The Mulatto Vibe: You Might Be A Mulatto, If...

-=[ Variations on a Theme of a Mulatto ]=-

I got the following from Claudine Chiawei O’Hearn’s book on biculturalism Half and half: Writers growing up biracial and bicultural. I strongly recommend the book for anyone interested bicultural/ biracial issues: Senna, D. (1998). The mulatto millennium. In C. C. O'Hearn (Ed.), Half and half: Writers growing up biracial and bicultural (pp. 12-27). New York: Random House.

Standard Mulatto: White mother, black father. Half nappy hair, skin that is described as “pasty yellow” in the winter, but turns a caramel tan in the summer. Germanic-Afro features. Often raised in isolation from others of its kind. Does not discover his or her “Black identity” until college. At this point, there is usually some physical change in hair or clothing, and often speech, so much so that the parents don’t recognize their child when he or she arrives home for Christmas vacation. (E.g., “Honey, there’s a black kid at the door.”)

African-American: The most common form of mulatto in North America, this breed is not often described as mixed, but is nevertheless a combination of African, European, and Native American. May come in any skin tone, and of any cultural background. Often believe themselves to be “pure” due to historical distance from the original mixture, which was most often achieved through rape.

Jewlatto: The second most prevalent form of mulatto in the North American continent, this breed is made in the commingling of Jews and Blacks who met while registering votes down South during Freedom Summer or at a CORE meeting. Jewlattos will often, though not necessarily always, have a white father and a black mother (as opposed to the more common case, a black father and a white mother). Will also be more likely to be raised in a diverse setting, around others of his or her own kind, such as New York City (Greenwich Village) or Northern California (Berkley). Have strong pride in their mixed background. Will often feel that their dual cultures are not so dual at all, considering the shared history of oppression. Jewlattos are most easily spotted amid the flora and fauna of Brown University. Famous Jewlattos: Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet (and we can’t forget Zo, their love child).

Tribal Wives: Is this Entertainment or Ethnocentrism?

By Joanna (JuJuBe)

In my travels across the internet, I recently came across some youtube videos from the BBC, from a 2008 show called "Tribal Wives". The basic premise of the show is that a British (white) woman would leave her life behind for a month and join a "tribal" culture to document and experience every day life in a different cultural setting. I had not seen this show before, and until today, had not even heard of it. But, from the clips I have seen, I am pretty appalled. It is just another in a long line of culturally exploitative programs designated to degrade and demean non "Western" people.

Each of the clips I watched seem to be dedicated to exploiting exploring the "otherness" of "tribal" cultures. Supposedly, the show is about learning the customs of other groups of people, but from what I can see, it is more about showing how "primitive" and "misguided" the featured cultures are. One video emphasized wife beating. Another addressed forced child marriage. Yet another addressed female circumcision.

Beneath each of the commentaries offered on each of the clips runs an undercurrent of disrespect for the cultural traditions of the people involved. The show is filmed from a 100% Eurocentric perspective, and every custom highlighted is compared to the supposedly more "enlightened" British practices. Some of the British participants tried to question the love that the parents had for their children simply because they participated in cultural traditions that are not approved by "Westerners".

Perhaps there should be a show where individuals from other cultures come to observe and comment on "Western" ideals and behavior. I wonder how they would feel about the sexualization of little girls in beauty pageants? Or the fact that many "Western" children are raised by nannies OR by the boob tube instead of by their parents?

Reality television is one of the most popular forms of entertainment today. And a lot of reality television is based on "cultural tourism". A Western (usually white) individual invades the space of a "traditional" (usually non white) culture, pretends to be "appreciating" the vastly different way of life, and instead is actually reinforcing the notion of the inferiority of others.

Take for example Bizarre Foods with Anthony Zimmern. The title alone is enough to discern the impetus behind this sort of program. Take a white man, inject him into a new (usually non white) culture, and have him emphasize the "strangeness", the "otherness" of the traditions practiced (in this case food). Add some grimaces and dry heaves for effect, and you have an accurate portrayal of how white folks look upon other cultures with disdain.

These sorts of programs are less about learning and appreciating cultural diversity among the people of the world and more about elevating "Western" (white) traditions above all others. They are produced in a way that makes them seem more akin to documentaries about wildlife than about human beings. The emphasis is on what "Westerners" see as "strange" or "primitive" rather than on the lives, loves, feelings and thoughts of real, living, breathing human beings who happen to participate in their own cultural traditions!

