Is That Your Child?

NEW ITYC INTERVIEW: CLOVE AND SHERLEY OF CHONILLA.COM

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 04:52:43 PST

Sherley and Clove

Here it is! ITYC's interview with the delightfully Canadian duo behind Chonilla.com-Clove and Sherley.

Powering through technical difficulties, we talked about the genesis of the show, the trouble with most podcasts about interracial relationships, the myth of the magical white man, "when keeping it real goes wrong" and the sometimes hilariously subtle differences between Canada and the U.S.

You can listen to the interview right here on the ITYC Radio player or on iTunes, Libsyn, and Stitcher for tablet and smartphone users. As an added bonus, you can watch video of the entire, un-edited interview on ITYC Radio's Youtube channel.

ITYC Radio always wants to hear from you! Join the conversation or start one in our Disqus comments section and on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Audioboo.

ADHD and Young Boys of Color: ITYC Interview with Author Tanji Dewberry

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 10:22:25 PST

Tanji Dewberry

Author Tanji Dewberry's son was diagnosed with ADHD in 2011 after a long and agonizing process during which she took medical leave from her high-powered Wall Street job as Vice President of Investor Relations to see her son through a myriad of medical tests and doctor visits.

By the end of 2011 Dewberry had begun the process of creating Oh Fiddlesticks, a children's book inspired by her son and her family's experiences with ADHD. While the book was a form of theraputic release for her, Dewberry also hoped that Oh Fiddlesticks would help other parents and children living with ADHD.

In our interview she shares her thoughts about why debates over the "over diagnosis" of ADHD in young boys of color is misguided as well as her belief in providing parents with the means, support and access to the proper process of ADHD diagnosis.

You can listen to the interview right here on the ITYC Radio player or on iTunes, Libsyn, and Stitcher for tablet and smartphone users

Has your family had an experience with ADHD? Share your story in ITYC's Disqus forum or on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Audioboo.

Tech Bites

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 04:22:30 PST

Many apologies for the "lost" Chonilla.com Spreecast last night. We couldn't get the audio on my side to work so we had to quickly switch to plan A-Z.

The best news is that we were able to record via Skype and a fantastic interview ensued. I really can't wait to share it with everyone. Thanks to Sherley and Clove for being so understanding about the tech #FAIL and for being such great guests.

Look out for the interview this week!

ITYC Radio Live Spreecast Sherley and Clove of Chonilla.com

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 05:59:02 PST

Sherley and Clove

In an attempt to overcome my camera-shyness and to capture the fun and the energy of my guests, ITYC Radio, will be Spreecasting live tonight at 9pm EST with Sherley and Clove from Chonilla.com.

The motto of Sherley and Clove's podcast is "helping all LOL by keepin' it real." The truth of this motto is quite evident as their podcasts are always raw, honest, uncomfortable and hilarious. Tonight we'll talk about the genesis of the show, their commitment to keeping their discussions truthful and honest, multicultural parenting, inter-ethnic marriage and more.

You can join the Spreecast with Sherley and Clove live tonight at 9pm EST on the ITYC TV channel!

Related articles

Telling Black Hair Stories Part Two: ITYC Interviews Noliwe M. Rooks

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 14:29:51 PST

Noliwe M. Rooks

Here it is! Part two of our Telling Black Hair Stories series! In this installment we talk to author and associate professor in Africana Studies and Feminist, Gender, Sexuality Studies at Cornell University, Noliwe M. Rooks about her book "Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture and African American Women." We talk about the legacy of Madame C.J. Walker that you never learn about during Black History Month and why black hair politics don't just begin or end with hair that's been "fried, dyed and laid to the side."

As an added bonus, Professor Rooks also shares a bit of background about her latest book "White Money Black Power: The Surprising History of African American Studies and the Crisis of Race and Higher Education."

You can listen to the interview right here on the ITYC Radio player or on iTunes, Libsyn, and Stitcher for tablet and smartphone users.

ITYC Radio always wants to hear from you! Join the conversation or start one in our Disqus comments section and on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Audioboo.

ITYC Interview: Multicultural Psychologist and Author Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 08:02:42 PST

Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu

ITYC had the great pleasure of talking with multicultural psychologist and author Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu about his latest book When Half is Whole: Multiethnic Asian Identities. Through deeply personal, raw storytelling, When Half Is Whole explores the complex journey of identity formation in a world where social and economic realities of race affect every facet of human life both here in the United States and abroad in countries like Japan.

We talked to Professor Shigematsu about his work, his personal identity story, and his live performance piece "Celtic Samurai." Please do check out his website and blog for more information about the book When Half is Whole and his other publications.

You can listen to the interview right here on the ITYC Radio player or on iTunes, Libsyn, and Stitcher for tablet and smartphone users.

ITYC Radio always wants to hear from you! Join the conversation or start one in our Disqus comments section and on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Audioboo.

Telling Black Hair Stories: ITYC Interviews Lori Tharps

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:03:59 PST

This ITYC interview with writer Lori Tharps is the first installment in our miniseries about black hair. Author of three books, Kinky Gazpacho, Substitute Me and Hair Story, many people will also know Tharps from her fantastic blog My American Melting Pot.

She describes herself as "hair obsessed" and we dig into topics ranging from the recent public "hair controversies" involving Gaby Douglas and Willow Smith to her view of the impact of Chris Rock's "Good Hair" on popular discourse surrounding black women and our hair.

Before we dive into all that, Tharps gives a brief overview of Hair Story 2.0, which she co-wrote with Ayana Byrd, which provides context for our fun and wide ranging discussion about the politics of black hair.

You can listen to the interview right here on the ITYC Radio player or on iTunes, Libsyn, and Stitcher for tablet and smartphone users.

ITYC Radio always wants to hear from you! Join the conversation or start one in our Disqus comments section and on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Audioboo.

