How do we represent mixed-race in the media? PICK ONE!

As a person of mixed-race, I was always bothered by the lack of families on TV that looked like mine. My dad was brown, my mom was yellow, my brother and I were different shades of yellow-brown. Actually, it never occurred to me that we were strange until I was about 8 years old. When a little Caucasian girl at school told me that my dad couldn't be my dad because he was a nigger. I had to go home and ask my mom what that meant. I never heard the word before that I could recall. I mean sure, my grandad use to call us kids "nigglets" but I didn't understadn the word or the connection. Before that, I was always with my (also very mixed) cousins, and all of us had brown dads and pale moms. In my world, it made sense. But after that exchange with the little blond girl in the playground, I forever understood that my family and I were different. (Apparently, not everyone has four grandparents that are all different colors...who knew?) It hurt at first, but then I grew to embrace my difference. No one had a name like mine and no one looked like me. I always stood out, and I am big ham so that suited me just fine.

I became more an more aware that there weren't people like us on TV. It felt like every show had White families with a token "fill in the race" friend like Silver Spoons. When there was a show on with a Black family, like The Cosby Show or The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, all the Black folks were different colors. Dark parents with light kids, light parents with dark kids. The Black families on TV definitely didn't look quite like each other so I began to identify more with them. While this did not bother me as a child, it really did start to bother me as an adult. Why do people of mixed-race always have to identify with the darker of the races they are mixed with? Is it because we identify the race that most people view us? And if so, which race should I identify with? I am not enough of any color to say for sure "yes, that child is Black" or "yes that child is some kind of Asian."

An example of this societal identification is Halle Berry. She is a gorgeous actress of Mixed-Race. Her father was Black and her mother White. Her father left home when she was 4 years old and she was raised by her mother. In the media, Halle is identified as Black. When she won the Oscar for Best Actress in 2002, she said her he acceptance speech that the award was for all the "nameless, faceless women of color that now has the chance because the door tonight has been opened" but the Oscars Website, lists her as the first African-American actress to win the Oscar for Best Actress. I remember an interview on TV when I was younger hearing her speak about being Mixed-Race, and I was proud to have at least one representative in the media I could look up to. Unfortunately, that seemed to change around the time she was up for the Oscar. She seemed to rally around the Black-only identification. In 2011, she was quoted as describing her daughter and herself "Black" even though her daughter is 3/4 White and 1/4 Black. Berry stated that she believes in the one drop rule, referring to the Jim Crow laws that originated in the south during the late 1800's. The so called "laws" state that "one drop of African blood is enough to color a whole ocean of Caucasian whiteness." She, like many other Mixed-Race people in the media PICKED ONE.

This strikes me as so odd to only identify with one race when you come from multiple. It can be very painful as well. In my case, at home with my mother's side I was viewed as possibly Mexican. Real Japanese people weren't "used to" Black people. After all, they live on an exclusive collection of islands where everyone looks pretty much the same. My grandmother didn't want anyone to know we were Black, it was "bad enough" she married a White American and had "half-breed" kids. That was the mentality of the 50's and 60's. So whenever our extended family on the Japanese side asked what we were we would say "American" but we were so dark in the summer they assumed we were Mexican. When I finally "came out" as Black to one of my cousins as an adult, he said "Wow, we always thought you guys were Mexican! This is huge!" It was tough not being the real me with part of my family. It was also difficult to find out it was big news that we were Black. When I was home with my father's side I could be Mixed. They weren't kind people but we did at least celebrate our varied races. We drank afternoon tea with our British grandmother, and we had cookouts on June Teenth. We weren't enough of one thing to identify with so we identified with everything. I still carry that as being the only good thing I got from my father's side of the family.

I think you'll find that most people will identify with how society views them such as Halle Berry, President Barack Obama, Louis CK (Mexican-American viewed as White), Keanu Reeves (Asian-White), the list goes on. As a person that wears my Mixed-Race status on my sleeve and face, it is important to me that we shake things up, be Mixed-Race, check every box, tell people what we are, learn to identify with all of it. We will soon out number Mono-Racial people, if we don't already. The sooner we blend thing up, the better off we will all be.

