This year's Martin Luther
King, Jr Day celebration at the All Souls Unitarian Church was a huge
success. Check out these photos from the Washington Post!
Image 1.pdf
Image 2.pdf
We are a 20 year old organization
that is made up of interracial couples, biracial/multiracial
individuals, and families who have adopted transracially. We have
members in Northern Virginia, Washington D.C. and Maryland (as far
north as Baltimore) and we sponsor several events every month that will
be featured on this site and in our newsletter.
We hold round-table discussions,
public forums, and living room chats about issues of importance to
multiracial families. For the past two years we've had exciting
family-friendly Martin Luther King Day Celebrations that have drawn
crowds of over 500. And we never miss an opportunity to get together
and socialize, at picnics, holiday parties, and adult-only potlucks.
The IFC is comprised of several
sub-committees, such as In the Mix that sponsors happy hours and
similar activities for the 20 and 30-somethings crowd; Families with
Young Children that sponsors trips to parks, playgrounds and museums; a
book club and a playgroup, to name a few.
Feel free to
check us out by attending an upcoming event in your area or
click here to contact us for more information.
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Read IFC
president's Nancy McFall Jean, April 2005, interview
in the Washington Times.
The Washington Times
3 percent of Americans are mixed-race
By Cheryl Wetzstein
More than 7 million Americans -- nearly 3 percent of the U.S.
population -- have parents of more than one race, the Census Bureau
says in its first full portrait of the nation's multiracial population.
The two most common combinations are white with "some other race" (2.3
million people) and white with "American Native and Alaska Native" (1.2
million people), said the report, which is based on first-of-its-kind
data collected in the 2000 census.
Almost a half-million people were a mixture of black and "some other
race." Because Hispanics may be of any race, the bureau placed them in
the "some other race" category. About 31 percent of all mixed-race
persons said they had a Hispanic heritage. The census findings have
broad social implications, said Nancy McFall Jean, president of the
Interracial Family Circle, a Washington group that represents
multiracial families.
As more people reach out to each other across racial lines to form
partnerships and families, she said, society will have to adapt. But
already, she noted, Verizon commercials show multiracial families.
"They are realizing there's a huge market trend with the multicultural
population."
There are also implications for government bureaucracies and political
policies that were built on the assumption that, with rare exceptions,
Americans have parents of the same race. For instance, civil rights
groups and advocates for biracial families have argued over whether to
allow "multiracial" designations on forms. Those in favor say people
should be able to acknowledge all their diverse ancestry. Others say
the political strength of minorities will be reduced if people are
allowed to choose a new category.
Census Bureau analyst Nicholas A. Jones said that although the census
has gathered data on race since 1790, the 2000 census was the first to
allow people to describe themselves as more than one race. The new
report is the first to analyze the characteristics, education and
income of these 7.2 million people, he said. Data show that the
mixed-race population is youthful -- more than 40 percent are 18 or
younger.
Mixed-race persons 15 and older are less likely to be married compared
with the overall U.S. population -- 27 percent versus 37 percent,
respectively. They are also more likely to be foreign-born than the
U.S. population -- 24 percent versus 11 percent, respectively. The
mixed-race population is less likely to finish high school, but more
likely to go to college, than the general population. They are also
more likely to be in service, sales, construction, production or
transportation jobs. The median family income of a mixed-race couple is
$39,432, compared with $50,046 of all U.S. families. Mixed-race
children are also more likely to live in poverty than the overall child
population -- nearly 20 percent, compared with nearly 17 percent,
respectively.
Review IFC
president's Nancy McFall Jean, May 2005, interview
with the Newhouse News Service.
The Newhouse News Service
Consumer Frustration Fuels a Growing Market in
Multiethnic Products
By Michele Melendez
Courtney Morrison's birthday card from her parents last year had a
cartoon drawing of a white couple on the front, but her mom shaded the
man's skin with a brown pencil and curled his hair with a black pen.
Dad is black. Mom's white. Morrison and her sister, Tiffany, are a
blend of the two. Their mother's alteration inspired the sisters to
design their own greeting cards, showing a more nuanced American
family.
Frustration among biracial and multiracial consumers, who crave
products that reflect their cultures and skin tones, has bred a
home-grown market in goods from cards to clothes. "There are all of
these children of interracial marriages," said Tiffany Morrison, 37,
who, with her sister, 36, launched Los Angeles-based Mix It Up in
January. "There are things that we need, and now we're creating them."
On the sisters' Web site, www.mix-it-up.net, there are a host of
black-and-white and color photographs, which appear on cards that are
blank inside. The selections show the hands of interracial couples
wearing wedding rings, holding a rose, clinking champagne flutes,
wrapping around a baby with caramel skin.
The 2000 Census was the first to allow respondents to identify
themselves by more than one race, recognizing intermarriage. Roughly 7
million people described themselves as bi- or multiracial, 2.4 percent
of the population. And about 6 percent of married couples characterized
themselves as interracial. By many accounts, the mixing is likely to
continue. Billy No, 28, sensed that vibe early. With a
Korean-Mexican-French background, he was only a high-school sophomore
when he began to refer to himself as "blend." Not blended. Just blend.
He soon started making T-shirts and caps with "Blend America" in
graffiti style. Eventually, the venture turned into a Web-based
company, www.blendamerica.com, selling T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts.
"It's all about community, unifying cultures," said No, of Tempe, Ariz.
