Multiracial Family Man

Comic and writer Alex Barnett is the White, Jewish husband of a Black woman (who converted to Judaism) and the father of a 7-year-old, Biracial son. Join him and his guests each episode as they discuss issues of concern to Multiracial people and people in Multiracial families (including the dynamics between members of the same family who are of different races). Alex has been seen on the Katie Couric Show, been featured on Sirius/XM Radio’s “Raw Dog Comedy,” NBC’s EVB Live, and in The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, and CNN.com.

The Final Episode - Ep. 250 12/08/2019

Revisiting a conversation with comedian J-L Cauvin about race, racism, and the changing economics of the comedy business, Ep. 249 12/01/2019

Dancer, actress, ninja, writer, Tori Eldridge, and Hawaiian-Norwegian multiracial experience, Ep. 248 11/24/2019

Revisiting a conversation with Professor Sarah Gaither about multiracial perceptions, interracial interactions and intergroup contact, Ep. 247 11/17/2019

Revisiting our conversation with multiracial family mom, Obama neighbor, and former dancer, Keesha Beckford, 246 11/10/2019

The Taiwanese-Latino Multiracial Experience with Comedian James Camacho, Ep. 245 11/03/2019

Changing Careers and Pursuing Your Passion with African-American NASCAR Driver, Bill Lester, Ep. 244 10/27/2019

Changing Careers and Pursuing Your Passion with African-American NASCAR Driver, Bill Lester, Ep. 244 Ep. 244: Before becoming a professional race car driver, Bill Lester spent 15 years working as a computer scientist and project manager in Silicon Valley for Hewlett-Packard. After embarking on a full-time racing career, Lester competed in NASCAR and IMSA, two of America’s most prestigious racing series. He won over $2 million in purse money, drove a total of 30,162 laps in competition, earned six podium finishes and one victory during his 10 full seasons. In 2006, Lester became the first African American driver in 20 years to compete in NASCAR’S premier Cup Series. It would be another 11 years before another African American driver, Darrell “Bubba” Wallace, would compete again in the Cup ranks. Among Lester’s other credits are initial professional races in the SCCA Trans-Am Series and IMSA Series. In 1999, he won the CART African American Driver Development Program tryout and, as a result, successfully tested an Indy Lights car with Team Kool Green. In 2012, he completed his racing career by earning a trip to the Rotax Grand Finals of international karting competition in Portimao, Portugal proudly representing Team USA. During his five seasons of participation in the NASCAR Truck Series, NASCAR featured Lester in a TV ad promoting the series on the Speed Channel. In 2003 and 2004, General Mills featured Lester on Honey Nut Cheerios collector edition cereal boxes. Lester appeared on the cover of Black Enterprise in April of 2004. Feature articles about Lester also appeared in USA Today and The New York Times as well as Car and Driver magazine, among others. Bill Lester has received various awards including: “Breaking New Frontiers” award from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority in 2004; “Trailblazer in Motor Sports” award from the Rainbow/PUSH organization in 2004, “Jackie Robinson Award” from the Rainbow/PUSH organization in 2006; “Trailblazer Award” from RYSE Magazine in 2013; and the “Sam Lacy Pioneer Award” from the National Association of Black Journalists in 2013. Lester’s TV work began in 2003 with a two-year stint as a broadcast analyst for the Fox Sports South show “Around the Track”. In 2014, he also worked as a Broadcast Analyst for the NBC Sports show “NASCAR America.” Bill Lester is available for celebrity speaking engagements through Bruce Merrin’s Celebrity Speakers, NOPACT Talent, Executive Speakers Bureau and Great Black speakers. Bill Lester retired from professional racing in 2007. For more on Bill Lester, please check out his website: For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: or visit him on Facebook () or on Twitter at To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 /episode/index/show/multiracialfamilyman/id/11733776

Revisiting a Conversation About Beyond Black & White and The Pink Pill with Christelyn Karazin, Ep. 243 10/20/2019

Revisting a Conversation About Multiracial Identity, the Census, Bone Marrow Donor Registry, and Chronicling the Life of a Champion of the Multiracial Community, with Project Race Executive Director Susan Graham, Ep. 242 10/13/2019