Facebook Apologizes, MLK and the Biracial Child,NFL Player Supports Gay Righs and more: Friday 5

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 07:29:15 PST

1) Facebook Apologizes For Deleting “Offensive” Photo Of Interracial Gay Couple- via Queerty

Not a good look Facebook. Not a good look.

Facebook has apologized for removing a photo of a mixed-race gay couple’s wedding from Gay Marriage USA’s page then subsequently blocking the administrator from gaining access.

The marriage equality campaign’s Facebook page has over 295,000 followers, but its founder, Murray Lipp, was notified that the photo of a bishop getting married to his husband at a small Pentecostal church was deemed “offensive”.
Lipp was also banned for a week from posting content to Gay Marriage USA for violating Facebook’s “policies and community standards”.

2) Talking About Martin Luther King Jr. and Race With My Biracial 5-Year-Old via Huffington Post

Martin Luther King leaning on a lectern. Deutsch: 1964: Martin Luther King Português: Martin Luther King (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I missed this piece on MLK Day. Still marinating on it.

Since my husband is a blond-haired blue-eyed Norwegian and I am a black girl from Kansas, I'm always curious as to how our biracial kids perceive themselves when it comes to race. So the conversation began on this day as it has many times before:

"Do you know any brown people?" I asked.
He rolled his eyes and pointed at the chocolate side of my hand. "You."
"Do you know any white people?"
He smiled: "Daddy!"

"Right." And then I waited. I waited because usually at this point in the conversation, he gives me a glimpse into his curious little mind.
"Mommy, am I one of the brown people who can't do anything or the white people who get to do everything?"

My heart sank a little. All the talks we've had about the importance of content of character, how President Barack Obama had a white parent and a brown parent, the books we've read about King, Rosa Parks, Obama and kids of every hue and belief. Did they not stick?

3) Android Is Popular Because It’s Cheap, Not Because It’s Good-via Gizmodo

Image via CrunchBase

Is everything about race? Not all the time, but most times and discussions about mobile access and mobile users are one of those times. Trigger warning on the comments thread.

The last study conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project shows that Android is the chosen smartphone of people without money. Among respondents, 22-percent of those with annual incomes below $30,000 were Android owners, as opposed to just 12 percent for iPhone. With those towards the lower-middle class, the trend holds: Android owns 23-percent of incomes up to $50,000, with iPhones at 18. The data makes it clear: the less money you have, the more likely you are to opt for an Android phone over something more expensive.

And it's not purely an income game—other socioeconomic factors that correlate heavily with the amount of money you've got in your pocket line up perfectly. Federal census data pegs black and hispanic households at median income (and ergo spending) levels tens of thousands of dollars below their white peers—and statistically, those same households are going Android at higher rates. A full 12-percent more black and hispanic smartphone users are Android users compared to Apple customers, and owners of any race with a high school diploma or less made up 38-percent of Android owners, over iPhone's 31-percent mark in that cohort.

4) Have Media Helped or Hurt Most Canadians’ Understanding of Idle No More?-via Media Indigena

Courtesy Huffington Post

Great piece about the media's role in shaping the conversation around Idle No More in Canada.

And yet, as often happens in my profession, there’s been a tendency in the media to distill this whirlwind of voices and visions, to compact it into the most concise form possible, as if to say, “Hey, all you Indians, in a soundbite or two, what is that you guys want?” As if there could only be one answer.

But look: I get why the media does this. There’s only so much space and time you’re allotted to tell any story. You can’t quote everybody. And, lest we forget, constantly looming over the heads of reporters and editors are some unforgiving daily deadlines. Nuance and shades of grey don’t necessarily fare well under these conditions.

5) Ravens’ Brendon Ayanbadejo to Promote Gay rights at the Super Bowl-The Grio

Brendon Ayanbadejo courtesy A. Bouska

While I say, bravo, the same crowd who praised Tim Tebow's pro-life ad will roast this player over the coals. Those who support Ayanbadejo need to support him vigorously in the face of the bigots who will inevitably come out of the woodwork. A little side-eye to this piece for seeming to "clarify" Ayanbadejo's heterosexuality. You don't have to be gay to support gay people and gay rights.

The New York Times reports that Ayanbadejo recently emailed gay marriage advocate Brian Ellner and Michael Skolnik, the political director for Russell Simmons, and asked: “Is there anything I can do for marriage equality or anti- bullying over the next couple of weeks to harness this Super Bowl media?”
The 36-year-old father of two children (with his longtime girlfriend) calls the message his “Jerry Maguireemail,” and hopes it spawns action in the same way that the Tom Cruise character sought to rally his co-workers with an earnest “mission statement.”

He has been an outspoken supporter of the LGBT community for years despite rampant homophobia in NFL locker rooms and resistance on the national stage as well.

His persistence has seemingly paid off with polls showing Americans growing increasingly comfortable with same sex marriage and his home state of Maryland legalizing it last year.

MLK Day and the POTUS' Second Inauguration: A Reflection

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:13:22 PST

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Joachim Prinz pictured, 1963 (Photo credit: Center for Jewish History, NYC)

"....We are dealing with issues that cannot be solved without the nation spending billions of dollars and undergoing a radical redistribution of economic power."—Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Given our ever worsening economy, widening wealth gap and the tendency for conservatives with less than progessive economic/social agendas to co-opt the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, I'd ask people to remember "The Poor People's Campaign" and his firm anti-war stance.

On both sides of the aisle, the tendency to ahistorically remember Dr. King is epidemic. An unromanticized rememberance and honoring of his legacy would include the policies that could address the civil rights struggles he was engaged with before his untimely death at the hands of an assasin.

The Poor People’s Campaign Civil Rights March (1968)

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Black Film in Chicago, The Trouble with Michelle Rhee, Lance Armstrong's Cheater's Inc. and more Friday 5

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 06:22:50 PST

Cinema House pre-restoration courtesy Chicago Reader

1) Chicago's Black Cinema House - A Place To Experience Black Film (via Shadow and Act)

When I was a child my dad took me to see many a first run feature at the iconic Ziegfeld Theater in Manhattan. I've been to many classic movie houses since (the few that remain) and I love the romance of the grand movie house which is why this story caught my eye.

