now what I was thinking about the title
for this talk today the story of is
navigating the intersectionalities going
up next I said maybe you should do
something catchy like mixed mixed up
reflections on a sentence but I decided
no no I would keep the title because as
a mixed-race professor I want people of
mixed race and bi racial backgrounds to
know that there were mixed race scholars
like Teresa Williams and Emma tang
Garcia Garcia Watkins we’re doing
serious academic or serious scholarly
work to sort out and explain the
complexities of their lives know that
their experiences were not in isolation
today however I’m going to say Samboy
top story I’m going to share with you
some stories about my life and well I
recognize that my experiences will not
speak for all experience of mixed-race
persons I hope that something about the
resident I also want to talk about it
because I believe there is something in
the intercultural biracial families that
we haven’t gives us some clues to our
society our nation how we might navigate
and engage our increasing diversity I’d
like to start with a story I wrote for
my daughter Monica when she was trying
to sort out Herman this sickness middle
school it’s entitled first days I used
to hit the first day of school because
we’re a military family there were a lot
of first days and pretty much everyone
who goes every one of them will go
something like this I’d meet someone and
say hi my name is Kurt
what’s yours after a little bit they get
is sort of quizzical look and they say
what are you like I said I used to hate
first days when I was little I didn’t
know what that question that what are
you as I grow older I understood that no
matter what I asked it would be wrong I
actually would witness something class
or another at something else
and people would say oh but you look or
really you don’t look are you supposed
to be with that
like I said I used to hit first days
well after some long talks with my mom
and dad I begin to understand that the
question what are you is not my problem
or thought I began to understand myself
in terms of Who I am what I am
so now when of those first days come in
the common and someone asks that
question the conversation goes a little
bit like this what are you I am what do
you mean I am I am what
I am me just as your your both of us you
and me the way we were they happy to be
so as a story illustrates the task of
sorting out who I am and who I am
sometimes it requires a persistence
purchases of awareness and awareness of
self as well as the word is how others
see as a victorious person I would
always also get this question asked them
and they would say isn’t it hard being
mixed I mean not being accepted by
either side I like the character in the
story it’s perplexing because it implied
somehow that it would be easier if I
would just choose to be black or
Japanese thank you I’m both I’m not
either or I’m either hand
I miss my Ennis is you see identity for
all of us is this really interesting
difficult concept that is a constant
process born of history culture society
community families and even within that
we play all these different roles
we were once male female trans we are
fathers and sons mothers and daughters
brothers and sisters identity is not the
singular moment of similar thing it is
constantly working and adapting the
context and it’s context that informs
how we privilege and perform those
various identities now for the mixed
sometimes more complex that’s what we
feel on the inside that I did a that
centers us that tells us that we exist
may not match next race persons find
themselves sort of described and
understood by to swim narratives are
tropes in society or we’re a hybrid
vigor your racism race the hope both of
those tropes neither defines us
neither tell us our story of business
neither spells of our story of animus I
think my daughter might equal when she
was seven said it best she was in second
grade and I was at home working on my
lecture notes for a class I was teaching
a multi racial identity as some years
old if she’s looking at us what I’m
doing and so it was spring break and I
said hey how’d you like to speak to my
class tomorrow she’s a good proposal so
she said yes well later that day as she
was pondering what she might say she
started asking questions about her
grandfather’s one japanese-american and
one african-american about their service
in the military her japanese-american
grandfather had served in the 442nd 100
regimental combat team during World War
two and our african-american father
grandfather that’s her three tours in
Vietnam so I thought she might do
something that sort of expose two
together well the next thing comes we’re
on our way into the lecture hall
[Music]
okay
of course my head is working along with
this but we get there and I introduced
her to the class she turns so she goes
to the whiteboard and she draws a happy
face
then she draws a sad face
and then she draws an angry face and she
draws a happy face she goes over and she
starts a second column of happy this sad
angry happy and he had a third column of
happiness up and reek happy she looked
back at the class and she put a J over
one of them and she said sometimes that
makes some people angry they don’t like
