I'm Not Just One Box!

I'm currently unemployed. Not by choice, but also not undeserved. In any event, I'm in the midst of the arduous task of looking for work.

More and more, I'm noticing employers asking for demographic information. Gender and race, specifically.
[]Male
[]Female

[]White/ Caucasian
[]Black/ African-American
[]Hispanic/ Latino
[]Asian
[]Native America
[]Native Alaskan
[]Other

Sometimes, they include parenthetical exceptions to the choices. (Non-Hispanic). Occasionally they break it down further and give Filipinos their own box. Now and again, you'll see extensive descriptions of what qualifies one as Hispanic as opposed to White or Black. I've even seen them describe what defines being White!

Most of the time they call this Voluntary Self-Identification. They tell you about the information being used for demographic purposes. Presumably, they can tell people proudly the percentage of their employees that are Asian. 75% of The Company is female!

Every single one of them tells you to only choose one box.

Yes, I understand I should pick Black, since I look Black, and maybe they'll hire me because they need one more Black woman on staff. I mean, obviously they still believe in the "one drop of Black blood" rule, so I can't really argue against it.

But the White box is right there! According to some of the parentheticals I've read, Italian counts as White. I identify with my mom, too, not just my brown skin. She showed me how to make pasta sauce and polenta. She gave me a love of reading. She taught me to speak Italian, since her whole family still lives in Italy. Because of her, I can talk to my grandmother and sing silly songs about a boy called Piroline. Because of her, I can't dance to save my life.

Why can't I pick both?

Why am I being such a baby about this? Normally, I opt not to take these little quizzes. I don't need to identify myself other than to tell you I type 70 words per minute and am proficient in Microsoft Excel. And I refuse to relocate.

This time around, I am so desperate for income that I considered it. I don't know if I'd feel good knowing I got a job because of my skin color. I certainly don't want to not get a job because of the color of my skin, either. If I can use it to my advantage, why not? Then I can get in there and bust ass to show them I've got more qualifications than my caramelly brown skin. I can be a shining example of Black womanhood, with my tiny afro and elephant earrings. I speak precise English, but I'll still cut you if you cross me. Hire me!

Then I start thinking these people should hire me based solely on the fact that I'm awesome. I've got the skills to make this organization work! I'm a team player. These spectacular qualities are independent of my skin. To be hired for any other reason would be selling myself short, wouldn't it? Hired not because I'm perfect for the job, but because I meet the quota? It doesn't feel right.

These people are lucky the Voluntary Self Identification page doesn't include a free form text box.

I guess I'll click []Other.

Interracial Relationships.......Social Stigma or a Sign of Progression?

The four contributors to this blog are all the better halves (*wink*) of interracial relationships. Us four all being minorities, makes for a somewhat limited dating pool in this land of the Free. Unless of course, SouthernCanadian and I want to take a rice boat over to Asia Town, we're pretty limited, but I digress. For this post, I'm focusing on MY interracial relationship, and going to give my observations on how it impacts MY life. Everyone's experience is probably different, some better, some worse, but for the most part, different. So since I am a contributor to this blog, here goes nothing.

All my life I've dated Caucasian men, except for my first boyfriend who was Korean, but that's neither here nor there. Everyone since him has been Caucasian. My boyfriend now is Czech and Slovenian. White as a grain of rice. Which makes for an interesting combination with me. We get stared at, well, mostly they stare at me and then glace at him and then go back to me. I'll just assume its because I'm so freakin' gorgeous.

We went out to lunch one day in a really small town and we were getting stared at left and right. You'd swear that these people had never seen an Asian person. It doesn't bother me so much, I'm used to it, but my boyfriend isn't used to it. He kept asking me if he looked funny, and he does, but we won't talk about that! *wink* He's never dated an Asian girl, so this whole thing is new to him. I told him to get used to getting stared at.

