The Defenders Online

The Defenders Online http://www.thedefendersonline.com A civil rights blog promoting informed discourse on issues of race, justice, equality and democracy. Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:52:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 A civil rights blog promoting informed discourse on issues of race, justice, equality and democracy. The Editors http://www.thedefendersonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/TheDefendersOnline.com.jpgThe Defenders Onlinehttp://www.thedefendersonline.com NAACP LDF, The Defenders Online no The Defenders Online blogmaster@naacpldf.org Identity Wars: I’m Biracial … Not Confused Damn It! http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/10/02/identity-wars-i%e2%80%99m-biracial-%e2%80%a6-not-confused-damn-it/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/10/02/identity-wars-i%e2%80%99m-biracial-%e2%80%a6-not-confused-damn-it/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:24:33 +0000 The Editors http://www.thedefendersonline.com/?p=10656 TaRessa Stovall The I’m Biracial … Not Black Damn It! trailer, part of a four-part series on biracial identity today, concentrates on black/white mixed persons, first-generation sons and daughters of black/white couples, expressing their frustration at being labeled “black” rather than feeling recognized, accepted and affirmed for all that they are.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/10/02/identity-wars-i%e2%80%99m-biracial-%e2%80%a6-not-confused-damn-it/feed/ 4 By TaRessa Stovall <div id="related-links"> <h3>Related Links</h3> <ul> <li><a title="Listen to Carolyn on The Michael Baisden Show, Aug. 4, 2009. " href="http://citadelcc.vo.llnwd.net/o29/baisdenpod/podcast/drama-tuesday/dt_hr2_a_08042009.mp3" target="_blank">Listen to Carolyn on The Michael Baisden Show, Aug. 4, 2009.</a></li> </ul> </div> “What are you?” is a common question when you’re biracial. Sometimes people ask because they can’t tell your race simply by looking at you; sometimes they ask because they know you have mixed parentage, and they’re curious about how you’ve chosen to self-identify. <a href="http://www.thedefendersonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Biracial-art-copy.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-10660 alignleft" style="margin: 5px; border: 1px solid black;" title="Biracial art copy" src="http://www.thedefendersonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Biracial-art-copy.jpg" alt="Biracial art copy" width="267" height="200" /></a>Then there are those people who take it upon themselves to tell you what you are. And if the label they slap you with doesn’t match the way you self-identify, there can be tension. Misunderstandings. And a whole lot of frustration. While biracial isn’t confined by definition to half black and half white, that seems to be a common point of reference in this country. When it comes to the quest for identity and the struggle for labels that answer more questions than they raise, what does the sum of black and white equal in America today? When do two halves blend into one or the other, and when do they stand on their own? And do all biracial people want to be viewed the same way? There’s a video trailer heating up the internet, titled I’m Biracial … Not Black Damn It! that brings these questions for us to consider at a time like no other in our nation’s tense, tangled racial history. We have a self-described “African American of mixed heritage” leading our country. And while interracial romance and marriage are still considered, if not “taboo,” then controversial enough to pretty much guarantee radio and TV ratings, Census reports suggest that race-mixing is on the rise and here to stay. Enter Carolyn Battle Cochrane, a biracial woman on a mission to help her people construct a publicly-affirmed identity that stands on its own. I’m Biracial … Not Black Damn It! “started as therapy, a small project where I got in touch with myself and a few of my [biracial] girlfriends. It was my personal story, but then I started interviewing people and found that, oh my God, there’s this common story that nobody’s ever talked about publicly,” Cochrane said. “It was this private conversation.” Cochrane penned a memoir, Private Conversations, about her experience. “I had been living my life as a black woman for 30-some years, and I didn’t like how I felt inside,” Cochrane said. Growing up in Queens, N.Y., with a white mother and black father, “I hated the fact that my mother was white, so I didn’t like my mother.” But hearing black people talk about whites “made me sick. I would throw up almost every day of my life, from hearing black people talk about white people,” she said. “Then I finally decided I didn’t want to participate. I realized my mother loved me and I’d always pushed her away.” Talking