Representation. Matters. A Battle Cry ...
Because I was born before the Civil Rights Movement, before marriages like my parents’ were legal throughout this country…
Because my mix is Black + Jewish (Ashkenazi & Mizrahi) + some vaguely referenced but undocumented Indigenous Native American…
I grew up without ANY form of representation in history, media, art, entertainment, or culture.
Though I was clear about and grounded in my identity, I quickly learned that I was improbable, if not impossible, to many people.
The only remotely relevant stereotype for folks like me was America’s sweetheart, the Tragic Mulata, star of books and screen—a light-skinned, straight-ish-haired young Mixed woman presented as a hyper-fetishized, hyper-sexualized temptress doomed to eternal misery for being close-to-but-not-quite white. Often her storyline revolved around her passing for white, mating with a white man and OOPS! popping out a clearly not-white baby.
I instinctively recoiled from her (and all such depictions), recognizing them as weapons of an oppressive system even before I had the language and context to fully articulate my disgust.
I am not alone.
And obviously this lack of representation is in no way unique to Mixed-race people.
Any person from a group described as “historically excluded,” “marginalized,” or outside of the USA’s very restrictive “mainstream” likely knows this feeling.
Omission is a peculiar form of torture—like living in a world with no mirrors that reflect reality.
Where if you do find a reflection, it’s often distorted by the isms as a funhouse mirror.
You live in the gaps between what you know yourself to be, your lived truths, and the limitations others want to force upon you.
Sometimes it overwhelms you and you succumb—for a moment, or a while—to the madness, trying to fit yourself into the version(s) that others offer for folks like you.
Other times you rail against it, fight back, refuse to accept their versions.
That might even move you to create your own.
Raise your voice.
Spill your stories.
Share your visions.
Trumpet your truths.
For many of us in these groups, THIS is that time.
To show up, stand up, and speak up for ourselves.
On our own behalf.
To reject society’s interpretations in favor of our own.
To shatter the funhouse mirrors of oppression and represent ourselves in our fascinating fullness, our confounding complexities, our bewildering beauty.
While today there ARE more depictions of Mixed folks in mainstream entertainment and media, they are often still limited and not accurate enough to make more than the tiniest superficial difference.
It’s time for the un-and-under-represented among us to RISE UP and get our versions into the world…
Down with HIS-story!
Up with OUR-stories!
When we craft the authentic representation that WE want to see, our truths can no longer be repressed, manipulated, or ignored.
We can no longer be confined to any agenda that refuses to recognize, honor, and serve our full humanity.
Let the mainstream be inconvenienced. Uncomfortable. Given a chance to expand.
Representation. Matters.
It’s time to create and control our own!
With OUR language, terms, definitions, and interpretations.
On. Our. Terms.
Let the invisible become visible. The misrepresented become seen in their authenticity. The “marginalized” take center stage, page, and screen.
Let representations actually REPRESENT!
This is why I write.
And why I appreciate every one of you who wades through my words to see me true.