At least getting stared at is better than the comments that I've gotten. One guy I was seeing, some lady thought he bought me. And another guy, we wanted to pretend I was his Asian mail order bride at his brother's wedding, but it was too late, his family already knew who I was. I've gotten comments before, like I should date my "own kind" and crap like that and where they are hurtful, I've learned to let them roll off my back. Its the only thing to do. Which brings to me next point:

Are interracial couples a sign of social progression or a social stigma? There are still areas of the US that are very against interracial couples. I've heard of families moving out of neighborhoods to avoid conflict because they were interracial. And where I think we have made leaps and bounds in the acceptance of interracial couples, its still no where where I think it should be. Today in many urban areas, couples don't get so much as a second glance, when I lived in New York City, no one even noticed me, and I still think thats because my office was right next to Chinatown and I just blended in, but I digress (again).

I would like to be able to walk down the street holding my boyfriend's hand and not get one stare. I would like to go to middle of nowhere Ohio and not be judged immediately because my skin is yellow. I would like to not be considered inferior in a relationship because I'm Asian. Another example of how people think, is when we were out to dinner once, the waiter didn't even ask me what I wanted. He just expected my boyfriend to order for both of us. Maybe he thought I didn't speak English because I was a mail order bride or some crap, but it still bothered me.

So where I think we have made great strides in seeing interracial couples as "normal" couples, we still have a long way to go. Its not so much a stigma anymore, but I don't think we've made the progression to full acceptance. I still believe that many people need to understand that disease, hurt, pain, happiness, joy, and especially love know no racial lines.

I'm not even sure how to headline this one.

I heard about this on a local radio station this morning and immediately went and looked for actual news articles. The basic idea is that under this legislation, MnSCU would require undergraduate instructors to speak "plain, unaccented English."

(The first thing I thought was, "Who elected my ex-boyfriend of 'but you're one of the GOOD minorities' fame to the state legislature??")

The plan is to ask the University of Minnesota to implement something similar. Putting aside for just a moment the fact that this is horribly wrong and speaking strictly from a practical perspective, I think that would be troublesome to say the least, given that the pool of qualified graduate TAs would be drastically cut.

I realize that's beside the point and that the real issue is that it's a discriminatory and immoral bill; it's just a bad idea all the way around. It's not that I am completely unsympathetic to frustrated undergrad students. It can be difficult for me to understand someone who speaks English with an accent. But that is my problem. Making it their problem and making it their problem legally is impossible to justify when one considers that the byproduct of such a policy would be the systematic disqualification of TAs or professors on the basis of ethnic or national origin. That Minnesota lawmakers would condone this is troubling to me.

The text of the article appearing in the Duluth News-Tribune is below (I don't believe their online articles are placed in a restricted archive); a link to the original Star Tribune article is at the bottom.

Bill voices concern over professors' accents

Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Instructors who want to teach at Minnesota colleges would have to prove they can speak English clearly before appearing at the head of the classroom, if a bill at the Legislature becomes law.

The bill would require schools in Minnesota State Colleges and Universities to ensure their undergraduate teachers speak plain, unaccented English. It would request the same of the University of Minnesota, which the Legislature has limited authority to regulate.

Rep. Bud Heidgerken, a former teacher and current cafe owner, said he's heard plenty from former students and employees about their struggles to understand professors with thick accents.

"I've had many students say they dropped a course or delayed graduation for a semester because they couldn't get around this one professor they couldn't understand," the Freeport Republican said. "All I'm trying to accomplish is getting the best education we have for postsecondary students."

Three states - North Dakota, Texas and Pennsylvania - have laws dealing with the English proficiency of college teachers.

MnSCU officials said few international students teach undergraduates at state colleges and universities. At the University of Minnesota, officials say international students already take a spoken language test before they are allowed to teach.

Peter Hudleston, associate dean for student affairs at the university's Institute of Technology, said comprehension problems sometimes crop up. But he said school officials warn students "they have to expect to be able to understand and converse with people from other parts of the English-speaking world. They have to be able to deal with different accents."

Travis Reindl, director of state policy analysis with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, finds the legislation troublesome.

"If we start sending a message here that if you can't speak the king's English flawlessly, we don't want you in our classrooms, that sends a message that the U.S. is not a friendly place for them," he said. "(Besides), there are parts of this country where you would swear that English is a second language based on your own background. If you took somebody from Minnesota and plunked him in Mississippi, then you might have a question."