with others, she saw the bigger picture. “There is something way more than my story. This is a group of other people who have my same story,” she explained. The [...] By TaRessa Stovall The I’m Biracial … Not Black Damn It! trailer, part of a four-part series on biracial identity today, concentrates on black/white mixed persons, first-generation sons and daughters of black/white [...] A Long Way From Home http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/11/13/a-long-way-from-home/ http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/11/13/a-long-way-from-home/#comments Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:03:57 +0000 The Editors http://thedefendersonline.org/?p=1244 Damon Hewitt A year and a half after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, native son and R&B singer Roi Anthony released a song entitled “A Long Way From Home.” Part mournful and part hopeful, the song captured the burdened yet resilient spirit of New Orleanians displaced by the storm. Sadly, over three years after Katrina, his lyrics continue to ring true.]]> http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2008/11/13/a-long-way-from-home/feed/ 0 <a name="top"></a> <a href="http://thedefendersonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/2006_0520image0136.jpg" rel="shadowbox[post-1244];player=img;"><img class="size-full wp-image-1257 alignright" style="border: 3px solid black; margin: 5px;" title="2006_0520image0136" src="http://thedefendersonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/2006_0520image0136.jpg" alt="Katrina damaged home" width="200" height="150" /></a>By Damon Hewitt “I’m a long way from home. And all my memories. I’ve gotta find my way back somehow, Back down to New Orleans. - from the song “Long Way From Home” by Roi Anthony A year and a half after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, native son and R&B singer Roi Anthony released a song entitled “A Long Way From Home.” Part mournful and part hopeful, the song captured the burdened yet resilient spirit of New Orleanians displaced by the storm. Sadly, over three years after Katrina, his lyrics continue to ring true. Most people know about how so many New Orleanians, mostly poor and black, were left to languish in the days after the storm. And most people know that most of the catastrophic flooding in New Orleans and the surrounding parishes was attributable not only to a natural disaster, but also the man-made disaster of faultily-constructed levees. Yet, many are still wondering why so many people have yet to return home. Yesterday the Legal Defense Fund helped to explain one of the key reasons. <a href="http://thedefendersonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/11820008.jpg" rel="shadowbox[post-1244];player=img;"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1259" style="border: 3px solid black; margin: 5px;" title="11820008" src="http://thedefendersonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/11820008.jpg" alt="Katrina damaged home" width="200" height="132" /></a>LDF filed a new housing discrimination lawsuit yesterday, alleging that the largest housing recovery program in history shortchanges African American homeowners by $1 billion dollars. The lawsuit claims that the Road Home program, a post-Katrina housing program designed to restore devastated communities in the New Orleans area and throughout Louisiana, systematically discriminates against black families in New Orleans by giving them less money to rebuild their homes than similarly-situated white families. The Road Home program is a massive, $11 billion program funded by the U.S. Congress after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf coast in 2005. Under the Road Home program, homeowners receive grants based on the lower of two figures – the home’s pre-storm market value, or the cost of replacing the structure to a minimal standard. Black residents in New Orleans are disproportionately harmed by this formula because appraised home values in predominately black neighborhoods tend to be lower than the values of similar houses in predominately white neighborhoods. As a result, the grants for African-American homeowners are more likely to be based upon the pre-storm value of their homes, leaving them without enough money to rebuild. In contrast, white homeowners are more likely to receive grants based on the actual cost of repairs. With this kind of formula, many black residents are not very far along on the proverbial “road home”. Instead, <a href="#statements">they are still a long way from home</a>, as Roi Anthony’s song lamented. <a [...] By Damon Hewitt A year and a half after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, native son and R&B singer Roi Anthony released a song entitled “A Long Way From Home.” Part mournful and part hopeful, the song [...]