With a roster of acclaimed authors, Mixed explodes expectations of what it means to be multiracial.
The complexion of America is changing. People can trace their lineage to Native American, African American, Asian, Irish, Italian, and Puerto Rican — sometimes all in the same person. The United States alone counts over twenty million people of multiracial descent, and the number is growing. With contributors such as Danzy Senna, Cristina Garcia, and Diana Abu-Jaber, and with an illuminating introduction by Rebecca Walker, Mixed is the first anthology to give voice to the multiple identities of the rising generation. Peter Ho Davies’s confused minotaur; Ruth Ozeki’s young, biracial gumshoes; and Wayde Compton’s college junkie inhabit stories that are as broad in style as in perspective. Yet, as a whole, Mixed reflects a singular spirit, one of nonconformity in a world where people continue to ask the question “What are you?” and then wait for a one-word response.
2 Comments
Wish I’d known about this when I was teaching Cross Cultural Psychology at the Community College here in Tucson. I had to quit to follow my dreams…. But it was hard to leave because our future leaders need this awareness-building now. They need to read the Declaration of human rights, and to see Howard Zinn movies, and to be challenged in their projections and stereotyping. It is vitally important. Arizona has recently been called a ‘Mecca of racism” by our top cop. Good for him, I say. But this does not change the criminally low funding that the Educational system gets here.
I can’t remember if I wrote that I taught Cross Cultural Psychology and Gender Psychology at Pima Community College here in Tucson, AZ. I will send the name of this book to my ex-colleagues.