REVIEW: Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children In a Post-Racial World

by Hugo Wong 
[ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN PRINT ONLY. REPRINTED HERE WITH PERMISSION FROM RICE PAPER MAGAZINE]

In the United States, the fastest-growing census demographic is "multiracial" - those who check more than one box to answer the "race question. For some, this growth can't come soon enough. Many believe that more multiracial people will eventually make physical differences irrelevant and usher in a new era of racial harmony. Other well-meaning people try to be colour blind, unaware that they might be overlooking real problems that non-white people face each day. In her book Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Children In a Post-Racial World, author Sharon Chang looks at these issues as well as many others - and adds an extra complication: whether subtle racism and racist social structures can affect toddlers and young children.

" . . . the new vocabulary in the book has helped me talk about thoughts and feelings I didn't have words for."

Raising Mixed Race is an ambitious book, diving into issues like poverty, education, and media representation: challenges that are often linked to race. In a particularly revealing section, the parents Chang interviewed were almost all hesitant to talk about race with their kids. Most wanted to keep their children innocent, and felt that they didn't understand race anyway - but Chang says that are not blissfully unaware. She cites a study that revealed that three-year-olds preferred same-race playmates and that white children increasingly wanted white playmates as they got older. Preschoolers can treat people differently based on skin colour, with one Chinese-American mother telling Chang that their four-year-old "would not accept whites speaking to him in Mandarin, saying, 'No. You don't speak Chinese.'" From birth to adulthood, Chang writes that peers and adults keep trying to fit multiracial children into a dated five-race construct (black, brown, yellow, red, and white) to determine if they're closer to one particular race, denying them the right to identify with every part of their own heritage.

Chang's conclusions are, for the most part, hard to argue with. Parents should give their children more credit and talk about race so they can better resist the forces of institutionalized racism. However, the book's prose and organization might be hard to follow for anyone expecting another feel-good parenting book; Raising Mixed Race is denser than your average magazine article.

"I hope this discussion moves to mainstream . . . so that more people can gain the same knowledge and tools that Chang has given me."

Though it is not light reading, Raising Mixed Race is in many ways empowering: the new vocabulary in the book has helped me talk about thoughts and feelings I didn't have the words for. I hope this discussion moves to mainstream arenas like talk shows and checkstand magazines, so that more people can gain the same knowledge and tools that Chang has given me. 

My 2015 Year In Review

by Sharon H. Chang

I recently saw a fellow blogger pull together a year-in-review roundup and thought, "Why haven't I been doing that? I'm gonna try that!" So I sat down one morning and started rifling through 2015's posts and events and you know it was actually pretty fascinating. Fascinating how much can happen in a year; how momentum just moves you in certain directions when you don't even know what those directions are; how you start wondering where the journey will take you next. Okay, stopping. Won't get too heady. Needless to say I'm happy to share now, without further ado, my 2015 Year In Review . . .

New York Times Just Boarded the Post-Racial Express: A critical response to "Choose Your Own Identity"

[screen shot from NY Times Magazine]

by Sharon H Chang

This Monday, The New York Times Magazine published a very unfortunate essay about multiracial Asian children: Choose Your Own Identity, by author and mother Bonnie Tsui. In it, Tsui (who is not multiracial herself) puzzles over her children's mixed-race identities, what they may or may not choose to be one day, while taking a brief foray back/forward in time to consider the sociohistorical context of mixed-race and America's impending multiracial future. After mulling on the subject for about ten paragraphs, she concludes with a seeming liberatory message on behalf of her children: "...the truth is, I can't tell my sons what to feel...I can only tell them what I think about my own identity and listen hard to what they have to tell me in turn."

Sounds innocent enough, yes?

No.

"I'm so tired of mothers of bi and multiracial children speaking on behalf of their children." ~ TS

All about my NEW book - Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children In a Post-Racial World

When Raising Mixed Race came last week (after I screamed & did a dance first)

by Sharon H Chang

I am so thrilled to announce that, at long last, MY BOOK Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children In a Post-Racial World has been released on Routledge!!! This moment is so deeply meaningful to me beyond anything words can express. Raising Mixed Race represents not only years of work on my end but a multitude of others' lived racial realities; stories about and involving mixedness that are poignant, sharp, relevant and vital, and yet - remain mostly untold in America and around the world. To my immense and humble gratitude, advance reviewers have embraced this book with tremendous love; reviewed it glowingly in and out of the US. The Facebook Release Party for the book was incredibly well-attended on Friday, Dec 11, and pre-orders SOLD OUT on Amazon over the weekend! It is my sincere belief if we engage with Raising Mixed Race it can (will) challenge our thinking on mixedness to go deeper and contribute to moving society as a whole towards justice, healing and true transformation. I hope you too will read Raising Mixed Race, and join our journey.