On being biracial, bicultural and Jewish with author Natasha Diaz, Ep. 241 10/06/2019

Spoken word poet Staceyann Chin on immigration and on being multiracial, Jamaican, and gay, Ep. 240 09/29/2019

Indian culture, immigrant experience, and staying true to one's values onstage with comedian, Ritu Chandra, Ep. 239 09/22/2019

Exploring multiracial identity by returning to one’s homeland with writer, teacher, organizer & activist, Faith Adiele, Ep. 238 09/15/2019

Snowflake Stories - Personalized Multicultural Children's Books with Author & Founder Jill Barletti, Ep. 237 09/08/2019

The Cheetah Girls and using DNA to trace ancestry after childhood in the foster care system with Deborah Gregory, Ep. 236 09/01/2019

The Cheetah Girls and using DNA to trace ancestry after childhood in the foster care system with Deborah Gregory, Ep. 236 Ep. 236: Writer, performer and designer Deborah Gregory is the award-winning author of “The Cheetah Girls” novel series (Disney Publishing Worldwide). The 22-book series (16 books written by Deborah Gregory plus 6 movie tie-in books including “The Cheetah Girls Supa Star Scrapbook,” “Cheetah Girls 2 X0X0 Postcard Book” and “Cheetah Girls Cheetah Chatter: A Dictionary of Growl-licious Lingo”) is about five talented teens who form a singing group and make their dreams come true in the jiggy jungle. The Disney Channel original movie produced in conjunction with Whitney Houston, “The Cheetah Girls” –based on the book series–airs this summer and stars Raven Symone, Adrienne and Kiely from 3LW as well as Lynn Whitfield. Deborah Gregory serves as a co-producer on the film project. The soundtrack album will be available on Disney’s Hollywood Records. In 2001, the series was chosen at the Blackboard Children’s Book of the Year. Gregory is also an NABJ award-winning contributing writer for magazine since 1992. Her work has also appeared in VIBE, MORE, Heart & Soul, Entertainment Weekly, US magazines. Her pop culture column, THE DIVA DIARIES, appears in magazine, the national fashion and lifestyle “reality” publication targeted at multi-cultural women. She is currently writing an adult novel as well as developing a one-woman show “LEOPARD LIVES” –a coming of age story about a foster child growing up in the New York City foster care system of which Gregory is also a survivor. She has performed segments of her work-in-progress one-woman show at the Women of Color Festival, winning the festival’s Best Comedy Award for 2001; Dixon Place, Caroline’s Comedy Club and Solo Arts Festival. Ms. Gregory has also contributed to several books including, “Men of Color: Fashion, Mission, Fundamentals,” (Artisan Publishing); “Body and Soul, SoulStyle: Black Women Redefining the Color Fashion,” “Essence Total Makeover Book,” “50 Most Influential People.” She also contributed to photographer Marc Baptiste’s book of nudes, ” (Rizzoli/Universe Publishing) as well as posed for the famed fashion photographer. The pictures are provocative and include a host of celebrities who also posed nude including Stacey Dash, Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Williams, Beverly Johnson, LisaRaye. 25 percent of the proceeds will go to photographer Mfon Essien’s breast cancer organization set up upon her untimely death. This year, Deborah Gregory also launched her company, CHEETAHRAMA, offering her original designs including hand-crafted decoupage art cases and hair accessories. CHEETAHRAMA mirror compacts, pillboxes, business card holders, cigarette cases and vanity cases which are sold at stores nationwide including the Studio Museum of Harlem gift shop. Ms. Gregory received her A.A.S. from Fashion Institute of TEchnology, then received a Bachelor of Science from Empire State University in 1986. She currently lives in New York City with her pooch Cappuccino who poses as the Cheetah Girls mascot Toto. For more on her, please see: For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: or visit him on Facebook () or on Twitter at To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 /episode/index/show/multiracialfamilyman/id/11009912

Counseling Multiracial Families with Rorri Geller-Mohamed, Ep. 235 08/25/2019

The Sociology and Real-ness of Race, with Professor Rainier Spencer, Ep. 234 08/18/2019