The Black Cinema House is one of the latest results of the Rebuild Foundation (HERE) which was created by internationally acclaimed artist and urban planner Theaster Gates (Check out his website (HERE) which is a not-for-profit, creative organization, focusing on cultural and economic redevelopment and affordable space initiatives in under-resourced communities. The foundation currently manages projects in Chicago as well as in Detroit, Omaha, and Saint Louis, and in each city it enlists a team of artists, architects, developers, educators, and community activists, who "work together to integrate the arts and alternative entrepreneurship into a community-driven process of place making and neighborhood transformation."

The House also works with various film collectives on both the East and West coasts, to bring new independent and experimental films to audiences outside their respective regions.

2) Armstrong Begins His End via The Wall Street Journal

American cyclist Lance Armstrong giving a talk in 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Twitter, sports writer Jemele Hill said that Lance Armstrong was "the Nino Brown of doping in cycling." In one brilliant observation, Hill crystallized the sheer scope of Armstrong's doping operation and his inherent villainy. I haven't seen the Oprah interview yet, but my Spidey sense doesn't buy anything this man has to say.

Finally, out loud, in public. Armstrong had been so defiant for so long—insistent that he'd never doped, never taken illegal advantage, never supplemented his performance or stamina with anything other than the astonishing heart and mind and constitution of Lance Armstrong. He denied it furiously, without blinking or equivocation, and he menaced many who suggested otherwise.

Now he was surrendering, for no reason other than he had no choice.He appeared shrunken in that hotel room chair, aged, graying. The story of Armstrong had been always been so larger than life—the survivor turned champion turned cancer warrior and inspiration—and the man himself was never more vigorous than when he was cornered. Skepticism was like jet fuel, and he thrived on intimidation.

Before sitting before Winfrey, Armstrong didn't look like a fighter. He looked like a man who wanted to go home, to go anywhere. There was almost a hopelessness to his presence, a daze, a going-through of motions he never expected to go through. He was appealing for a forgiveness he didn't seem to think he deserved.

4) The Problem with Michelle Rhee’s Report Card for Public Schools via The Melissa Harris Perry Show

English: Michelle Rhee speaking to a NOAA student award ceremony (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For quite some time now, I've been very skeptical of education reformers like Michelle Rhee because I get the sense that education reform in their eyes means some degree of privatization and corporatization to the nation's public school systems.

StudentsFirst, a school reform lobbying organization headed by education reformer Michelle Rhee, recently released the results of its own national studyof education policies by state. According to the results, no state received an A, but plenty scored just barely average, and 11 states received an F.

Each grade is the determined based on three areas: whether a state’s policies elevate teaching, empower parents, spend wisely, and govern well. The report highlights states that provide abundant school choices for parents (i.e. charter schools) and blasts states that fail to evaluate teachers and principals in “meaningful ways.”

5) Ina May Gaskin and Midwifery via The Brian Lehrer Show

Ina May Gaskin

I'm really interested in seeing this documentary about Gaskin's life and midwifery work. Listen to her chat with Brian Lehrer here:

New ITYC Interview: Natasha Bowens and The Color of Food

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:58:21 PST

Courtesy N. Bowens

Here it is! The first ITYC Radio interview of 2013. I was so happy to welcome Natasha Bowens of Brown Girl Farming back to the show. Since our 2012 Earth Day interview, Natasha made some incredible headway on her Color of Food photo documentary and she came back to tell us all about it and about the prospect of an actual Color of Food book! She fills us in about the book and about her travels to small farms in Indian Country and in Gullah/Geechee country.

You can listen to the interview right here on the ITYC Radio player, iTunes, Libsyn, and on Stitcher for tablet and smartphone users.

ITYC Radio always wants to hear from you! Join the conversation or start one in our Disqus comments section, on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Audioboo.

White King of K-Pop?, Racist Restaurant T-Shirt, Generation LGBTQIA and More-Friday 5

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 06:09:35 PST

Busker Busker serving vintage Debbie Gibson realness

The Caucasian King Of K-Pop via Pacific Standard

Meet Brad Moore of the K-Pop band Busker Busker.......

The music—a mix of rhythm and blues, hip-hop, and electronica—is heavily influenced by the West, with sprinklings of English lyrics and synchronized Michael Jackson–style dance moves. Lee Soo-man, the man credited with launching the K-pop phenomenon, developed his formula from studying MTV during his years living in California: recruit attractive teens to form girl and boy bands, then train them for years before unveiling them in highly produced videos and concert tours.

Entertainment companies have no problem finding recruits: nearly two million hopefuls came to the first round of tryouts for Superstar K3. Busker Busker stood out from the start, though, with their acoustic, folk-influenced sound, and, of course, their Caucasian drummer. A few other K-pop acts include Korean Americans, but, unlike them, Moore speaks little Korean and is unlikely to be mistaken for one.

Moore, though, had gotten his fill of the K-pop assembly line while on the show. For nearly two months, he’d lived in a remote house an hour’s drive outside of Seoul with the other contestants, cut off from the outside world. They were pressured to get Botox shots, subsisted on a power-slimming diet of salad and tofu, and had to be in front of cameras around the clock. “We became professional sleepers,” recalls Moore, who lost 25 pounds. “When there was a break between shots, we’d lie down on the concrete outside or in the bushes.”

S.C. Restaurant Under fire for ‘How to Catch an Illegal Immigrant’ T-shirts-via NY Daily News

Image courtesy Trip Advisor

The rhetorical flourish to justify their racist bigotry is just stunning.

For its part, Taco Cid said it has gotten calls from all over the country from people wanting to buy the $35 shirt.
It also said the message, and the taco imagery, wasn’t aimed at any one ethnic group.

“Our t-shirts were created as a witty and comical statement regarding ILLEGAL immigrants. There are NO racial nor hate remarks towards any specific ethnic group," Taco Cid says on its website.

