Left of Black S3:E10 | Who is Black in Multiracial America?

Left of Black S3:E10 | Who is Black in Multiracial America?

November 19, 2012

American racial history was long framed by the notion of the “one drop” rule, which within a political economy of race and difference, was a blatant attempt to embolden Whiteness and the privilege that derived from it.  Scholar Yaba Blay offers a different view of the “one drop” rule with her multi-media project (1)ne Drop which “seeks to challenge narrow, yet popular perceptions of what Blackness is and what Blackness looks like.”

Blay, a Visiting Professor of AfricanaStudies at Drexel University and contributing producer to CNN’s Black in America 5, which was inspired by the (1)ne Drop project, joins Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal on the November 19^th episode of Left of Black to talk about the complexities of Black identity.  Neal is also joined by University of Washington Professor Habiba Ibrahim for part two of an interview about her new book Troubling the Family: The Promise of Personhood and the Rise of Multiracialism(University of Minnesota Press).

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Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University.

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Episodes of Left of Black are also available for free download in  @ iTunes U

CBC Radio: Portraying Nina Simone

(Paul Bergen/Redferns)

the current with Anna Maria Tremonti | CBC Radio 

Portraying Nina Simone in a New Biopic

Zoe Saldana caused no controversy when she played a blue-skinned alien in Avatar. But her skin colour is sure an issue in her latest project. Some people think she's not dark enough to portray the singer Nina Simone. We examine the issue of light-washing, and whether the outrage being expressed over the casting for the Nina Simone movie might be enough to change things. 

Guests Include:

Simone Kellyis a singer, songwriter, performer and the daughter of Nina Simone. She's concerned about the film's casting. She joined us from Miami.  

Camille Charles is the chair of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Yaba Blay is an Africana Studies scholar and the author of One Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race. They were both in Philadelphia.

Listen HERE