[Applause]
tupac shakur was a visionary a rapper
and a poet he’s someone who words and
lyrics captivating the hearts and minds
of millions one song in particular
captivated mine it was a song title to
live and die in LA he said it wouldn’t
be out leg without Mexicans black love
brown pride and it sets again you see
for the child of a black father and
Mexican mother or a black surgeon these
words envision a world that I could only
dream of a world in which I could be
black and brown at the same time in the
middle of a community that was racially
divided by race but in my struggle to
identify I realized one thing I was
never truly alone in the summer of 2014
I started project called black skins of
LA we sought to understand Los Angeles
and the experiences of black skins it
integrated social media academic
research and photography and as I
compiled interviews and took more and
more photos I realized that this was
part of a larger movement you see this
country is becoming increasingly
multiracial multi-ethnic and
multilingual by it
every single day in the 1970s one
percent of all children born were
multiracial today it’s about 12% while
this may seem novel a cursory glance
through Wratten America’s racial history
shows us that this experience has been
happening for centuries when the Spanish
colonized the Americas and Mexico in
particular they devised a pictorial
representation of race and multi racial
identity a system of paintings called
las Casas mascots does characterize
people according to their phenotype or
characteristics hair texture skin tone
and others as well
names were given to people like lotta
lotto Pardo Lobo misty psalmist ISA and
countless others it was an experience I
carried over to the founding of this
very city you see Los Angeles was
founded in 1781 by a group of afro
Mexican settlers indigenous folks and
Spanish it was a group of people who in
many ways could have been black students
themselves it’s an experience that
carries over to this very day Amanda was
born and raised in East LA in a
predominantly Mexican home to a Mexican
single mother she experienced anti black
racism both in her home and outside of
it it wasn’t until she got older that
she realized that what she was
experiencing was not a reflection of her
own story or experience but really the
faults of others or Richard a
self-identified Afro Mexican whose
parents instilled a deep sense of pride
in him to be both after an
afro-descendant and also indigenous in
the world today he’s a prominent
filmmaker in Los Angeles but what does
it mean to be a woman to be black to be
brown and to be Muslim in his current
political racial climate you see my
Reece story pushes boundaries and allows
us to think about political and racial
coalition’s in a way and has not been
possible but this is also a story about
Eurasian what does it mean to grow up
your entire life believing that the
people who raised you your mother and
father were both non black Mexicans and
then realizing one day that your father
was actually african-american and your
mother lied to you for fear the fear of
you being isolated and marginalized from
the rest
family this is Maggie story but it’s not
just about pain and trauma it’s also
about accommodation and sometimes joy
you see Maria’s parents met on a public
bus in the early 1980s in South Los
Angeles Maria’s father was a bus driver
and her mother took his bus every single
morning to work there was an instant
connection love at first sight we can
say but there was one problem Maria’s
father didn’t speak a word of Spanish
and her mother didn’t speak a word of
English so it took her father six months
to learn how to ask her out on a date in
Spanish which she agreed to and it took
him another six months to learn how to
ask her to marry him but she also agreed
to you see but it’s also about what it
means to grow up in a community that
forces you to pick sides for a lot of
blacks in South Central Los Angeles
their experiences were deeply divided
along racial ties memo is someone who
grew up in South Los Angeles at a time
that was clearly divided by race and in
structural racism it wasn’t until he got
older that he realized that it was never
a question of either or a really a
question of hand for memo it was about
being black and brown at the same time
but while this story in this project is
about faces and the environment it’s
also about the power of hands and what
we can carry it in our hands
sometimes it’s trauma and pain and
memory and history and sometimes it’s
photos of our parents you see what can
how can Hands bring together worlds and
people in a way that word and social
movements cannot
but while this is very much a story
about Los Angeles and racial dynamics
and identity throughout Los Angeles the
black skinned experience can tell us so
much about the future of race and
identity in the US since early 1990s
Latino immigrants have immigrated to
places like Alabama Georgia North
Carolina and living and working
alongside African Americans and
oftentimes replicating some of the very
experiences and trends found in Los
Angeles
with black skins and black and rock
communities when I first met Ken Sophia
and Alejandra in the summer of 2015 I
was instantly captivated by the love and
intimacy that they shared for one
another it was deeply moving but I
wanted to know one thing I wanted to
know what it would mean to raise a black
skinned daughter in this current
political and racial climate their
response Florida me they said we will
teach her to be explicitly black and
explicitly brown there is no other way
as 2043 continues to be a moment that
that social scientists predict that
there will be more people of color than
white Americans in this country for some
that brings trepidation and anxiety or
even fear for others that brings joy
promise and hope but for families like
Ken Alejandra Dez and Sofia’s and the
city of Los Angeles and the people
behind me 20:43 has already arrived
thank you
you
[Applause]
tupac shakur was a visionary a rapper