“We do believe ILLEGAL immigrants are burdening the system we support and live under, thereby, causing us to work harder and pay higher taxes to support the illegal activities, which our government has simply chosen to look the other way. Is it "racist" to disagree with those who are not supporting the American system?"

Generation LGBTQIA via NY Times

Stephen Beatty

This piece was in the Fashion and Style section of the New York Times....

Armed with the millennial generation’s defining traits — Web savvy, boundless confidence and social networks that extend online and off — Stephen and his peers are forging a political identity all their own, often at odds with mainstream gay culture.

If the gay-rights movement today seems to revolve around same-sex marriage, this generation is seeking something more radical: an upending of gender roles beyond the binary of male/female. The core question isn’t whom they love, but who they are — that is, identity as distinct from sexual orientation.

The Academy Award Effect: Does Winning Help Black Actors’ Careers? via Shadow and Act

Like American Idol, the folks who do not win the big Oscar prize seem to fare much better than the ones who do. Make of that what you will.

If anything, this exercise has shown that winning an Oscar promises absolutely nothing to actors—black or white. Hollywood is particularly ungenerous to actresses, particularly actresses of color. But I shy away from making too many comparisons to white actors because their path to the Oscars are almost always worlds different from their black colleagues in terms of pay, production budgets, and caliber of scripts.

Deeper Than Reality TV: It's Not About a Rapper or His Babies Mamas via For Harriet

Courtesy Oxygen

Hat tip to Jack and Jill Politics for the link to this insightful piece about Oxygen's soon to debut Shawty Lo reality show.

We grossly underestimate the intelligence of the women who find themselves in less than ideal romantic and child-rearing entanglements. In reality, women must get creative in order to navigate the landmines of patriarchy. “Respectable” black women talk down to those they presume don't know any better and do nothing but preach to the wannabe upper class choir.

Alternative families can be beautiful; however, ideally those family structures would be created with consent and support. Support is more than financial. We must demand men assume emotional responsibility for their children as well as financial culpability. This requires a fundamental reimagining of the foundational roles of fathers. The problem cannot rest solely at the feet of women who birth the children.

Tia and Tamera Show Tackles Race and Identity: Thursday Think Tank

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 06:21:04 PST

Hat tip to my mom for telling me about this interesting moment from the Style Network series "Tia and Tamera." In the clip, Tamera, looking for some guidance on how to she will approach her own child's racial identity, reaches out to her friend Talitha, who she says is "a quarter black" to discuss how she identifies herself racially.

It's interesting that both women frame issues of race and identity as conceptual relics from a bygone era. Also interesting is Tamera's reaction to the idea that her child would be identified as black- which I think may have something to do with her husband's views on the matter.

Philadelphia's Mummer's Stay True to "Tradition," The Shawty Lo Show, Soccer Player Protests Racist and More Friday 5

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 07:59:20 PST

Italiano: Kevin Prince Boateng (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1) Watch This: Soccer Player Walks Off to Protest Racism via The Root

As some readers know, we love those Boateng brothers here at ITYC Radio and we love soccer. This show of protest from big brother Kev, makes us love him even more.

2) WTF: Racist Skit at the Mummers Parade via Angry Asian Man

mummers (Photo credit: jendubin)

I first learned of Mummers and their parade when I was courting my now-husband. Mummers started out in blackface and I see from this piece they haven't progressed much past that egregious spectacle which was only just banned in 1964.

In this skit, an all-white group dances around to "Gangnam Style" and "Apache" in Indian and Native American garb. "Indi-Insourcing," by Venetian NYA, is supposed to be some kind of statement against the outsourcing of American jobs. Brotherly love, yo.

3) Big Shift in Copyright Law Effective in New Year Changes Rights for Artists-via PRI

American funk musician George Clinton and his band Parliament Funkadelic performing at the Capitol City Carnival in Centreville, Virginia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I hope this change in the law helps artists, especially artists of color, who were wrongfully duped out of profits from their creative genius and hard work like George Clinton and so many others.

The coming year is a big one for artists whose work was published in 1978.
A revision to copyright law allows musicians, authors or any copyright holders to reclaim their rights after 35 years. For the already-struggling music industry, this could be a lethal blow.

In 1976, Congress passed a new copyright law with a "termination clause" that took effect in 1978.

"The legislative intent was to give artists an opportunity to negotiate after the value of the work has been realized," said entertainment lawyer Lita Rosario, who is filing termination claims for members of Parliament-Funkadelic, including George Clinton.

4) Yes, ‘All My Babies’ Mamas’ Looks Awful — But That’s Not the Whole Point-via Colorlines

Shawty Lo

Jamilah King offers some measured criticism of the soon to debut Oxygen reality series starring Shawty Lo and his large family.

“Oxygen will give fans an intimate look at unconventional families with larger than life personalities and real emotional stakes,” says Abraham. “‘All My Babies’ Mamas’ will be filled with outrageous and authentic over-the-top moments that our young, diverse female audience can tweet and gossip about.”

Representations like these aren’t new, and that’s precisely why they’re so upsetting. This very neatly fits the caricature of hypersexual and irresponsible black parents even though the network describes this as a look at an “unconventional” family structure. It would be great to actually have a meaningful discussion about what alternative families really look like in black communities — how mothers and grandparents, aunts, uncle and cousins actually do work hard in every city in this country to raise healthy families that don’t fall in line with the white American mainstream. But to turn that discussion into entertainment is to miss the point entirely.

We need to have more meaningful conversations about family, yes. But we also need to talk about who owns our media, and why there are so few alternatives.

5) The British Class Divide, on a Personal Scale via New York Times

Filmmaker Michael Apted courtesy NY Times

I remember watching parts of this legendary documentary series on PBS. This intstallment looks just as compelling considering how little we discuss issues of class in the U.S.

