By Monique
Here are some of the op-eds and interviews I read this week!
I read two posts on America’s failures to deal with issues concerning its biracial and multiracial citizens. Mat Johnson discusses “the recent re-emergence of mulatto identity” on Buzzfeed and how multiracial discussions are always too vague and ahistorical, since African-Americans have European ancestry just from the violent nature of slavery. Sharon H. Chang, whom I’ve already featured in my recent Aloha post, also wrote for Buzzfeed about her weariness with the fantasy of a post-racial world that only comes about through a mixed-race future instead of people in the present dealing realistically with the racial paradigms and stereotypes that affect mixed-race people.
I had interviewed Suey Park when I still had Moniqueblog, months before the #CancelColbertReport fiasco even took place. It was intriguing to read about Park’s life after the dust settled in this interview by The New Republic’s Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig.
Mic’s Zak Cheney-Rice writes a huge piece on how the “model minority myth” hides and demeans the actual experiences of Asian-Americans and the struggles they face.
Marty Favor writes for The Huffington Post how today’s problems between overt policing and black lives stems back to slavery. I’ve also stated the same connection, but from the point of view of how entwined many of the victims’ ages coincide with the ages they would have been sold for the highest price during slavery.
Al Jazeera’s Ashley Cleek writes an in-depth report on how Birmingham, AL—my home town—still has tons of black housekeepers being shuttled to Mountain Brook, a city that used to be a part of Birmingham (before white flight turned Mountain Brook into an insulated place way back when, I believe) that has some of the city’s richest citizens.
8th grader Sumaiya Mahee has her essay published on Public Radio International; the essay is about how society perpetuates stereotypes about Muslims. In her words. “I am a Muslim and from Bangladesh. I have these two characteristics but that does not mean that I am a terrorist or someone who hurts society. Someone making a mistake doesn’t mean that the whole group of people did it and should get named after it.”