and a poet he’s someone who words and
lyrics captivating the hearts and minds
of millions one song in particular
captivated mine it was a song title to
live and die in LA he said it wouldn’t
be out leg without Mexicans black love
brown pride and it sets again you see
for the child of a black father and
Mexican mother or a black surgeon these
words envision a world that I could only
dream of a world in which I could be
black and brown at the same time in the
middle of a community that was racially
divided by race but in my struggle to
identify I realized one thing I was
never truly alone in the summer of 2014
I started project called black skins of
LA we sought to understand Los Angeles
and the experiences of black skins it
integrated social media academic
research and photography and as I
compiled interviews and took more and
more photos I realized that this was
part of a larger movement you see this
country is becoming increasingly
multiracial multi-ethnic and
multilingual by it
every single day in the 1970s one
percent of all children born were
multiracial today it’s about 12% while
this may seem novel a cursory glance
through Wratten America’s racial history
shows us that this experience has been
happening for centuries when the Spanish
colonized the Americas and Mexico in
particular they devised a pictorial
representation of race and multi racial
identity a system of paintings called
las Casas mascots does characterize
people according to their phenotype or
characteristics hair texture skin tone
and others as well
names were given to people like lotta
lotto Pardo Lobo misty psalmist ISA and
countless others it was an experience I
carried over to the founding of this
very city you see Los Angeles was
founded in 1781 by a group of afro
Mexican settlers indigenous folks and
Spanish it was a group of people who in
many ways could have been black students
themselves it’s an experience that
carries over to this very day Amanda was
born and raised in East LA in a
predominantly Mexican home to a Mexican
single mother she experienced anti black
racism both in her home and outside of
it it wasn’t until she got older that
she realized that what she was
experiencing was not a reflection of her
own story or experience but really the
faults of others or Richard a
self-identified Afro Mexican whose
parents instilled a deep sense of pride
in him to be both after an
afro-descendant and also indigenous in
the world today he’s a prominent
filmmaker in Los Angeles but what does
it mean to be a woman to be black to be
brown and to be Muslim in his current
political racial climate you see my
Reece story pushes boundaries and allows
us to think about political and racial
coalition’s in a way and has not been
possible but this is also a story about
Eurasian what does it mean to grow up
your entire life believing that the
people who raised you your mother and
father were both non black Mexicans and
then realizing one day that your father
was actually african-american and your
mother lied to you for fear the fear of
you being isolated and marginalized from
the rest
family this is Maggie story but it’s not
just about pain and trauma it’s also
about accommodation and sometimes joy
you see Maria’s parents met on a public
bus in the early 1980s in South Los
Angeles Maria’s father was a bus driver
and her mother took his bus every single
morning to work there was an instant
connection love at first sight we can
say but there was one problem Maria’s
father didn’t speak a word of Spanish
and her mother didn’t speak a word of
English so it took her father six months
to learn how to ask her out on a date in
Spanish which she agreed to and it took
him another six months to learn how to
ask her to marry him but she also agreed
to you see but it’s also about what it
means to grow up in a community that
forces you to pick sides for a lot of
blacks in South Central Los Angeles
their experiences were deeply divided
along racial ties memo is someone who
grew up in South Los Angeles at a time
that was clearly divided by race and in
structural racism it wasn’t until he got
older that he realized that it was never
a question of either or a really a
question of hand for memo it was about
being black and brown at the same time
but while this story in this project is
about faces and the environment it’s
also about the power of hands and what
we can carry it in our hands
sometimes it’s trauma and pain and
memory and history and sometimes it’s
photos of our parents you see what can
how can Hands bring together worlds and
people in a way that word and social
movements cannot
but while this is very much a story
about Los Angeles and racial dynamics
and identity throughout Los Angeles the
black skinned experience can tell us so
much about the future of race and
identity in the US since early 1990s
Latino immigrants have immigrated to
places like Alabama Georgia North
Carolina and living and working
alongside African Americans and
oftentimes replicating some of the very
experiences and trends found in Los
Angeles
with black skins and black and rock
communities when I first met Ken Sophia
and Alejandra in the summer of 2015 I
was instantly captivated by the love and
intimacy that they shared for one
another it was deeply moving but I
wanted to know one thing I wanted to
know what it would mean to raise a black
skinned daughter in this current
political and racial climate their
response Florida me they said we will
teach her to be explicitly black and
explicitly brown there is no other way
as 2043 continues to be a moment that
that social scientists predict that
there will be more people of color than
white Americans in this country for some
that brings trepidation and anxiety or
even fear for others that brings joy
promise and hope but for families like
Ken Alejandra Dez and Sofia’s and the
city of Los Angeles and the people
behind me 20:43 has already arrived
thank you
you
[Applause]
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