In a lot of documentaries you might not care that much about this boy and what became of him. But if you have watched any of the previous episodes in Mr. Apted’s series, you will care, and deeply, partly because you watched that boy grow up, suffer and triumph in a project that began as a news gimmick and social experiment and turned into a plangent human drama. Conceived as a one-off for a current-affairs program on Granada Television, the first film, “Seven Up!,” was a 40-minute look at the lives of 14 children from different backgrounds. Britain was changing, or so went the conventional wisdom, with postwar affluence having led the working class to adapt middle-class attitudes and lifestyles.

In 1963, though, the sociologists John H. Goldthorpe and David Lockwood disputed this widely held “embourgeoisement thesis,” arguing that the erosion of social class had not been as great as believed. In its deeply personal fashion, the “Up” series went on to make much the same point by checking in with many of the same boys and girls, men and women, every seven years.

Perspectives on the Fiscal Cliff Deal: Thursday Think Tank

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 04:50:27 PST

Image courtesy Businessweek

Trying to make sense of the political wrangling in Washington with regard to the so-called "fiscal cliff" is quite maddening to say the very least. For this Thursday's Think Tank, here is a selection of perspectives on the "fiscal cliff deal" from around the web:

Over the Cliff: Shoddy Compromise Reflects Well on Nobody via The New Yorker

The Last-Minute Fiscal Cliff Deal Doesn't Actually Solve Much via Business Insider

This Calculator Shows How Much Fiscal Cliff Deal Will Cost You via Mashable

The Big Fiscal Cliff Deal Winners: Hedge Fund And Private Equity Moguls via Forbes

Part 1 of the Fiscal Cliff is Over. Now Gird Yourself for Part 2 via MotherJones

We Can’t Fix Our Economy Without Confronting White Supremacy via Colorlines

ITYC Radio's Favorite Interviews of 2012

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 06:46:25 PST

Before we are too far into 2013, I want to take a moment to share with you a few of my favorite ITYC Radio interviews from 2012. It was really hard to choose from such a selection of amazing guests, but I managed to narrow it down to six of my favorite interviews from the last year.

You can listen to all the interviews by clicking the links below or if you are mobile listener you can listen to all of the interviews on Stitcher for smartphones and tablets.

Identity, Choosing Sides, and the Public Consumption of Race and Art

I loved talking to artists Ty Hardaway and Nate Hill about art and how their work is affected by questions of race and identity.

Talking Racial Justice Equals 'We' Not 'Us. vs. Them'

The best thing about interviews for me is what I learn from my guests. This talk with Dr. Shakti Butler was a real eye-opener for me as we talked about her latest film "Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequality."

Talking Hallyu and Hybrid Culture with Dr. Crystal S. Anderson

Covering everything from Oppa Gangnam style to the influences of black music on Korean pop music, this interview with Dr. 'Ceefu' Crysyal S. Anderson was a lot of fun to do.

What About the Children?: The Fantasy of Racial Innocence

Frequent listeners know that I could not stop talking about Professor Robin Bernstein's book Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights (America and the Long 19th Century). If you listen to his interview, you'll understand why.

"Multiraciality Is As Old As This Country"

Professor Renee Romano shared some insight on her fascinating work on interracial marriage and on the Civil Rights Movement.

Thousands of Children Stolen from Their Families

Filmmaker Randy Vasquez discussed his documentary "A Thick Dark Fog" which revealed the horrible legacy of Indian boarding schools and the systematic removal of Indian children from their families and communities through the eyes of Walter Littlemoon (Lakota).

Welcome to 2013!

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:22:30 PST

Happy New Year from ITYC Radio. Thank you so much for your support and for listening.

Here's to sticking to that editorial calendar, to more magnificent guests, to a better, even more thoughtful year and to hearing more from you, our intrepid ITYC Radio audience.

Thank you so much again.

Related articles

A Song for the New Year: Thursday Think Tank

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 11:51:31 PST

It's been a hectic holiday season and an especially wretched news cycle these last few weeks. It's hard to believe that we're sliding into the New Year on such a terrible wave, but here we are. Despite the general misery, I'm looking forward to 2013 with a mixture of excitement, trepidation and hope.

So this Thursday, instead of words to contemplate, I give you music.

Here's to hope and here's to the New Year.

Lost South Asian Mixed Roots, Outing Online Racists...Friday 5

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 07:18:41 PST

Image courtesy of Ebony

1) Black Mom + Indian Dad = Search for Identity (via Ebony)

A really heart-breaking story about parental abandonment and the loss of cultural identity. I have to wonder if her dad's parents would have threatened suicide if his wife had been white.

I might have saved myself by admitting that I had no relationship with my Indian-born father. He abandoned our family when I was a toddler and left me without a dad or any ties to his family. All I inherited was an Indian name and physical features that could belong in South Asia. My family history had ambiguity, but also enough clues about my origins to constantly leave me answering questions and explaining a story that’s sensitive as a wound whenever I’m forced to recount it.

I had plenty of curiosity about my background growing up. I read whatever I could about Indian history, took classes, joined Asian-American student associations. I grew up around immigrants in Queens, New York, although whenever in the presence of my Indian classmates, I always felt like we looked at each other with mutual suspicion. Certain parts of an upbringing can’t be simulated.

2) Does Your Social Media Use Put Your Community At Risk? Instagram in Context (via Colorlines)

This cross-post on Colorlines gave me pause about my own social media use.

In the 2 years I had an account, I’d posted nearly 400 photos. Most of the photos were innocuous—shots of buildings, traveling, food or architecture. However, there were also dozens of photos of friends, family and community. It’s here-among the photos of the people I most care about-that I realized the real privacy rights and standards that are needed across social media platforms. A tweet, an update, a posted pic or ‘friending’ could be dangerous—even life threatening. Why do I say this? Because amidst my 400 photos, I found the following:

Many photos of minors—mainly nieces and nephews8 photos of individuals currently on parole6 photos of community members with mixed immigration status1 photo of a woman who has an active Order for Protection against her husband1 photo of a woman who is living in Transitional Housing while pursuing a VAWA asylum case4 photos of children who have CPS workers or Guardians Ad Litem involved in their families2 photos of individuals who attend services at “surveilled” religious institutions

These people are not strangers-they’re my family, my friends and members of my community! Some are organizers or political activists, most are not. Most are regular people who had their picture taken and posted as part of a virtual archive of happy times and important memories- snapshots of our everyday lives, specific moments in time.