Between Black and White: Latino/as In the US

-=[ Black and White and Spic and Span ]=-

-Naaaahhh... You ain't no Porta Reecan.

-I keep telling you: The boy is a Black man with an accent.

-- Wille Perdomo (for Piri Thomas), Nigger-Reecan Blues

[Editor's Note: I've been lazy and as the Latino contingent of this blog, I've been remiss in my duties, what with this being "His-Panic Heritage Month" and all... Anyway, this is in response to some here calling Rick Sanchez "white." Just letting you muthafuckas know, first gringo (black or white) calls me white, gets a visit from the Nuyorican Hit Squad! LOL!!]

Growing up, I had a friend who we nicknamed, “Shadow.” Shadow was a Golden Gloves champion, a Puerto Rican whose dark skin earned him the moniker. He was dark, but not as black as another childhood friend we used to call “Blue.” LOL. Blue was an African American, a cocolo as Puerto Ricans used to sometimes refer to African Americans (yes, it was a pejorative).

The thing with Shadow was that, though he was dark-skinned, he had a sister who was very light-skinned -- light-skinned as in “white” not “Creole,” or “high yellow.” In fact, they looked as if they came from different families. I have blue eyes and I am light-skinned. I was often mistaken for being white. Shadow and I used to hang out and we would watch each other’s backs because the rough and tumble ghettos of New York City where we were raised, we identified as Puerto Ricans.

Blacks and whites used to get very confused around Puerto Ricans because we would refuse to identify as either black or white. I am not white, in the sense that I identify with whiteness as it is defined in the U.S. Shadow didn’t identify as black as it is defined in the US. Before anything, we were were first Boricuas -- Puerto Ricans.

These issues caused many problems for Puerto Ricans. At home, we were treated equally: there was no “white Puerto Rican” vs. a “black Puerto Rican,” we were brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles. Our mothers didn't say, “My white Puerto Rican son, Eddie,” or “My black Puerto Rican niece, Nydia.” We were Puerto Ricans.

We were familia, communidad, and skin color wasn’t a determining factor for accessing love or whatever benefits our families could provide. The same, however, wasn’t true when we were exposed to the social institutions in the USA. At school, we were often separated though my cousin at home was just as smart as I was. Though I don’t identify as a white, I learned quickly that I was given preferential treatment because of my Eurocentric features. We all learned this early on in our lives. In some cases, it served to makes us cling more closely together, in other instances it was a source of much pain and grief -- of identity crisis.

¡Ask a Nuyorican!

¡Hola! Gringos! It’s National HisPanic Month (or something like that) and as the resident Nuyorican, I’ll be posting almost exclusively on things Latino/a over at my blog.

* * *

Being a Primer on How to be a Nuyorican via Cuss Words, Sex, and Everything Else

So, I was reading ¡Ask A Mexican! by Gustavo Arellano and I found it hilarious. I was thinking that since the messakins have such a reference source, then the second largest Latino/a demographic, people of Puerto Rican descent, should be similarly honored. After all, in the northeast and in places like Chicago, Puerto Ricans are most likely the majority of Latino/as you will run into. Shit, we even have a tight-knit clan in Hawaii, part of the unintended result of Operation Bootstrap. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself here and I don’t want to give anyone a headache.


Notice the word in my title, Nuyorican? Well, a Nuyorican is a person of Puerto Rican descent or birth who was born or raised in New York City. Lots of Dominicans and Cubans ad assorted other Latino/as try to pass themselves off a Nuyoricans, but you can tell us apart right away: we’re the first ones to speak up.

Now, if you’re from the South or the West Coast, you might not even know what a Puerto Rican is or that Puerto Rico is a colony of the good old U.S. of A. Yup, that’s right. Puerto Rico, a small island in the Caribbean, is one of the oldest colonies on the planet (a distinction we share with our Irish brothers and sisters!).

As a result of the Jones Act, we are citizens of the USA. Not that we asked for it. In fact, we had nothing to do with it, since our little islita was part of the spoils of the Spanish-American War. But in any case, we are US citizens, so all you black and white Americanos who are too stupid to know your own country’s geography and who are about to ask me for my green card -- I got yer fuckin’ green card...

::right here::

I once had to set an educator Down South straight while attempting to register my younger brother in school, dumb fuckin’ hick. A teacher should know America, right?

Now that we got that out of the way... we can move on to the juicier stuff! Let’s start with language. This is by no means an exhaustive list and I hope to continue adding to it, but it will have to suffice for now...