Honoring Bi/Multiracial, Bi/Multicultural Experiences:

1
Honoring Bi/Multiracial, Bi/Multicultural
Experiences

• Interrupting the Social Contract around Race
  Identity
• Laurin Mayeno, MPH

2
Objectives

• Participants will
• Acknowledge and check out their assumptions about
  bi/multiracial people.
• Notice and interrupt negative messages and
  stereotypes about bi/multi-racial people
• Explore ways of thinking about bi/multiracial
  experience that reinforce or challenge the status
  quo.

3
Sharing in Pairs

• How do you identify racially?culturally?
• What made you choose this workshop?
• What is a burning issue or question you would
  like to discuss?

4
Guidelines

• Both/And Thinking
• Sharing Experiences
• I Statements
• Respecting Different Viewpoints
• Listening Deeply
• Acknowledge among us and about us nature of
  conversation

5
Overview/Agenda

• Recognition of the Issue(s)
• Individual/Interpersonal/Family/Community
• Broader Context Historical, Social and
  Political
• Reframing the Issue Creating an Empowering
  Context

6
Individual Experiences

• In your experience, what are the challenges and
  strengths of being bi/multiracial?
• What are the messages you have received about
  bi/multiracial people? What is their impact?

7
Common Themes

• Personal level identity and self esteem,
  cultural experience exposure
• Interpersonal/family/community
  stigma,stereotypes, marginalization, assumptions

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Differences

• Racial and national origins
• Racialized characteristics
• Identity
• Cultural experience
• Acceptance, belonging within community of color
• Class, gender, sexuality, etc.

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Strengths

• Ability to understand different perspectives
• Open to differences starting with race and
  culture and going beyond
• Boundary crossers/bridge builders
  identification with more than one group gives us
  a particular ability to cross bridges, relate to
  difference

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Being an Ally

• What can allies do to honor people of mixed
  heritage?

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Whats behind the social messages?Where do they
come from?
In 1997, Tiger Woods identified himself as a
Cablinasian. Why is there so much
controversy about how multiracial people name
themselves?
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Social and Historical Context
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History of Domination and Racial Mixing in the
U.S.

• Global expansion and colonization
• Slavery
• WWII Military Occupation
• Anti-miscegenation laws struck down 1967
• Increase in immigration

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The Paradox of Race

• Doesnt exist as a biological reality
• Is a social construct a contract that we all
  participate in
• Myth of pure race
• Sobeing bi/multiracial is also a myth

• Exists as a social reality with real life
  consequences
• Cannot address racism without acknowledging its
  existence
• People who are bi/multiracial are marginalized in
  this context

15
Overt Racism

• Miscegenation
• Contamination
• One drop rule
• Taboos kept racial purity. One of the ways of
  keeping the hierarchy in tact
• Multiracial communities not recognized (African
  American, Latino)
• History of light-skinned privilege within
  communities of color

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Covert (Modern) Racism

• Racial hierarchy still in tact
• Less need to maintain taboos in order to sustain
  the hierarchy
• Bi/multiracial people in style
• Are bi/multiracial people another cover for the
  existence of racism?

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Political Implications
If you had a 60 second spot on national TV to
talk about bi/multiracial, bi/multicultural
issues, what would you say?
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Pitfalls to Avoid

• Obscuring racism
• Creating another caste in the system
• Denying any part of our heritage
• Denying oppression or privilege
• Separation from communities of color
• Positive stereotyping
• Overstating commonalities/understating difference
• Essentialism and dehumanization

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Towards a Framework for Empowerment Social
Justice

• Own all of our heritages and identities
• Be visible
• Use our strengths to connect and build alliances
• Connect issues to the struggle against racism
• Take every opportunity to interrupt the social
  contract around race and identity
• Acknowledge and go beyond social categories

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Closure

• Anything new you learned that you will use?
• Anything new questions raised for you?
• Feedback?