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Hi everyone,
My name is Carmen Van Kerckhove and I'm thrilled to join the amazing Laina Dawes as a Contributing Editor to the Race, Ethnicity & Culture section.
I'm co-founder and president of New Demographic, an anti-racism training company. I host Addicted to Race, a podcast about America’s obsession with race and I edit a network of blogs, including Racialicious, a blog about the intersection of race and pop culture, Anti-Racist Parent, a blog for parents committed to raising children with an anti-racist outlook and Race Changers, a community of people working towards an anti-racist future, one week at a time.
Okay, now that I have the boring resume part out of the way, let me tell you a little bit about myself.
I was born in Hong Kong to a Chinese mother and Belgian father and my family moved around quite a bit when I was a kid. We spent a couple of years in Belgium, four years in Shanghai (back when women still rocked nylon ankle socks with sandals and The Peace Hotel was the fanciest spot in town) but I spent most of my youth in Hong Kong.
When I moved to New York City for college, I experienced some pretty severe culture shock when it came to race.
Growing up in Hong Kong, I knew a lot of other mixed kids like me. And while I won't pretend that I never experienced any issues surrounding my identity, one thing I can say is that people always knew right away that I was mixed. It was never something I had to explain or justify.
But when I moved to the U.S., I found that the attitude towards mixed race identity was completely different and that the one-drop rule was very much in effect.
When people would ask me about my race and I'd explain my background, they would say something like, "Oh so you're really just Asian." I never knew how to respond to this. If I rejected the statement, it would seem as if I had some problem with being labeled as Asian. But if I didn't challenge the statement, I would be allowing them to redefine my identity for me.
Experiences like this made me realize that the United States had a long way to go when it came to understanding mixed race identity. I became involved in activism surrounding mixed race issues, eventually partnering with the wonderful Jen Chau to co-found New Demographic.
Our original mission was to encourage people to reject the stereotypes surrounding mixed race identity and interracial relationships. But we soon realized that we were actually using these topics as a filter through which to discuss race and racism in general. So we refocused our mission and introduced the core beliefs that guide our work.
I'm really glad to see that BlogHer recognizes the importance of discussing race and ethnicity. Over the last twenty years there's been an emphasis on diversity and multiculturalism in schools and workplaces, but that has often been accompanied by a severe reluctance to discuss race or even a willful blindness towards racism (e.g., "I don't see color, I just see people!").
Talking about race doesn't have to be such a scary thing. In fact, there's so much absurdity involved in race that it can often be pretty damn funny. (Did you know, for instance, that there are actually people out there who believe Asian women have horizontal vaginas?)
I look forward to getting to know you and I'm sure we're going to have some great conversations. Talk to you soon!