it when I sat down pays and that makes
me sad and then I get mad that they
don’t like that I’m Japanese she then
went to the third column when she put an
A over and she turned back to the class
that she said sometimes I feel
african-american and that makes me happy
and then again some people wouldn’t like
it would make her sad angry she didn’t
turn to the middle column she put a B
she said sometimes how about if she
out of the mouths of babes she got it
she got this dance of military racial
now complexity at the individual family
level and sometimes be played out in
this order by cultural nonverbal
communication things when I was little I
was pretty mistress and got in trouble a
lot and when I get called out by my dad
on occasion I’d get throw both of them
to get caught at the same time you can
test in this kid when trying to figure
out who to look to what they were saying
at the time I keep my see that
complexity though was the thing that
allowed us to have some great creation
well this family this place allowed us
to have wonderful stories that we that
provided the platform for creating
strong stories of is when we try to sort
of sort some of these things out we get
caught out once a while one of the
things that I learned growing up in a
bi-racial by national high cultural
bilingual family and in the eye
racial Buddhist Christian triangle
we’ve learned that diversity and
difference is not a zero-sum game and
game in which generosity respect given
to one is taking something away from the
other we’ve understood that diversity
and difference can make us more not less
we are also conflict and that conflict
need not be confrontation sometimes
conflict just is when we learn that if
we would embrace that concept flip be
comfortable with it that we could engage
each other and make a choices and family
to be more yeah that’s to say there were
struggles there were and as filmmaker
Erica Anderson that her documentary none
of the above says the struggle is real
and I dad today the struggle was
righteous we do have a choice that
there’s a way I believe that we as
sigh no family have a choice with our
conflict now as a ethnic studies
professor I’ve heard countless countless
metaphors for diversity there’s one that
stands out to me that I really like it
was told to me by some poets from Hawaii
a particular pore from Hawaii named
their chalk a bamboo bridge press and he
was talking a story about poetry writing
in ancient China he says you know when
you look at a scroll up poem a scroll
from ancient China you’ll find that
there’s no author there’s goes a lot of
times I won’t be this stamp that shows
who wrote the poem he said that was
because oftentimes scholars and poets a
lot are already in a certain region in
the town or a village would come
together share Bo drink some wine and
compose poetry when starting a line the
others bring another line and so forth
well each week at this gathering each
port would bring tied up in a mesh bag
what they wish to eat that night and
then that bag there might be chicken
with vegetables all seasoned up tied
tightly
someone else might have fish someone
else might have a vegetable protein or
tofu or something like that and when
they arrived they would place it into a
pot of boiling hot water that was in the
city
at the finish of their cooking they
would extract their bag to open it up
and pour its contents into their bowl
and ladle the broth into it what I love
about this metaphor five things
the first fish bag each broad as they
were able right and what they felt they
were and though each was impacted by the
seasonings and flavors of everyone else
the essence of what it was didn’t change
chicken was still
fish fish tofu tofu we’re not forced to
change we’re able to be who we are
the second thing that I liked about it
was that in this setting they would
share with one another sometimes I did
my bowl and I share what the person to
my left are the person I write or
someone across the way I’m not at all I
guess sometimes you’re just not able to
sometimes you have to protect yourself
other times it was all done without
prejudice third thing I liked about it
was the heat that chemical conflict of
names of molecules against each other
and the speeds he that transformed raw
to cooked foods that gives sustenance
for life that heat that conflict that
transformed water to broth that would
come together was created by the
seasonings and the foods that put from
each those assbags and sometimes those
flavors would vary so wonderfully
together and other times it would be
what they had made together and they
were committed and this is life with
working to coming together time and time
again to make new broth to repeat the
process again and again started with a
meal and in it with the creation of
poetry that capture the emotions and
feelings that they had
that they transform my fellowship now as
we go about analyzing seek to create the
versus the multi racial backgrounds and
others on the margins of our society
give us clues as how we might move
through the vision to engagement and
teach us how we might to live up like
them business not to live a life of
endless so that my story so then your
story and your story and your story and your story up there can become our story
