, have kept the ideas and sounds of the original Indian pop mix. Interestingly, the original song contains some interspersed Spanish lyrics as well.

Other ethnic musicians who have notably taken stage and popularity in the Unites States are Mike Shinoda (Linken Park), Justin Nozuka, Amy Winehouse, Norah Jones, System of A Down, Rachael Yamagata and more.

Lastly, in film, there have been an increased number of foreign popularity and the demand for foreign filmmakers in Hollywood. Like its song, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire became a success and highly popular amongst Hollywood’s mainstream audience. The film consists of an entirely Indian cast - some of which were UK-born and the rest, Indian-born - and yet, despite its cast of relatively unknown actors (for the exception of a handful of well known Indian actors), the film was able to prove a huge success while also opening doors to more ethnic acceptance in the film industry.

Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth), Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men), and Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel) came onto Hollywood’s biggest stage during the 2006 - 2007 Academy season with their respective highly-rated films in the same year. Their films, each consisting of foreign cast members - shot in foreign countries - were nominated for Golden Globes and Academy awards. Iñárritu’s film even brought a special light on one of his leading actresses - the Japanese-born Rinko Kikuchi - who has caught the eye of several of Hollywood’s big name producers (she will star alongside Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody in The Brothers Bloom, and also Shanghai with Jeffrey Dean Morgan and John Cusack, and the Spanish film, Map of the Sounds of Tokyo). This year’s Academy Awards also brought light to a a few other winners, including Yokjiro Takita for the foreign film Departures, Danny Boyle for directing Slumdog MIllionaire, Jochen Alexandr Freydank for his short film (not categorized as “foreign”), Spielzeugland, and Kunio Kato’s short animation, La Maison En Petits Cubes (also not categorized as “foreign”).

There is no doubt, in today’s entertainment industry and with the popular influence of foreign artists, we will finally see the racial barrier that has plagued Hollywood and the music industry for generations, come down for good. Hopefully, sooner than expected.

Takeru, Chameleon

I would first like to point out that anybody parading around in blackface should be censured because it is utterly demeaning and should not be "performed" by anybody at anytime. But, one must ask the question, "How does a foreign country such as Turkey come to portray President Barack as solely black?" It is no secret that our president has a white mother. So why? In a country with a relatively small black population, it is impossible for Turkey to have a similar black/white racial history as America does. In particular, the history I speak of is the convolution of mulattoes and African Americans. Since countries such as Turkey do not have the same kind of history that America has had, why would this man even consider regarding mulattoes and blacks as the same "race?" Now, I do not know what this particular video means to the masses of Turks or how it was perceived there, but here in America such behavior would result in quick ostracization. But this recent occurrence has not been the only public demonstration of blackface aimed at a prominent multiracial. Remember this:

Now, even though Spain does have a larger black population than Turkey, it still does not have the type of history America has with the one drop rule. So, again, it is unfathomable for the Spanish to consider mulattoes and blacks as the same thing.

So, the question is, "Why are these outside countries considering President Obama as solely black?" It's because that's how he has been constantly portrayed by the various news sources around America. Right after Barack Obama was elected as "the first black president," there was a survey conducted in Britain regarding the prospects of the citizens voting for a black president. 93% of Britons said they would endorse a black candidate. Britons, known for their multiracial categories on their census, even consider the president black. The American media is to blame for this discrepancy of "racial classifications." Again, I must say that blackface is wrong in every aspect; however, if you are going to insult a multiracial at least do it right.

Mulatto, we all know what it means. If you're not big on multiracial issues, then I suppose I can give you the Merriam-Webster definition and etymology:

Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural mu·lat·toes or mu·lat·tos
Etymology:
Spanish mulato, from mulo mule, from Latin mulus
Date:
1593

1 : the first-generation offspring of a black person and a white person \
2 : a person of mixed white and black ancestry

As to be expected, Webster only reports the term's meaning (duh, it's a dictionary). So, I suppose we'll derive how this word may even be considered offensive to some today by starting with the etymology of mulatto.

