[Music]
the 2000 US Census was the first time
that people of mixed race were able to
indicate more than one race and that
year more than six point eight million
Americans chose to identify themselves
that way fast forward to 2008 and I’m in
middle school and still dreaming of one
day becoming president you can imagine
how excited I was when I heard about
Obama the possibility of our first
mixed-race president by the time of our
mock election Obama had already gone
from our first mixed-race president to
our first black president my
thirteen-year-old mind was racing if
he’s mixed then he’s not black he’s
mixed who decided he was black
unfortunately my questions went unknown
unnoticed and unanswered as I saw the
shift in perspective that this knew in
my opinion less accurate label left on
my fellow classmates at my predominantly
african-american middle school so thus
far I’ve intentionally left you in the
dark about my own racial makeup have you
started to make your own inferences if
so when do you think they started was it
when I first came out on the stage and
if so did it change when I implied that
I was of mixed race when I began talking
about the 2008 election regardless of
your internal answers to those questions
I’m going to list my racial makeup in
the order the people are least likely to
list when guessing I am Mexican white
and african-american my grandmother is
Mexican and she married a white man and
they eventually gave birth to my mother
who is half white and half Mexican my
biological father is african-american
growing up people were always quick to
assume that I was some part
african-american which makes sense since
my outwardly my outward appearance is
you know darker skin curly hair more
stereotypically african-american
features but I grew up in a primarily
white household so I felt mostly white
I grew up with my mom and I’m gonna call
him my dad the man who raised me
often times I felt wet on the inside but
I realize as growing up living as an
adult now and America that though I may
feel white on the inside
my darker features and more
african-american features will cause
people who are quick to judge a book by
its cover to put me in a category that I
don’t put myself in you can see now I’m
22 now and it still makes me
uncomfortable when I go out to dinner
with my family I will think about kind
of are people thinking that I am adopted
are they thinking that I am just a
family friend and I can see how this
picture – me at the top isn’t cause for
many questions but when you add me and
it kind of changes the dynamic I mean
not for us but for the outside world and
it was the outside world they gave me a
little bit of trouble the summer of 2015
it was my first summer of chemistry
research at Furman and I it was also the
first summer that there was a lot of
controversy about the Confederate flag
still being flown over the Statehouse I
will be completely honest and lets you
know that my interest in politics did
not start until the summer after my
sophomore year so I had a general
understanding of what was going on but
mostly felt like I had no dogs in that
fight so when I pull up to the 7-eleven
outside the back gates of Furman I took
note of the two white males in their
white pickup truck with the huge
Confederate flag setting out the back of
it but no more notice than I would to
any other loiterers at a gas station so
I get out of my car I’m pumping my gas
and all of a sudden I hear someone
yelling lynching and I think to myself
oh that’s a word you don’t hear every
day and I look around and realize that
it’s the two white men from the back of
their truck and they’re looking at me
and they’re yelling lynching in my
direction I’m ten dollars worth of gas
in I brought
please stop pumping gas trying really
hard not to look too flustered and I
Drive away it’s a summer after my
sophomore year when I find myself at
Furman again conducting chemistry
research when I decide to go to a poetry
slam hosted by local slam poet in the
area I get to the event I walk into the
room and everyone in attendance is
african-american I immediately feel my
armpits beginning to sweat as I become
hyper aware of my whiteness I soft smile
as I make my way to a table at the front
of the room and I sit down and I see
that there’s a TV in the corner playing
a black-and-white documentary that
looked like it was about slavery so I
pretend to be super enthralled in this
until the slam poet that I know comes
forward and welcomes us to the
Juneteenth poetry slam in a strange turn
of events I ended up being one of the
judges for the evening and so here we go
the first slam poet comes up she’s got
tears coming down her face she gives
this heart-wrenching poem about slavery
and black oppression that I just shrivel
up inside some of you may know what you
intend this but at the time I had no
idea
Juneteenth is the celebration of June 19
1865 when the enslaved people of Texas
were finally set free this is a whole
two and a half years after President
Lincoln gave his Emancipation
Proclamation that set among all slaves
free in January of 1863 I was to say the
least completely overwhelmed I had I was
in this room with all these strong
emotions and I just felt like an
intruder on this significant day and the
lives of these people I just felt like I
just didn’t know I was not raised with
the same sense of awareness of the past
that was inherent to these African
American people so in the first
situation I was being viewed as other by
a group that I always thought I had been