3) Outing Social Media Racism: A Conversation with an Insider (via Forbes)

Image via CrunchBase

I don't know that this process actually helps the core problem.

Smith said he started @YesYoureRacist after typing in the term “not racist, but” in Twitter’s search field and coming upon a number of tweets that belied the claim. “I found that there are a lot of people who start tweets with ‘I’m not a racist, but…’ and then go on to say some of the most racist things you’ve ever heard,” he said. “I had an epiphany one night and then decided to start calling these people out.”

There were plenty of racist tweets before Election Day, Smith said, but on the election night itself, “it seemed to just explode.” Much of what he saw was directed towards President Obama and, while tweets about the the President have slowed since, Smith said they have not quite stopped.

4) White Men as the Major “Social Problem” (via Racism Review)

Joe Feagin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sociologist Joe Feagin's response to journalist Dave Sirota's recent Salon article about disproportionate number of white men who commit mass murder.

Calling out white men, and most especially elite white men, as a/the social or political problem is something I have written and lectured on for many years now, but it is still very rare for anyone, commentator or researcher, to even go as far as Sirota does in this important Salon article.

Toward the end of the article even he starts backing off on some of the logical implications of calling out white men and insisting that he is not calling for racial profiling of white men as potential killers. He notes that the current tempered and nuanced conversation of these mass killings is only occurring because “white guys” are the (usually unremarked upon) demographic so dramatically involved:

But the point here is that those tempered and nuanced conversations are only able to happen because the demographic at the center of it all is white guys. That is the one group in America that gets to avoid being referred to in aggregate negative terms (and gets to avoid being unduly profiled by this nation’s security apparatus), which means we are defaulting to a much more dispassionate and sane conversation — one that treats the perpetrators as deranged individuals, rather than typical and thus stereotype-justifying representatives of an entire demographic.

In my White Men on Race (With E. O’Brien) and The White Racial Frame book (soon out in a second edition in February) I have argued that these discussions such as Sirota raises barely begin to raise the issue of the role and significance of white men, particularly elite white men, in creating and maintaining our system of racial oppression, and the supporting social, political, and economic institutions that operate to protect that systemic racism and its white male regulators.

5) Longshoremen Shut Down S.C. Shipping Terminal in Protest Over Deadly Fire at Bangladesh Walmart Supplier (via Facing South)

Import from 26 July 2008 English: (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My grandfather was a longshoremen in Georgia so this story really is amazing and wonderful to read.

Longshoremen shut down the Wando Welch Shipping Terminal at the Port of Charleston in South Carolina for nearly two hours today to protest the arrival of the Carolina Maersk, a containership bearing Walmart clothing made by the 112 Bangladeshi workers who perished in a Nov. 24 factory fire. Members of International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Locals 1771 and 1422 honored a picket line of about 50 protesters as dozens of truck drivers and other workers also turned around upon being informed of the work stoppage.

After union attorneys advised the longshoremen to return to work, Local 1422 member Leonard Riley told the protestors that the ILA was "standing up for what's morally right and what's legally right." He described their brief strike as "a responsibility that organized labor has to these kinds of struggles" and suggested that it was "a dry run" for a possible coast-wide strike on Dec. 30. "We will look for you to be there when we hit the line if we have to," Riley said.

Pike County Ohio's Black Community: Thursday Think Tank

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 06:37:42 PST

Bradley Harris of East Jackson (photo credit Lu Olkowski)

Hat tip to Steve Riley over on Mixed Race Studies for sending me this PRX "State of the Re-Union" piece on the residents of a small black community in of East Jackson in Pike County, OH:

In this episode Al Letson and guest producer Lu Olkowski visit a tiny town in the Appalachian foothills of Ohio where, for a century, residents have shared the common bond of identifying as African-American despite the fact that they look white. Racial lines have been blurred to invisibility, and people inside the same family can vehemently disagree about whether they are black or white. It can be tense and confusing. As a result, everyone’s choosing: Am I black? Am I mixed race? Or, am I white? Adding to the confusion, there’s a movement afoot to recognize their Native-American heritage.

The story of the folks in East Jackson may be familiar to those who know about Walter Plecker's campaign of paper genocide against Native nations in Virginia and surrounding areas. (Often, these communities were called "tri-racial isolates" by old school ethnographers and historians.) Plecker's campaign and East Jackson are vivid examples of the ways in which white supremacy (via the one drop rule) was legislated and enacted through laws in the U.S. on both the federal and state levels.

How does this piece compare with CNN's recent "Who's Black in America" offering?

Sandy Hook

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 05:48:28 PST

English: "Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence" - state ratings 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I really don't know what to say about what happened in Connecticut. As a mother, as a citizen, as a human being, I really have no words for the senseless loss of young life anywhere. What I do know is that there has to be a serious gun control policy put in place in the wake of this latest incident of mass murder. Do I honestly believe it will happen? I'm not sure. I don't know if it's that the NRA and the gun lobby are too strong or if we are all too comfortable and cowardly to really fight the fight.

When I can bear to watch the national mainstream news, I am struck by what isn't being discussed and what dots are not being connected with regard to the real crisis of gun violence in this country. The wretched tangle of race, place and class are at the heart of this discussion about gun control and very few people are speaking truth to power. Those who are against gun control laws are predictably doubling down on their politics.

As much as I hope that this will be the moment when common interest and common humanity spur us into political action, I fear that once the sun sets on this latest wave of violence, nothing will have changed.

The Special CNN Missed, Newark & Corey Booker, Korean Identity & More-Friday 5

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 06:30:41 PST

1) It Is Time For an Examination of 'White in America' (via New Black Man)

People clearly want to see this as a part of CNN's "In America" series, I wonder if the producers there are listening?