A Family Affair

About 6 months ago, I was laid off from a pretty cushy Office Manager gig at a professional development company for teachers. This job was not film related but it paid well and I enjoyed working for my two managers. In May 2012, our headquarters closed our branch and I told myself enough is enough! No more working office jobs that I am not fully happy at. I graduated film school in 2003 and since then all I have to show for it is a year at the Austin Film Festival, and few PA jobs on shorts, and a dream in need of resuscitation. I began looking into the film community in Boston and discovered the Massachusetts Production Coalition. A networking organization that caters to the professional filmmaking industry in Massachusetts.

On Saturday, December 1, 2012, I attended the Massachusetts Production Coalition’s final seminar in the Working Methods in Film Television Advertising seminar series for 2012; the topic of Film Distribution. Of the 6 panelist, one person’s advice and stories stood out for me, filmmaker Chico Colvard, director of autobiographical documentary Family Affair. Colvard accidentally shot his sister in the leg at the age of 10 and this event brought to light the terrible truth about physical and sexual abuse by his father and tore his family apart. His film was a profile of his family as a result of this tragic event. It has won several awards at film festivals such as Independent Film Festival Boston, Atlanta Film Festival, Duke City DocFest, and premiered on the Own Network in March 2012. At the seminar, he discussed the various methods for making and distributing his film. 

Colvard explained that as an independent filmmaker, it is important to retain the rights or as much of the rights to you film as possible. When it comes to distribution, having a good lawyer to assist you in making deals that allow your film to be distributed in the US and abroad while also retaining the rights to sell and screen you film as you see fit. Having your art “owned” by a separate entity to make money and sell apart from you can be a hard lesson. Your life, your story, no longer yours to control.

Louis C.K., a Self-Distribution Success Story

Many people know about the hilarious comedian Louis C.K. but did you know he is of Mexican and Hungarian descent? (IMDB Profile) Louis Szekely was born in Washington D.C. but lived in Mexico City, Mexico, until he was 7 years old. He has dual citizenship in both the U.S. and Mexico. He started doing stand-up comedy in 1984 in Boston, MA.  He was so terrible his first time out the gate that he didn’t attempt stand up again for a few years. In addition to being a stand up comic, Louis has worked as a writer on The Chris Rock Show, Saturday Night Live, and his own television shows Lucky Louie (HBO) and Louis (FX). One thing that makes him unique as a comedian is that he discards all of his material every year and starts from scratch in an attempt of always remaining fresh and relevant. 

In December 2011, C.K. released his independently produced comedy special Live at the Beacon Theater via his website. According to the Emmys 2012: Louis C.K.'s Digital Download Experiment Pays Off article by Seth Abramovich from the Hollywood Reporter, the special has grossed over $1 million. I have chosen Louis CK’s success story for this first blog post because he is a great example of what a strong work ethic and dedication to his craft can yield…a successful self-produced, edited, and distributed work that is entirely representative of the comic himself.

The show took place in November 2011 at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. Louis C.K. not only produced his special but he personally edited the work as well. Four weeks after the taping of the special, he launched it as a digital download on his website for $5. The show was produced for $250,000, and with the $1.1 million in sales as of September 2012, he has shown that it is possible to take the corporation out of the picture. (Abramovitch.)

Multiracial People? Where are they in the media?

I grew up wondering why families on TV and in movies didn’t look like my family. My parents were different colors and depending on the time of year I either looked yellow like my mom or brown like my dad.  I was too young and didn’t have a way to describe what I was feeling at the time but I really wanted to see movies where people looked like me. We weren’t represented in the media.  This, along with spending countless hours watching Japanese and American movies with my maternal grandmother as a child, is what drove me into film school. I wanted to tell stories about mixed-people.

Let’s flash forward 9 years after film school, it is 2012 and I have yet to make a film about the “mixed experience.” I have a few ideas floating around in my head, but I lack the motivation to make my own movie. What I am passionate about, however, is helping other people tell their stories. This summer I had the privilege to work as an Associate Producer on the film The Opus 139 Project: To Hear The Music. I assisted the director, Dennis Lanson, in the beginning stages of a Kickstarter Campaign to finance post-production. While this film is not about multiracial identity, it is in fact about the C.B. Fisk Company and an organ they installed at Harvard Memorial Church, the experience showed me how wonderful it feels to help a filmmaker with their film.