a part of and not in the same way that
the people in my elementary middle
school always questioned me with their
childlike curiosity
this was misplaced anger and hatred that
it seemed a few minutes spent getting to
know me could not do much to prevent in
the second situation again I just I
didn’t have the same understanding of
the past and there was no way for my mom
and my dad both of mostly kind of white
background to prepare me for that
situation as a kid growing up the most
common question I often heard was so are
you adopted and oftentimes I would say
no and the follow-up question was always
something along the lines of well what
are you then and the first time I heard
this question it really rattled me
because I was in the sixth grade at a
new private school after spending my
entire elementary career and a
dominantly african-american middle
school and it didn’t help that my mom
and dad had just given birth to my
brother who you saw here looks just like
them but quickly I was able to remember
that year at the time when I learned
that there were other people in the
world and that I was going to be able to
figure out what being Alexis was like
before I kind of move forward I don’t
want you to leave this conference
thinking that people of mixed race are
just black and white or even mostly
looking like me so I’m going to show you
some pictures of people of mixed race
and before I kind of show you what their
races are I just want you to watch your
mind are you starting to try and guess
what their races and if so you know what
information are you using to kind of
make your inferences so first we have
Michael and John Michael and Michael is
half African American and half Asian
Americans specifically Korean and his
half-brother John is half
african-american and half Syrian next we
have Anand Anand is half white and half
South Asian specifically Indian
and growing up he felt like he
identified most strongly as Indian
because he grew up in an Indian
community in America and he was able to
go to an Indian High School in or go to
high school in India but he felt that
his identification as Indian was
frustrating for others because he felt
that he didn’t fit the label of Indian
phenotypically or linguistically next we
have Donna and Kim Hunter two sisters so
Donna and Kim are half white
specifically German and half black I
think this is really interesting because
I know plenty of people who are half
black and white and they look a lot more
african-american than Donna and Kim do
and in their interview they expressed
that they were often given the label of
white whether they wanted it or not and
how that was very frustrating for them
because they had a hard time connecting
to their black heritage and they often
felt that they were not oppressed enough
so now that your definition of
mixed-race is hopefully sufficiently all
jumbled up I would like to bring to your
attention some issues that are kind of
more recent so I was recently scrolling
through my news feeds when I saw some
conflicting headlines about Colin
Kaepernick something like the awakening
of Colin Kaepernick and my father stood
for the same reason that Colin
Kaepernick sits now I thought okay well
I should look into this a little bit
more and if you don’t know Colin
Kaepernick as a football player who
recently decided to sit during the
national anthem instead of stand as a
silent protest against a country that he
felt like oppresses people of color
Reese I was going through and I thought
okay well this is interesting because
one as someone who doesn’t watch
football I did assume that Colin was
african-american and so when I started
looking into some images I saw that he
was mixed and I was extremely excited
because I thought okay great this is
someone of mixed race using their
influence to talk and help people of
color
but then I did a little bit more
research and I found some other people
saying that they thought it was
disingenuous for a millionaire
especially one raised comfortably by a
white family to speak out on black
oppression and so at first I thought to
myself okay well who feels this way
white people black people and after some
research I saw that white people thought
that it was not okay for someone of
mixed race to speak out on black
oppression but black people also thought
it was not okay for someone of mixed
race to speak out on black oppression
because he didn’t actually know their
struggle and I’m over here as a person
of mixed race myself at a complete loss
for words so basically here we are in
2018 and we’re still all about race our
president is promoting a ban on
immigrants we may be sealing they were
seeing the repeal of daca and we have
white supremacists feeling a very real
need to come forward
we can’t know everyone’s lived
experience and I hope that or today I’ve
given you some examples that range from
personal testimony to American history
that hopefully show you just how nuanced
race really is I’m not here to tell you
that I think that people mixed race are
the future or the key to the end of
racism I only hope that by incorporating
people of mixed race into our
conversations that we can maybe move
past racial categories to a racial
spectrum and eventually offer brace
altogether I think that the best way to
solve a complex problem is by looking at
it from various angles and perspectives
when did excluding Intel intelligent
Minds
ever win someone a Nobel Prize thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
the 2000 US Census was the first time
