Multiracial identity on “Talk of the Nation” (NPR)

Re: Guests?
Written by padpowell, on 27-04-2007 20:49

Talk of the Nation, April 26, 2007 · Led by mixed race celebrities like Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tiger Woods, race, culture and identity are changing in America. Is being multi-racial an identity all its own, or a delicate balance of old divides?

Orin Starn, cultural anthropologist at Duke University

Debra Dickerson, author of The End of Blackness

Sundee Frazier, author of Check All That Apply: Finding Wholeness as a Multiracial Person

Orin Starn was unqualified to speak on this subject. He repeated the myth that the “one drop rule” has always existed as well as the myth that it was invented to increase the number of slaves and make anyone with black ancestry subject to enslavement. I looked at his academic qualifications and he has done no work in this area.

Debra Dickerson was a pleasant surprise in that she made it clear that she rejected the ODR for both her children and others. She also criticized Frazier’s use of the term “multiracial African American,” stating that people should have the right to drop the “African American.”

Dickerson was wrong when she claimed that the white descendants of Sally Hemings started to identify as “black.” I have seen no evidence to support that. I think she is talking about Julia Westerininen (a very guilt-ridden liberal), who claimed that she marked “black” on the census form because the blacks “need the numbers” (???). Brent Staples, the black ODR-loving New York Times columnist loved her for that. But Dickerson did say that it would be ridiculous for the white descendants of Hemings to indentify as black.