Racism is ugly, and the dysfunction and chaos that comes from it makes for a messy society. Race talk is uncomfortable and inconvenient -- for some, not all. If I were not on the receiving end of racism -- and sexism -- I too might convince myself it is the problem of other people in this country, go on about my life, and hope the others work through, figure out their issues. That would not make me a bad person. It would make me a detached human being, in a greater society that I am a part of, contribute to and benefit from.

But race and racism are not only a thing for black, brown and those who are nonwhite to work through and figure out on their own. Race and racism includes us all. The argument, "I can't help or do anything about what happened 400 years ago," or " What else do you people want from us," is an easy out.

2) Promise vs. Reality in Newark on Mayor’s Watch (via New York Times)

Image via CrunchBase

It's heartbreaking to think that a city with all the foundations for greatness as Newark just can't seem to catch a break. Corey Booker seemed like he would be the spark to start turning things around, but the reality of Newark's worsening conditions apparently tell a different story. Then again, Newark's problems took decades to compound and will probably take decades to undo.

A Stanford- and Yale-educated son of the suburbs, Mr. Booker arrived to suspicion when he moved into the Newark projects and made his unsuccessful first run for mayor. Lately, though, criticism has come even from those he won over: people working on the education projects he supports, council members who ran on his reform slate, business leaders and families who believed in his promise to bring “a renaissance for the rest of us” to a city plagued by self-dealing and mismanagement.

They say Mr. Booker’s frequent Twitter posts to his 1.3 million followers, his appearances on television and at gatherings of moguls and celebrities — he was out of town nearly a quarter of the time between January 2011 and June 2012, according to The Star-Ledger — have distracted him from the local trench work needed to push his agenda. Business leaders say he dazzles at news conferences, but flags on the follow-through. Residents have wearied of the outside fascination for the mayor whom Oprah Winfrey called “a rock star” and Jon Stewart on Wednesday referred to as “the superhero mayor of Newark."

Taxes have risen more than 20 percent over the past three years, even after the city laid off about 1,100 workers, including more than 160 police officers. Crime has risen, and unemployment is up. Schools remain under state control, and the city’s finances remain so troubled that it cannot borrow to fix its antiquated water system. While new restaurants have risen near the Prudential Center downtown, those in the outer wards were placed under a curfew this year because of shootings and drug dealing.

3) Demographic Shifts Redefine What It Means to Be Korean (via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Guards of Namdaemun Gate via World At

Looks like the case of shifting national identity is going around....

Only a decade ago, school textbooks still urged South Koreans to take pride in being of "one blood" and ethnically homogeneous. Now, the country is facing the prospect of becoming a multiethnic society. While the foreign-born population is still small compared with countries with a tradition of immigration, it's enough to challenge how South Koreans see themselves.

"It's time to redefine a Korean," said Kim Yi-seon, chief researcher on multiculturalism at the government-financed Korean Women's Development Institute. "Traditionally, a Korean meant someone born to Korean parents in Korea, who speaks Korean and has Korean looks and nationality. People don't think someone is a Korean just because he has a Korean citizenship."

Among the factors driving this development is the influx of women from Southeast Asia who have come to marry rural South Korean men who have difficulty attracting Korean women willing to embrace country life. The number of marriage migrants grew to 211,000 last year from 127,000 in 2007, most of them women from Vietnam and other poorer Asian countries drawn to a better life in South Korea.

4) "Are You a Mulatto?": One Afternoon in the Life of a Mixed-Race Woman (via xoJane)

Walter F. White Head of NAACP from 1931-1955

Wow. People are just bold as brass. Telling this intrusive busybody she was black could have either shut down the inquiry or led to this person to tell her "Oh no you can't be black!"

I’ve heard comments on both sides, and this one is neither. But hearing the word “mulatto” does bring the old conversations to surface. Sometimes I do feel that I have to pick one or the other -- most of the time, I hear that I’m too light to be black, but every once in a while I’m told that I’m a little too “tan” to be white.

Sometimes it’s a guessing game -- who can figure out Olivia’s race? Other times it’s just weird, cool or noteworthy that I am both. And although our society has come so far in so many ways, I believe that this is one in which we can come a lot farther. I can’t wait for the day that it’s no big deal that I’m mixed because everyone knows someone that’s mixed. When a little girl can grow up and see a family that looks like hers on TV -- all different shapes, sizes, colors and mixes under the same roof.

5) Mixed Race Children and Young People Are Individual Nation States. They Defy Classification (via The Independent)

"Golden-hued?" Oy.

Jessica Ennis

How fitting that in the week that a post-war musical, Privates on Parade, opened with a Eurasian love interest – “Welsh Bombay” – rejected on the grounds of her colour, we learn that in the 2011 census, the number of mixed-race people in the UK has doubled to 1.2 million. On the same day, the think-tank British Future reported that only 15 per cent of people oppose mixed-race relationships. Among the under-25s, that drops to under 5 per cent. British Future calls it The Melting Pot Generation. The Sun proudly declared: “We Are the World.”

Should we be surprised by this after a summer of sporting magic in which so many British Olympians, including the poster girl Jessica Ennis, were golden-hued – an event masterminded by Lord Coe whose father is white English and mother Indian? London has a mayor with a mixed-race wife. Half the X Factor contestants, from Leona Lewis to Marvin and Aston from JLS and this year’s Jahmene Douglas, have black fathers and white mothers. The one thing – possibly the only thing –that Rupert Murdoch and Vince Cable have in common is mixed-race children.