that people of mixed race were able to
indicate more than one race and that
year more than six point eight million
Americans chose to identify themselves
that way fast forward to 2008 and I’m in
middle school and still dreaming of one
day becoming president you can imagine
how excited I was when I heard about
Obama the possibility of our first
mixed-race president by the time of our
mock election Obama had already gone
from our first mixed-race president to
our first black president my
thirteen-year-old mind was racing if
he’s mixed then he’s not black he’s
mixed who decided he was black
unfortunately my questions went unknown
unnoticed and unanswered as I saw the
shift in perspective that this knew in
my opinion less accurate label left on
my fellow classmates at my predominantly
african-american middle school so thus
far I’ve intentionally left you in the
dark about my own racial makeup have you
started to make your own inferences if
so when do you think they started was it
when I first came out on the stage and
if so did it change when I implied that
I was of mixed race when I began talking
about the 2008 election regardless of
your internal answers to those questions
I’m going to list my racial makeup in
the order the people are least likely to
list when guessing I am Mexican white
and african-american my grandmother is
Mexican and she married a white man and
they eventually gave birth to my mother
who is half white and half Mexican my
biological father is african-american
growing up people were always quick to
assume that I was some part
african-american which makes sense since
my outwardly my outward appearance is
you know darker skin curly hair more
stereotypically african-american
features but I grew up in a primarily
white household so I felt mostly white
I grew up with my mom and I’m gonna call
him my dad the man who raised me
often times I felt wet on the inside but
I realize as growing up living as an
adult now and America that though I may
feel white on the inside
my darker features and more
african-american features will cause
people who are quick to judge a book by
its cover to put me in a category that I
don’t put myself in you can see now I’m
22 now and it still makes me
uncomfortable when I go out to dinner
with my family I will think about kind
of are people thinking that I am adopted
are they thinking that I am just a
family friend and I can see how this
picture – me at the top isn’t cause for
many questions but when you add me and
it kind of changes the dynamic I mean
not for us but for the outside world and
it was the outside world they gave me a
little bit of trouble the summer of 2015
it was my first summer of chemistry
research at Furman and I it was also the
first summer that there was a lot of
controversy about the Confederate flag
still being flown over the Statehouse I
will be completely honest and lets you
know that my interest in politics did
not start until the summer after my
sophomore year so I had a general
understanding of what was going on but
mostly felt like I had no dogs in that
fight so when I pull up to the 7-eleven
outside the back gates of Furman I took
note of the two white males in their
white pickup truck with the huge
Confederate flag setting out the back of
it but no more notice than I would to
any other loiterers at a gas station so
I get out of my car I’m pumping my gas
and all of a sudden I hear someone
yelling lynching and I think to myself
oh that’s a word you don’t hear every
day and I look around and realize that
it’s the two white men from the back of
their truck and they’re looking at me
and they’re yelling lynching in my
direction I’m ten dollars worth of gas
in I brought
please stop pumping gas trying really
hard not to look too flustered and I
Drive away it’s a summer after my
sophomore year when I find myself at
Furman again conducting chemistry
research when I decide to go to a poetry
slam hosted by local slam poet in the
area I get to the event I walk into the
room and everyone in attendance is
african-american I immediately feel my
armpits beginning to sweat as I become
hyper aware of my whiteness I soft smile
as I make my way to a table at the front
of the room and I sit down and I see
that there’s a TV in the corner playing
a black-and-white documentary that
looked like it was about slavery so I
pretend to be super enthralled in this
until the slam poet that I know comes
forward and welcomes us to the
Juneteenth poetry slam in a strange turn
of events I ended up being one of the
judges for the evening and so here we go
the first slam poet comes up she’s got
tears coming down her face she gives
this heart-wrenching poem about slavery
and black oppression that I just shrivel
up inside some of you may know what you
intend this but at the time I had no
idea
Juneteenth is the celebration of June 19
1865 when the enslaved people of Texas
were finally set free this is a whole
two and a half years after President
Lincoln gave his Emancipation
Proclamation that set among all slaves
free in January of 1863 I was to say the
least completely overwhelmed I had I was
in this room with all these strong
emotions and I just felt like an
intruder on this significant day and the
lives of these people I just felt like I
just didn’t know I was not raised with
the same sense of awareness of the past
that was inherent to these African
American people so in the first
situation I was being viewed as other by
a group that I always thought I had been