for this talk today the story of is
navigating the intersectionalities going
up next I said maybe you should do
something catchy like mixed mixed up
reflections on a sentence but I decided
no no I would keep the title because as
a mixed-race professor I want people of
mixed race and bi racial backgrounds to
know that there were mixed race scholars
like Teresa Williams and Emma tang
Garcia Garcia Watkins we’re doing
serious academic or serious scholarly
work to sort out and explain the
complexities of their lives know that
their experiences were not in isolation
today however I’m going to say Samboy
top story I’m going to share with you
some stories about my life and well I
recognize that my experiences will not
speak for all experience of mixed-race
persons I hope that something about the
resident I also want to talk about it
because I believe there is something in
the intercultural biracial families that
we haven’t gives us some clues to our
society our nation how we might navigate
and engage our increasing diversity I’d
like to start with a story I wrote for
my daughter Monica when she was trying
to sort out Herman this sickness middle
school it’s entitled first days I used
to hit the first day of school because
we’re a military family there were a lot
of first days and pretty much everyone
who goes every one of them will go
something like this I’d meet someone and
say hi my name is Kurt
what’s yours after a little bit they get
is sort of quizzical look and they say
what are you like I said I used to hate
first days when I was little I didn’t
know what that question that what are
you as I grow older I understood that no
matter what I asked it would be wrong I
actually would witness something class
or another at something else
and people would say oh but you look or
really you don’t look are you supposed
to be with that
like I said I used to hit first days
well after some long talks with my mom
and dad I begin to understand that the
question what are you is not my problem
or thought I began to understand myself
in terms of Who I am what I am
so now when of those first days come in
the common and someone asks that
question the conversation goes a little
bit like this what are you I am what do
you mean I am I am what
I am me just as your your both of us you
and me the way we were they happy to be
so as a story illustrates the task of
sorting out who I am and who I am
sometimes it requires a persistence
purchases of awareness and awareness of
self as well as the word is how others
see as a victorious person I would
always also get this question asked them
and they would say isn’t it hard being
mixed I mean not being accepted by
either side I like the character in the
story it’s perplexing because it implied
somehow that it would be easier if I
would just choose to be black or
Japanese thank you I’m both I’m not
either or I’m either hand
I miss my Ennis is you see identity for
all of us is this really interesting
difficult concept that is a constant
process born of history culture society
community families and even within that
we play all these different roles
we were once male female trans we are
fathers and sons mothers and daughters
brothers and sisters identity is not the
singular moment of similar thing it is
constantly working and adapting the
context and it’s context that informs
how we privilege and perform those
various identities now for the mixed
sometimes more complex that’s what we
feel on the inside that I did a that
centers us that tells us that we exist
may not match next race persons find
themselves sort of described and
understood by to swim narratives are
tropes in society or we’re a hybrid
vigor your racism race the hope both of
those tropes neither defines us
neither tell us our story of business
neither spells of our story of animus I
think my daughter might equal when she
was seven said it best she was in second
grade and I was at home working on my
lecture notes for a class I was teaching
a multi racial identity as some years
old if she’s looking at us what I’m
doing and so it was spring break and I
said hey how’d you like to speak to my
class tomorrow she’s a good proposal so
she said yes well later that day as she
was pondering what she might say she
started asking questions about her
grandfather’s one japanese-american and
one african-american about their service
in the military her japanese-american
grandfather had served in the 442nd 100
regimental combat team during World War
two and our african-american father
grandfather that’s her three tours in
Vietnam so I thought she might do
something that sort of expose two
together well the next thing comes we’re
on our way into the lecture hall
[Music]
okay
of course my head is working along with
this but we get there and I introduced
her to the class she turns so she goes
to the whiteboard and she draws a happy
face
then she draws a sad face
and then she draws an angry face and she
draws a happy face she goes over and she
starts a second column of happy this sad
angry happy and he had a third column of
happiness up and reek happy she looked
back at the class and she put a J over
one of them and she said sometimes that
makes some people angry they don’t like
it when I sat down pays and that makes