Taiaiake Alfred:Defining Native and Decolonization:Thursday Think Tank

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:27:13 PST

America (Photo credit: acb)

ITYC Radio has recently become acquainted with the work of scholar, intellectual, author and activist Taiaiake Alfred (Kanien’kehaka (Mohwak)). In light of the recent discussion on this blog about CNN's Who's Black in America special and the role of examining white supremacy in discussions about race, racism and identity, I found Taiaiake Alfred's presentation from a 2010 Global Encounters Initiative Symposium, particularly instructive as a companion to thinking about the continual process of defining and redefining blackness. To be clear, Native people are not people of color, but considering the process of how Native people/nations work through issues of identity under the weight of their particular history with racialized domination may help spark some ways of thinking about constructions/definitions of blackness.

In the video below, Alfred discusses the shift in his activist/intellectual focus to examining concerning "the affects of the colonial process on the individual. His talk starts around minute 4:00. (H/T Bermuda Radical for the video)

CNN's Who's Black in America: Some Thoughts

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 07:32:19 PST

American W.E.B. (Photo credit: Saint Iscariot)

So here's an audio journal with my reflections on last Sunday night's CNN Who's Black in America special. Ultimately, my view of this special and the entire series as a whole is that conversations about race cannot happen without first directly addressing, defining, and recognizing whiteness. If whiteness/white supremacy are not central to your examination of racial identity and racial identity formation, then the conversation will inevitably lay the issues and outcomes of racial inequality at the feet of nonwhite people. I think this is what happened on Sunday night and I think that's what happened with the series as a whole. The space of commercial cable news in many ways is no friend to nuance or complexity and that the commercial motivations of these outlets somehow impact their willingness to "say white."

I talk about this and more in the audio journal which you can listen to right here in the blog's audio player, on iTunes, Libsyn, and on Stitcher for tablet and smartphone users.

Please feel free to share your own thoughts/impressions of Who's Black in America in our Disqus comments section, on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Audioboo. I really want to hear your views about how the subject matter was approached and how identity works in your lives-especially for parents/caregivers of color.

Related articles

Coming Clean About Blackness, Mixed Race Identity and the Multiracial Movement

itycpodcast@gmail.com (MClarkMccrary) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 06:24:25 PST

Black and White America (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Before I go into my reflections on CNN's "Who's Black in America" series, I have to come clean about the evolution of my personal perspective on blackness, mixed race identity and the "multiracial movement." Over that last three years, I've been trying to develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of race-particularly as it relates to how my marriage, motherhood, and my daughter fit within the historical continuum of our racialized society. Part of my process has to do with balancing my emotional, gut responses to race/racism with my contemplative, critical responses to race/racism. To be clear, there is room for both responses to simultaneously coexist. I'm a firm believer in trusting one's instinctual, emotional responses, while at the same time interrogating and rounding out those responses with more rational, contemplative thought.

That said, I began my writing/blogging/podcasting pretty purely from that emotional, instinctual space. My emotional responses to blackness were informed by a lifetime of being "black checked" and being told by both white and black people that my particular brand of blackness was insufficient, despite my firm protestations and phenotypical/ancestral "proof" to the contrary. Compounding this was the emotional reality I was living as a black woman married to a white man with a child whom all races of people were not recognizing as black or mine. While I knew that my daughter was black, I also knew that her experience of blackness would be quite different from my own because of her phenotypical ambiguity. How was I going to assure my child that she was indeed sheltered under this ostensibly broad umbrella of blackness and the black experience, when I still felt the pinch of its narrow definitions? With all those thoughts swirling (no pun intended), I was relieved to find aspects of my family's reality being expressed and affirmed in spaces like Mixed Media Watch and Mixed Chicks Chat which were exploring issues of mixed/multiracial identity. As I went on to explore other outlets in the mixed/multiracial oeuvre, I began to notice that the voices of moms of color were limited (or absent) and that many of the more formal multiracial organizations were helmed by white moms with a limited comprehension of systemic racism. Seeing this, I felt it was important to have moms of color to mixed children be a vocal, visible part of the growing conversations in these digital spaces, so I started this blog and podcast in 2010.

I wanted to create digital community for moms of color in the "mixed experience" and gain some perspective on what this "mixed moment" signified for us as women/mothers of color. Along with my interviews, I started to read books about the history of interracial marriage and miscegenation laws, mixed identity, critical race theory and more. I even revisited some of my favorite works by writers/thinkes like Gloria Anzaldua, James Baldwin and George Lipsitz. I discovered the work of Michele Elam, Marcia Dawkins and Erica Chito-Childs and many more writers,scholars and thinkers who helped me to a more critical view of mixed race and multiracial identity. I began to understand that the conversation was much larger than box-checking and paper identity. I also realized that many of the multiracial movements for "census justice" saw no connection to the larger freedom struggles against antiblack bias and ultimately discovered just how deep the roots of antiblack racism ran through many of these organizations. At that point, I took a step back to investigate just how much these antiblack biases had affected me and my own view of my daughter's identity.

As my critical contemplative response tempered my emotional one, I saw that the antiblack bias at the core of many multiracial organizations had shaped the larger discourse of mixedness and multiracial identity. While many mixed individuals and organizations are engaged and invested in social justice, discussions about mixed identity the realm of popular culture and mass media tend to frame the presence of black ancestry as a hindrance. While I believe that there is a definite mixed experience, I think that care must be taken not to cleave that experience from the broader historical continuum of how race has been constructed and reconstructed in America and that any analysis of race/identity must begin with defining whiteness and how the construction of whiteness has directly impacted the construction of all other identities in this country. As parents of black/white mixed kids and black/nonwhite mixed kids, we have to address the ways in which we've all internalized messages of antiblack bias and how that affects both the identity choices we make for our children and the ones we want them to make for themselves. For those outside the realm of the black/white/black/nonwhite mix, it's still important to consider how antiblack bias relates to your child's particular identity construction and how the historical black/white mixed binary informs how all mixed/multiracial identities are understood in our society.

Most digital spaces and offline spaces that address issues of mixed/multiracial identity allow people living those experiences to share stories/resources which provides much needed emotional support and affirmation. While I continue to find that support and discussion very useful, I think it's important to locate those discussions in the broader discourse about the centrality of white supremacy and antiblack bias to all identity formation in this country.