a part of and not in the same way that
the people in my elementary middle
school always questioned me with their
childlike curiosity
this was misplaced anger and hatred that
it seemed a few minutes spent getting to
know me could not do much to prevent in
the second situation again I just I
didn’t have the same understanding of
the past and there was no way for my mom
and my dad both of mostly kind of white
background to prepare me for that
situation as a kid growing up the most
common question I often heard was so are
you adopted and oftentimes I would say
no and the follow-up question was always
something along the lines of well what
are you then and the first time I heard
this question it really rattled me
because I was in the sixth grade at a
new private school after spending my
entire elementary career and a
dominantly african-american middle
school and it didn’t help that my mom
and dad had just given birth to my
brother who you saw here looks just like
them but quickly I was able to remember
that year at the time when I learned
that there were other people in the
world and that I was going to be able to
figure out what being Alexis was like
before I kind of move forward I don’t
want you to leave this conference
thinking that people of mixed race are
just black and white or even mostly
looking like me so I’m going to show you
some pictures of people of mixed race
and before I kind of show you what their
races are I just want you to watch your
mind are you starting to try and guess
what their races and if so you know what
information are you using to kind of
make your inferences so first we have
Michael and John Michael and Michael is
half African American and half Asian
Americans specifically Korean and his
half-brother John is half
african-american and half Syrian next we
have Anand Anand is half white and half
South Asian specifically Indian
and growing up he felt like he
identified most strongly as Indian
because he grew up in an Indian
community in America and he was able to
go to an Indian High School in or go to
high school in India but he felt that
his identification as Indian was
frustrating for others because he felt
that he didn’t fit the label of Indian
phenotypically or linguistically next we
have Donna and Kim Hunter two sisters so
Donna and Kim are half white
specifically German and half black I
think this is really interesting because
I know plenty of people who are half
black and white and they look a lot more
african-american than Donna and Kim do
and in their interview they expressed
that they were often given the label of
white whether they wanted it or not and
how that was very frustrating for them
because they had a hard time connecting
to their black heritage and they often
felt that they were not oppressed enough
so now that your definition of
mixed-race is hopefully sufficiently all
jumbled up I would like to bring to your
attention some issues that are kind of
more recent so I was recently scrolling
through my news feeds when I saw some
conflicting headlines about Colin
Kaepernick something like the awakening
of Colin Kaepernick and my father stood
for the same reason that Colin
Kaepernick sits now I thought okay well
I should look into this a little bit
more and if you don’t know Colin
Kaepernick as a football player who
recently decided to sit during the
national anthem instead of stand as a
silent protest against a country that he
felt like oppresses people of color
Reese I was going through and I thought
okay well this is interesting because
one as someone who doesn’t watch
football I did assume that Colin was
african-american and so when I started
looking into some images I saw that he
was mixed and I was extremely excited
because I thought okay great this is
someone of mixed race using their
influence to talk and help people of
color
but then I did a little bit more
research and I found some other people
saying that they thought it was
disingenuous for a millionaire
especially one raised comfortably by a
white family to speak out on black
oppression and so at first I thought to
myself okay well who feels this way
white people black people and after some
research I saw that white people thought
that it was not okay for someone of
mixed race to speak out on black
oppression but black people also thought
it was not okay for someone of mixed
race to speak out on black oppression
because he didn’t actually know their
struggle and I’m over here as a person
of mixed race myself at a complete loss
for words so basically here we are in
2018 and we’re still all about race our
president is promoting a ban on
immigrants we may be sealing they were
seeing the repeal of daca and we have
white supremacists feeling a very real
need to come forward
we can’t know everyone’s lived
experience and I hope that or today I’ve
given you some examples that range from
personal testimony to American history
that hopefully show you just how nuanced
race really is I’m not here to tell you
that I think that people mixed race are
the future or the key to the end of
racism I only hope that by incorporating
people of mixed race into our
conversations that we can maybe move
past racial categories to a racial
spectrum and eventually offer brace
altogether I think that the best way to
solve a complex problem is by looking at
it from various angles and perspectives
when did excluding Intel intelligent
Minds
ever win someone a Nobel Prize thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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