1. Honoring Bi/Multiracial, Bi/Multicultural Experiences:
Interrupting the Social Contract around Race & Identity
Laurin Mayeno, MPH

2. Objectives Participants will:
Acknowledge and check out their assumptions about bi/multiracial people.
Notice and interrupt negative messages and stereotypes about bi/multi-racial people
Explore ways of thinking about bi/multiracial experience that reinforce or challenge the status quo.

3. Sharing in Pairs How do you identify racially?culturally?
What made you choose this workshop?
What is a burning issue or question you would like to discuss?

4. Guidelines Both/And Thinking Sharing Experiences “I” Statements
Respecting Different Viewpoints
Listening Deeply
Acknowledge “among us” and “about us” nature of conversation

5. Overview/Agenda Recognition of the Issue(s)
Individual/Interpersonal/Family/Community
Broader Context – Historical, Social and Political
Reframing the Issue – Creating an Empowering Context

6. Individual Experiences
In your experience, what are the challenges and strengths of being bi/multiracial?
What are the messages you have received about bi/multiracial people? What is their impact?

7. Common Themes
Personal level – identity and self esteem, cultural experience & exposure
Interpersonal/family/community – stigma,stereotypes, marginalization, assumptions

8. Differences Racial and national origins Racialized characteristics
Identity
Cultural experience
Acceptance, belonging within community of color
Class, gender, sexuality, etc.

9. Strengths Ability to understand different perspectives
Open to differences – starting with race and culture and going beyond
Boundary crossers/bridge builders – identification with more than one group gives us a particular ability to cross bridges, relate to difference

10. Being an Ally
What can allies do to honor people of mixed heritage?

11. What’s behind the social messages? Where do they come from?
In 1997, Tiger Woods identified himself as a “Cablinasian”.
Why is there so much controversy about how multiracial people name themselves?

12. Social and Historical Context

13. History of Domination and Racial Mixing in the U.S.
Global expansion and colonization
Slavery
WWII & Military Occupation
Anti-miscegenation laws struck down 1967
Increase in immigration

14. The Paradox of Race Doesn’t exist as a biological reality
Is a social construct – “a contract” that we all participate in
Myth of “pure” race
So…being bi/multiracial is also a myth
Exists as a social reality with real life consequences
Cannot address racism without acknowledging its existence
People who are bi/multiracial are marginalized in this context

15. Overt Racism Miscegenation Contamination One drop rule
Taboos kept racial purity. One of the ways of keeping the hierarchy in tact
Multiracial communities not recognized (African American, Latino)
History of light-skinned privilege within communities of color

16. Covert (Modern) Racism
Racial hierarchy still in tact
Less need to maintain taboos in order to sustain the hierarchy
Bi/multiracial people in style
Are bi/multiracial people another “cover” for the existence of racism?

17. Political Implications
If you had a 60 second spot on national TV to talk about bi/multiracial, bi/multicultural issues, what would you say?

18. Pitfalls to Avoid Obscuring racism
Creating another caste in the system
Denying any part of our heritage
Denying oppression or privilege
Separation from communities of color
“Positive” stereotyping
Overstating commonalities/understating difference
Essentialism and dehumanization

19. Towards a Framework for Empowerment & Social Justice
Own all of our heritages and identities
Be visible
Use our strengths to connect and build alliances
Connect issues to the struggle against racism
Take every opportunity to interrupt the social contract around race and identity
Acknowledge and go beyond social categories

20. Closure Anything new you learned that you will use?
Anything new questions raised for you?
Feedback?