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“What are you?” “Where did you come from?” “You don’t look Black.” These are a sample of some of the irritating, ignorant, and in some cases, racist questions and statements that biracial and multi-racial people endure.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Education, Health and Human Behavior’s (SEHHB) Dismantling Racism through Education, Advocacy and Mobilization (DREAM) Collective will host a live panel discussion entitled, “The Commodification of Racial Ambiguity” at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26. 

Guest panelists include Nate Williams, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning’s secondary education program and DREAM Collective member; Kaleb Germinaro, doctoral student at the University of Washington; Brittany Pitts, social work PhD student at Virginia Commonwealth University; and Caroline Ware, teacher in Chicago Public Schools. Register here for the panel discussion, or watch The Dream Collective YouTube channel. A question and answer session will follow. 

Black bi-racial scholars will discuss:

• Monetary exploitation of racial ambiguity (Famous folks who are not Black, but profit from presenting themselves as racially ambiguous)
• The commodification of Black existence through the fetishization, objectification and taking of Black identities (Monoracial folks telling Black people who they are as Black-biracial people)
• How bi-racial people navigate their racial ambiguity during times of racial unrest. 

“By attempting to ‘categorize’ biracial individuals, those in the monoracial community end up asking inappropriate questions and making demeaning remarks,” said Jessica Krim, EdD, chair and associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, secondary education program director and DREAM Collective member. “This panel will support and provide validation for Black-biracial listeners and raise awareness in monoracial listeners, so that they can be understanding of this perspective. 

“Anti-Black practices occur across many behaviors, ideals and actions. Many of these actions go unseen to most non-Black people,” said Williams. “For example, there is a common trend in social media and among some famous people who present themselves as racially-ambiguous, but are not members of any historically marginalized melanin people. Specifically, there are non-Black people who present themselves as being part of the African Diaspora by altering their physical appearance. These folks often do so in-order to profit and/or increase their celebrity by stealing aspects of the identities of Black, bi- and multi-racially Black people.” 

“This panel presentation will present the extent that white supremacy has forced the positionality and social identities of people who identify within various racial and ethnic classifications within the U.S. racialized caste system,” said Jennifer Hernandez, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, and DREAM Collective member. “People holding multiple racial identities in a white supremacist caste system face issues of belonging, acceptance, ambiguous cultural identifiers, multiple cultural histories and the perceptions others hold of them. These challenges are unique to people who identify as racially ambiguous as they move within the U.S., a country that accesses a black/white racial binary in its social institutions.” 

“The goal of the panel discussion is to bring awareness, attention and representation to the larger public about the lived experiences of people who are racially ambiguous,” continued Hernandez. “For attendees not identifying as racially ambiguous, I hope they learn about the lived experiences of this group and self-reflect on their own behavior towards this community.” 

For more information, contact TheDREAMCollective@siue.edu. 

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The DREAM Collective will host a live panel discussion entitled, “The Commodification of Racial Ambiguity” at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26.