University of Minnesota sophomore Clint Hanson, a chemical engineering major, said he's been able to adapt to most accents.

"It's tolerable," he said. "Right from the get-go it sets a bit of a learning curve, but I haven't had any detrimental experiences with it."

---

Information from: Star Tribune

Genetics 101

This is the story of the couple in the UK who are both of mixed heritage and had twins: one Black baby and one White baby.

List of Multiracial Americans

I love Wikipedia. It's useful for so many things. Who knew there was a list of multiracial famous Americans?

Mulitracial Americans

This makes research so damn easy now.

It's All About the Curl

From a contributor. Thank you, K.

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My daughter is racially mixed: her father is African-American, and I am of European descent. I’ve always thought that my daughter looks just like me, only with brown skin and curly hair. We’ve compared our features in the mirror—same nose, same eyes, same mouth, same facial structure. Strangely enough, though, when people see the two of us together, they alway ask me if she’s adopted. (To be fair, that’s especially true when we are with her brothers, who have much lighter complexions than her.) Americans can’t seem to look past the color of her skin. The only people who seem to be able see anything but color when they look at her are Asians and Indians. People in these groups are likely to say something like, “What a cute daughter you have. She looks just like you!”

A few weeks ago, we got my daughter’s hair relaxed. I wasn’t too happy about the idea (I loved her curly hair), but she’s been asking about it for a long time. When she came home from a visit to her Dad’s with half of her hair in dreadlocks (he doesn’t believe in combing), I decided that drastic measures were in order. We went to a good hairdresser and I forked over an unprecedented $140 to get my daughter’s hair straightened.

I guess the high price tag was worth it, because my daughter looks like she was born with straight hair. It looks totally natural. The weirdest thing is the reactions that I now get from people. At the hospital the other day (she had to go in for an x-ray), the intake worker said “What would you like me to list as her race?” I’d never been asked that before; people just check the African-American box without question, or maybe with an “African-American, right?” Later on at a playground, a parent asked me “Is she mixed?” Is she mixed?!?! No one ever asked me that before; they just assume that she is at least part black. When I said “Yes,” the parent asked “With what?” Even knowing that my daughter was mixed, the questioner didn’t assume that the mixture included African-American.

It’s almost a surreal experience for me. Her skin color hasn’t changed, but the change from curly to straight hair has moved perceptions of her from “black” to “possibly mixed.” And when her mixed heritage is confirmed, people don’t even assume that the non-European part is African; people have guessed Puerto Rican, Indian, even Italian.

Here I was thinking all my life that people are racist about skin color. And it turns out it’s really about the curl in you hair. Makes you think…

"Come on, people, isn't it OBVIOUS??"

I was sitting in class yesterday, getting organized, when a woman of Asian descent sat in the desk next to mine. I didn't really pay much attention to her other than to note her presence, until she asked me in heavily accented English, "Do you speak Mandarin?"

Now. I have NEVER been asked this question by anyone, let alone another Asian. There is a not-often-spoken rule that in general, Twinkies and non-Twinkies can tell each other apart with fair accuracy. In addition, I've been told this by enough friends who have grown up in various Asian nations that I would believe it: There are apparently definite differences in physical features and that if you have grown up in one of these countries, you can tell people of different national origins apart...and that I definitely look Korean. So I was taken by complete surprise. My knee jerk reaction was a confused stare, followed by a dirty, "you obviously have two heads" look and an annoyed, "No."

It was her turn to look utterly confused. Seeing this, I looked directly at her and explained somewhat testily, "I'm not Chinese. I'm Korean. And I grew up here in the States."

Wilting under my level stare, she said only, "Oh...you look Chinese..."

I was so irritated by this that I couldn't think of a polite response. So I said nothing.

Rationally, I know that just because I think my "American-ness" is self-evident doesn't mean that all other people notice it. If I assume it is salient, that assumption is substantiated only by my own egocentrism. And there's nothing wrong with being Chinese or with not growing up here. It's okay to not be a "banana." I have no logical reason for feeling so irritated at being mistaken for either a Chinese person or an Asian-American who didn't actually grow up in this country.

Why, then, do I feel so insulted?