Reflection

In reflecting on my previous blog posts, I think my favorite post was from Pinky to her Grandmother. I really enjoyed that post because it brought up the complexities of skin color, beauty, and passing within both black and white contexts. As I wrote this post, I thought more about these topics and realized the extent to which these topics cannot and should not be simplified. Questioning the ideas of authenticity within racial groups has always been very interesting to me and I think that the movie Pinky presented this issue in a thought provoking way.

As far as my favorite topics for the class, I was very interested in the Hazel Carby article Policing the Black Woman's Body in an Urban Context. Carby's article really got my interested in the history of class divisions within the black community, which is a topic that is still very relevant today. The article made me think about what it means to be a respectable woman, and what practices really reflect moral values and moral deviance.

A few questions I still have (that we will possibly discuss in our last class) are about the identity of mixed-race people in America. What factors make mixed-race identity construction different than others? Can a person truly identify with two groups of people who have a history of ill will towards each other? And finally, is the growing numbers of multi-racial people solely due to the increase in mixed race unions? Or is it also that society is more willing to accept the multiracial identity?