The Spanish mulato is derived from mulo/mule. This mule, produced from a male donkey (62 chromosomes) and a female horse (64 chromosomes) has 63 chromosomes. This resulting number of chromosomes inhibits sterility in mules over 99.99% of the time (there have been a few documented cases of sterile female mules). Back during slavery times, many people operated around the paradigm that black people and white people were different species to say the least. Thus, when a mulatto was born to a black parent and white parent it was believed to be sterile like mules. It is hard for me to believe that people actually believed this phenom after the first couple of decades of its inception, because naturally mulattoes would go on to produce children with white, black, and other mulatto people. So, was it used as a constant reminder that these children spawned from two diametric forces were too different to be accepted anywhere or did bad habits just die hard?

While some people did harbor these absurdities that mulattoes were sterile, it's hard to believe that the majority of the people (whether they were racist or not) would continue believing a proven falsity. Mulatto was continually used as a description for black/white biracials until the 1930 census. By this time, mulattoes were already "successfully forced" into a Negro identity thus restoring the black-white "color" line. Now that we know the history of mulatto, is it socially acceptable to be used? It is the most accurate description of a half-white/half-black person; however, its history does carry a lot of weight.

I think that if a person wants to be empowered through the description mulatto, then that person should be respected. Just take a look at the word nigga. Many African-Americans have turned the most heinous of words into a term of endearment. Quite naturally, I don't see why mulattoes cannot do the same. Opponents would suggest just calling these individuals solely biracial. But what does biracial even mean? Exactly, it can mean a myriad of things. Again, if someone wants to be called a mulatto then more power to him/her. Or they can be solely called black.

Daimian, Chameleon

“Kenji” is an American native with Japanese-born parents. In America, he’s considered Japanese but in Japan, he’s considered American. With both sides rejecting him, no one wonder he feels he can’t find a place to call home -- so where does he belong?

For many American-born people with mono-ethnic immigrant parents, there is an underlying sense of pride, identity and love for their parent’s birthplace. Many of those (whom I’ve met in my life) that have parents that were raised in other countries, have this sense of obligation to their parents’ motherland. I suppose, since we’ve grown up with their own customs, we’ve come to learn the identity of our people and carry with us a sense of belonging and devotion to that country. 

A friend of mine, who will be called X, is an American-born Japanese and was raised in NYC. She is the prime example of someone who has almost full devotion to their parents’ homeland; someone who will cheer for the Japanese national baseball team when up against team USA. Why is this? When I asked her what the significance is of her attachment to Japan, she said that it was her way of upbringing. Sure she was raised in America but she grew up watching Japanese tapes of television shows and ate mostly Japanese food at home and spoke only Japanese to her parents and nothing else. Everything un-Japanese was done outside her home, at school, at work and with most of her friends.

But not everyone like her can share the same experience or reason for having this kind of rooted loyalty for their parent’s motherland. Does the upbringing alone determine which place an individual can call home or is it because of the way society pushed us in a way that caused this feeling of belonging elsewhere?

In that sense, many may have gone through extreme prejudice from the “American” society, or were ostracized for being different; thus, feeling a sense of belonging in a place where they weren’t born or raised in. Sometimes our society can push us to a place where we weren’t meant to be and don’t have enough strength to fight back.

Unfortunately, it gets worse for some. For example, the intolerance may continue for an American-born Indian man living in India. Because of what makes him American, those around him will fail to see him as someone with the same ethnic blood, adding to the pressures of cultural discrimination. He will be ostracized by his Indian society where he’d hoped to call his home, after facing prejudice in his homeland. So then if he can’t call American home and if he can’t call India home, where can he go to?

Sometimes the color of your skin or the blood is not enough in determining who are you as an ethnic identity; sometimes it’s what you wear on your back; or what faith you practice or what your accent sounds like that allows others to perceive who you are and how you relate to them, even with the same blood. What’s sad about our society is that because of the ethnic bigotry, we’re easily influenced into believing that we don’t belong in a certain place when many of us don’t have enough fight to stay in one spot and call it home. I dream for the day where we don’t have that difficulty any longer; where we don’t have to face the pressures of society trying to box us into something we don’t specifically relate to.

Hope you all have a place to call home.

Takeru, Chameleon