In the mean time, you can of course find a brief Raising Mixed Race book description at any online retailer. But I know that doesn't tell much. So. I put together a little extra something to give you a closer peak. Following are summaries for the book's chapters plus short videos of ME telling you all about them (from the Facebook Release Party)! Take a look, and Happy Reading...

'Raising Mixed Race' Virtual Release Party!!

YOU'RE INVITED

I'm having a party for my new book Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children In a Post-Racial World on Friday December 11 and I want you to come! And guess what? If you use the Internet and Facebook - you CAN. What's a Facebook party you ask? It's easy. That's what it is. Facebookers (and newbies) just do what you always do. Log on to Facebook, go to the Raising Mixed Race Facebook page any time between 9:30am-1:30pm PST on Dec 11, read, like, comment, share and voila! We have a party. But suuuch a cool party. Really. I'm super excited. Here's some things you can expect:

• Posts every few minutes - for four hours - so yeah, LOTS going on
• Video "sneak peeks" of Raising Mixed Race chapters (2 mins or less promise!) 
• Thread discussions (though this isn't a rant party, so light thread discussions)
• Humor - as in memes and word games like "caption this" or "react to this"

But possibly the best part of the party? THE GIVEAWAYS. THE GIVEAWAYS. THE GIVEAWAYS. I'll be giving away 4 signed copies of Raising Mixed Race plus over 20 stellar donations by other authors, artists and filmmakers - all by/about mixed race Asians.

Professor Minelle Mahtani on 'Raising Mixed Race' in Canada

Following are closing remarks given by Minelle Mahtani after the premiere of my new book Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children In a Post-Racial World at Hapa-Palooza Festival 2015, Vancouver B.C. Minelle Mahtani is Associate Professor of Human Geography and Journalism at University of Toronto-Scarborough. Currently she is on sabbatical to host new show 'Sense of Place' on Roundhouse Radio. She is also author of the recent book 'Mixed Race Amnesia: Resisting the Romanticization of Multiraciality.'  

My book 'Raising Mixed Race' will be released December 11, 2015. 

*     *     *     *     *

Minelle Mahtani [image from Twitter @mminelle]

"Hi everybody. I’m going to keep this really short and sweet because I just think that we’ve heard so many really important things. But I just want to say thank you, Jeff, for that really warm introduction. And I just want to thank Sharon and Professor Wei Ming Dariotis for the extraordinary contribution they made here tonight.

For me being in this room really means a lot. I think it’s really rare that so many mixed people come together to have these conversations...I think it’s really valuable to remember that you’re not alone in this and that there’s other people around who want to share in these conversations. I grew up as a person of mixed race identity. I’m [of] Indian, Iranian, Muslim, Hindu background. And that was a really complicated identity to have in the suburbs of Toronto, mostly white area, that I grew up in.

I remember being called the N-word in grade three, coming home and telling my mother...and my mother bursting into tears.

I’ve been called every single racial slur you can imagine. I remember being called the N-word in grade three, coming home and telling my mother (I didn’t even know what it meant), and my mother bursting into tears. So what does that story tell us right? In terms of the kind of information that we receive and the kinds of information we get from our parents in terms of how they can cope with these stories. Instead of my mother explaining to me the tortured history behind that word - she immediately felt guilty. I think that’s really important. I think that’s what we need to think about.

But...I want to talk about Sharon for a minute.

Talking Race, ID & Racism with Families of Color Seattle

with FOCS Board and Staff [Photo Credit: Amy Pak]

by Sharon H Chang

On Saturday October 10 I had the very distinct honor of being part of Families of Color Seattle (FOCS)'s first of five Community Dialogues on Race and Family: "Talking Race, Identity and Racism." FOCS is an emerging, young local nonprofit whose mission is to build strong communities of color by supporting families via parenting programs, resource sharing, and fostering meaningful connections. Their vision is children of color will be born into loving world that is racially and economically just. This is the first time the org has undertaken a community dialogue series. The other dialogues will include: "Multiracial Families," "Anti-Bias Education and Schools," "Anti-Racist Birthing," and "Transracial Adoption Experiences."

Technically I was the kickoff keynote at this first launch event but it didn't feel like that - which was actually kind of awesome.