me sad and then I get mad that they
don’t like that I’m Japanese she then
went to the third column when she put an
A over and she turned back to the class
that she said sometimes I feel
african-american and that makes me happy
and then again some people wouldn’t like
it would make her sad angry she didn’t
turn to the middle column she put a B
she said sometimes how about if she
out of the mouths of babes she got it
she got this dance of military racial
now complexity at the individual family
level and sometimes be played out in
this order by cultural nonverbal
communication things when I was little I
was pretty mistress and got in trouble a
lot and when I get called out by my dad
on occasion I’d get throw both of them
to get caught at the same time you can
test in this kid when trying to figure
out who to look to what they were saying
at the time I keep my see that
complexity though was the thing that
allowed us to have some great creation
well this family this place allowed us
to have wonderful stories that we that
provided the platform for creating
strong stories of is when we try to sort
of sort some of these things out we get
caught out once a while one of the
things that I learned growing up in a
bi-racial by national high cultural
bilingual family and in the eye
racial Buddhist Christian triangle
we’ve learned that diversity and
difference is not a zero-sum game and
game in which generosity respect given
to one is taking something away from the
other we’ve understood that diversity
and difference can make us more not less
we are also conflict and that conflict
need not be confrontation sometimes
conflict just is when we learn that if
we would embrace that concept flip be
comfortable with it that we could engage
each other and make a choices and family
to be more yeah that’s to say there were
struggles there were and as filmmaker
Erica Anderson that her documentary none
of the above says the struggle is real
and I dad today the struggle was
righteous we do have a choice that
there’s a way I believe that we as
sigh no family have a choice with our
conflict now as a ethnic studies
professor I’ve heard countless countless
metaphors for diversity there’s one that
stands out to me that I really like it
was told to me by some poets from Hawaii
a particular pore from Hawaii named
their chalk a bamboo bridge press and he
was talking a story about poetry writing
in ancient China he says you know when
you look at a scroll up poem a scroll
from ancient China you’ll find that
there’s no author there’s goes a lot of
times I won’t be this stamp that shows
who wrote the poem he said that was
because oftentimes scholars and poets a
lot are already in a certain region in
the town or a village would come
together share Bo drink some wine and
compose poetry when starting a line the
others bring another line and so forth
well each week at this gathering each
port would bring tied up in a mesh bag
what they wish to eat that night and
then that bag there might be chicken
with vegetables all seasoned up tied
tightly
someone else might have fish someone
else might have a vegetable protein or
tofu or something like that and when
they arrived they would place it into a
pot of boiling hot water that was in the
city
at the finish of their cooking they
would extract their bag to open it up
and pour its contents into their bowl
and ladle the broth into it what I love
about this metaphor five things
the first fish bag each broad as they
were able right and what they felt they
were and though each was impacted by the
seasonings and flavors of everyone else
the essence of what it was didn’t change
chicken was still
fish fish tofu tofu we’re not forced to
change we’re able to be who we are
the second thing that I liked about it
was that in this setting they would
share with one another sometimes I did
my bowl and I share what the person to
my left are the person I write or
someone across the way I’m not at all I
guess sometimes you’re just not able to
sometimes you have to protect yourself
other times it was all done without
prejudice third thing I liked about it
was the heat that chemical conflict of
names of molecules against each other
and the speeds he that transformed raw
to cooked foods that gives sustenance
for life that heat that conflict that
transformed water to broth that would
come together was created by the
seasonings and the foods that put from
each those assbags and sometimes those
flavors would vary so wonderfully
together and other times it would be
what they had made together and they
were committed and this is life with
working to coming together time and time
again to make new broth to repeat the
process again and again started with a
meal and in it with the creation of
poetry that capture the emotions and
feelings that they had
that they transform my fellowship now as
we go about analyzing seek to create the
versus the multi racial backgrounds and
others on the margins of our society
give us clues as how we might move
through the vision to engagement and
teach us how we might to live up like
them business not to live a life of
endless so that my story so then your
story and your story and your story and your story up there can become our story
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