Saren Sakurai, 37, of Los Angeles, opened his online store to support
his Web site, www.halvsie.com, a membership forum for people who are
half-Japanese. His father is Japanese and his mother is Caucasian, of
French and Welsh ancestry. Sakurai said he activated the site in 2002,
after a two-year stay in Japan, helping teach English to
schoolchildren. He said the Japanese didn't embrace him as Japanese, as
he had expected. And back in the States, he stood between two worlds.
His store sells T-shirts, tote bags, mugs and baby clothes with logos
and phrases that point to the multicultural, including: "kiss me; I'm
half japanese," "multiracial," "multiethnic," "blackanese" and "Got
rice?" written in Japanese.
The trend has its roots in the ethnic revival of the 1970s, a visible
and vocal pride in culture, said Marilyn Halter, history professor at
Boston University and author of "Shopping for Identity: The Marketing
of Ethnicity." "Here it is, 30 years later, and there's still so much
attention paid to celebrating distinctive heritage," Halter said.
Halter said mainstream companies have fed the multiethnic market,
broadening the range of models and actors in advertising. Various
goods, including Crayola crayons and Cover Girl cosmetics, have
undergone changes in marketing in response to the country's
kaleidoscopic skin tone.
Individuals -- and children, in particular, building their sense of
identity -- seek reflections of themselves in everyday life, said Nancy
McFall Jean, president of the Interracial Family Circle, a
nonprofit membership organization in Washington. "These objects ... are
reaffirming in a lot of ways," Jean said. And they're created by folks
who have yearned for multicultural merchandise. Mahisha Dellinger, 29,
whose father is Creole and mother is black, remembers experimenting in
the kitchen, mixing coconut oil and shea butter with store-bought hair
conditioners and styling products. "I couldn't find the right line of
product for my hair," she said. Based in Sacramento, Calif., she
started Curls online at www.curls.biz in 2003, and now the products,
including a children's line called Curly Q's, are available at selected
salons. Yvette Walker, 43, of Kansas City, Mo., took a longer road to
her store. She recalls not being able to find a wedding cake topper
with bride-and-groom figurines that looked like her and her
fiancé. She had one custom-painted. That was 1989. (Now,
interracial couples have options, including www.meltingpotgifts.com,
started by an interracial husband-wife team in Trenton, N.J.) Walker's
exasperation led her to create New People magazine in 1990, exploring
blended culture. The magazine, online at www.newpeoplemagazine.com,
gave rise to an online store in February. Cards, T-shirts, mouse pads
and other gift items display different shades of skin together -- the
interlaced fingers of a black woman and white man, an illustration of a
heart-shaped pendant split in half, its two sides representing racially
distinct facial features. Even though Walker and her husband are no
longer together, she carries on the New People message: "My
sensibilities haven't changed. You should be with whomever you want to
be with."
Store owners say that spreading the word about this niche market is
challenging, although they describe the response so far as
enthusiastic. Barb Simmons, 47, of Palmdale, Calif., joined Mix It Up's
e-mail list after her daughter found the company on a multicultural Web
site. Simmons is white; her husband is black. They have six children
and five grandchildren. Though some "go ballistic" when they see
depictions of interracial couples, Simmons said, "The time has come."
May 13, 2005 (Michele M. Melendez can be contacted at)
michele.melendez@newhouse.com
Also, review IFC
on the Radio with Emma Tarleton, March 2005 interview.
WTNF 950 AM Radio
Love, Life, Marriage
On March 26, our own Emma Tarleton, IFC Treasurer and founder, spoke on
the Love, Life, Marriage show of WTNF am radio about her experience in
an interracial marriage and raising a biracial daughter. Cheryl Jones
Landrith and Cheryl's husband, James, accompanied her. The discussion
was prompted by the new movie "Guess Who", starring Ashton Kutcher and
Bernie Mac, about a black woman who brings her white fiancée
home to meet her parents.
Emma, was a black woman who married for over 12 years to a white man,
and Cheryl, also a black woman who has been married to a white man,
James, for 13 years spoke about the issues that arose in terms of
family and friends' acceptance of their relationships. Cheryl said when
she and James were married in South Carolina it was still unlawful for
blacks and whites to marry. In fact, she had to alter her wedding plans
when one minister found out they were an interracial couple and did not
want to perform the ceremony. Cheryl and James, while not experiencing
a lot of problems with family and friends, have encountered stares from
the public.
Cheryl said sometimes she will just stare back at the rude on-lookers
or if it really bothers her, then she will say something like, "Honey,
they're stunned by our beauty" and that will usually prompt the person
to turn away.
Emma said she had problems with her husband's family because they did
not fully accept their relationship. Further complicating the situation
was a family from his previous marriage. Emma and her husband had one
child, Heather, who was raised in a predominately white area. Emma said
she had to seek out people that reflected her child's racial identity
and many times Heather was the only person of color in her advanced
classes in school.
Asked the question, "How have things changed over time and where are
things likely to go?" Emma said that segregation still exists and the
races are not coming together. Cheryl stated that since the U.S. Census
has added more categories to reflect multicultural identities, there
has been more progress in terms of the public recognizing other races,
but there is still more work to be done as some states still outlaw
interracial marriages.
For upcoming
issues of The Collage: Tell us your story! If you are an
interracial couple, how/when did you meet, were there any obstacles to
overcome? If you're an adoptive interracial family, how did you make
the deciion to adopt interracially any obstacles you had to overcome,
what's it like?
We would like
to thank Polaris Productions, Inc. for the design of our site. They
were helpful in provided a valuable resource of information for our
members and to the public at large.
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