Multiracial Identity, the Census, Bone Marrow Donor Registry, and Chronicling the Life of a Champion of the Multiracial Community, with Project Race Executive Director Susan Graham, Ep. 233 08/11/2019

Afro-Latino Experience and Addressing the Intersection of Civil Rights and Multiracial Identity with Professor Tanya Hernandez, Ep. 232 08/04/2019

Afro-Latino Experience and Addressing the Intersection of Civil Rights and Multiracial Identity with Professor Tanya Hernandez, Ep. 232 Ep. 232: Tanya Katerí Hernández, is the Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law, where she teaches Anti-Discrimination Law, Comparative Employment Discrimination, Critical Race Theory, The Science of Implicit Bias and the Law: New Pathways to Social Justice, and Trusts & Wills. She received her A.B. from Brown University, and her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as Note Topics Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Professor Hernández, is an internationally recognized comparative race law expert and Fulbright Scholar who has visited at the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, in Paris and the University of the West Indies Law School, in Trinidad. She has previously served as a Law and Public Policy Affairs Fellow at Princeton University, a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University; a Faculty Fellow at the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality, and as a Scholar in Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Professor Hernández is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, the American Law Institute, and the Academia Puertorriqueña de Jurisprudencia y Legislación. Hispanic Business Magazine selected her as one of its annual 100 Most Influential Hispanics. Professor Hernández serves on the editorial boards of the Revista Brasileira de Direito e Justiça/Brazilian Journal of Law and Justice, and the Latino Studies Journal published by Palgrave-Macmillian Press. Professor Hernández’s scholarly interest is in the study of comparative race relations and anti-discrimination law, and her work in that area has been published in numerous university law reviews like Cornell, Harvard, N.Y.U., U.C. Berkeley, Yale and in news outlets like the New York Times, among other publications including her books Racial Subordination in Latin America: The Role of the State, Customary Law and the New Civil Rights Response (including Spanish and Portuguese translation editions) and Brill Research Perspectives in Comparative Law: Racial Discrimination. Her most recent publication is the book Multiracials and Civil Rights: Mixed-Race Stories of Discrimination . For more on Professor Hernandez or to view her c.v., please see: For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: or visit him on Facebook () or on Twitter at To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 /episode/index/show/multiracialfamilyman/id/10713995

Roots of the Spirit - Chronicling Civil Rights History and Advocating for Social Justice with Spirit Tawfiq, Ep. 231 07/28/2019

Betwixt and Between - the Sociology of the Multiracial Experience with Professor G. Reginald Daniel, Ep. 230 07/21/2019

Betwixt and Between - the Sociology of the Multiracial Experience with Professor G. Reginald Daniel, Ep. 230 Ep. 230: In this episode, Alex speak with Professor G. Reginald Daniel, Ph.D. Professor Daniel is a Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara; Affiliated Faculty, Latin American and Iberian Studies, Black Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Asian American Studies, and History. Since 1989, he has taught “Betwixt and Between,” which is one of the first and longest-standing university courses to deal specifically with the question of multiracial identity comparing the U.S. with various parts of the world. He has published numerous articles and chapters that cover this topic. His chapters “Passers and Pluralists: Subverting the Racial Divide” and “Beyond Black and White: The New Multiracial Consciousness” appeared in Racially Mixed People in America (1992) edited by Maria P. P. Root, which was the first comprehensive examination of multiracial identity in the United States. His books entitled More Than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order (2002) and Race and Multiraciality in Brazil and the United States: Converging Paths? (2006), and Machado de Assis: Multiracial Identity and the Brazilian Novelist (2012) are a culmination of much of his thinking on the relationship between social structure and racial formation—especially multiracial identities. He is also co-editor of Race and the Obama Phenomenon: The Vision of a More Perfect Multiracial Union (2014) to which he contributed a chapter titled “Race and Multiraciality: From Barack Obama to Trayvon Martin.” In addition, he is a co-founding editor and Editor in Chief of the newly launched Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies (JCMRS). On June 16, 2012, he received the Loving Prize at the 5th Annual Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival in Los Angeles. Established in 2008, the prize is a commemoration of the June 12, 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision that removed the last laws prohibiting racial intermarriage. It is awarded annually to outstanding artists, storytellers, and community leaders for inspirational dedication to celebrating and illuminating the mixed racial and cultural experience. National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation” interviewed him where he discussed his teaching on multiraciality and the significance of the Loving Prize. Finally, he is a former member of the advisory boards of AMEA (Association of MultiEthnic Americans), the Mixed Heritage Center of MAVIN Foundation, and Project RACE (Reclassify All Children Equally). These are among the most prominent organizations involved in bring about changes in the collection of official racial and ethnic data, as in the decennial census, which makes it possible for multiracial-identified individuals to acknowledge their various backgrounds. His own multiracial identity includes African, European, Asian, Arab, and Native American origins. For more on Professor Daniel, please see his and his . For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: or visit him on Facebook () or on Twitter at To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 /episode/index/show/multiracialfamilyman/id/10549016

Representing the biracial experience through fiction with author John Vercher, Ep. 229 07/14/2019

Writing about multicultural and multiracial voices for kids with Patricia Hruby Powell, Ep. 228 07/07/2019

Multiracial storytelling with British, Afro-Trinidadian filmmaker, Lichelli Lazar-Lea, Ep. 227 06/30/2019

Representing Colombian-American ethnicity and vegan culture onstage, with restaurateur and comedian, Alex Carabano, Ep. 226. 06/23/2019

Advocating for the Multiracial Community with Mixed Media founder, Whitney Yang, Ep. 225 06/16/2019

Advocating for the Multiracial Community with Mixed Media founder, Whitney Yang, Ep. 225 Ep. 225: Whitney Yang, the second child of Debra (white of European descent) and Philip (Asian of Chinese descent), an interracial couple who met and married in the Untied States in 1974. Whitney was born in Hong Kong while her parents both worked for the United States government. She feels extremely fortunate to have grown up immersed in Chinese culture and to have attended international schools with peers of diverse backgrounds. Whitney loves being mixed and strongly identifies with her Chinese/Asian heritage. She admits that she feels most comfortable and free from judgement with other mixed race people who share her experiences. But Whitney also recalls the challenges she faced as a child and adolescent — teachers who couldn’t pronounce her Chinese name, conflicting messages from people in her environment about Chinese culture and people, racist jokes and comments made at her expense, and the constant feeling of being an outsider. Despite her international upbringing, Whitney has lived thirty years regularly being asked questions like, “what are you?,” “where are you from?,” and “what’s your heritage?”. She never knows quite how to answer in a way that makes her feel whole without being disbelieved or rejected (as she has been, many, many times). Mixed (Me)dia grew out of Whitney’s graduate studies research into everyday forms of political resistance, media representations of people of color, mixed race identity formation, and child development. Mixed (Me)dia is an online resource center for mixed race* children and adults, parents and educators of mixed race children, and anyone who is interested in understanding what it’s like to be mixed race in the United States. For more about Mixed (Me)dia or Whitney, please visit her website: For more on host, Alex Barnett, please check out his website: or visit him on Facebook () or on Twitter at To subscribe to the Multiracial Family Man, please click here: Huge shout out to our "Super-Duper Supporters" Elizabeth A. Atkins and Catherine Atkins Greenspan of Intro and Outro Music is Funkorama by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons - By Attribution 3.0 /episode/index/show/multiracialfamilyman/id/10141949

Revisiting a conversation with Ken Tanabe, founder of Loving Day, to discuss the landmark decision Loving v. Virginia, Ep. 224 06/09/2019

The multiracial experience and the #ImNotAlone movement with Professor Kristal Brent Zook, Ep. 223 06/02/2019

Revisiting the Latina & African-American Multiracial Family Experience with Vanessa Bell, Founder of De Su Mama, Ep. 222 05/26/2019

Studying the sociology of cross-race interaction with Duke University Ph.D. candidate, Brenda Straka, Ep. 221 05/19/2019

Multiracial Family Man

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