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  • Has White Male Privilege Run Amok?

    (The Root) — Questions of racial identity and belonging have taken center stage this week with news that Karen Finney, political analyst and former deputy press secretary for Hillary Clinton, will host a new weekend show on MSNBC. In its announcement, MSNBC noted that Finney was the “first African-American spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee.”…

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  • Elizabeth Warren and the Politics of Racial Passing

    Marcia Alesan Dawkins writes at the Huffington Post that Scott Brown’s misguided challenge to Elizabeth Warren’s Native American ancestry is entirely predictable. This year’s election season is “the battle of the racial passers.” While many have fixated on the authenticity of a multiracial President Obama and a Latino Mitt Romney, questions of racial identity and…

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  • Barack Obama and the Politics of Passing

    Marcia Alesan Dawkins, author of Clearly Invisible: Racial Passing and the Color of Cultural Identity, weighs in at the Huffington Post on the various theories that have emerged about the president’s approach to and presentation of his ethnicity. With the November election drawing ever closer the Obama campaign is beset with accusations of Obama’s “passing,”…

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  • Black Laureate Is More Than Sum of Her Parts

    In a piece for the Huffington Post, Marcia Alesan Dawkins writes that the heritage of the United States’ newest poet laureate makes her part of an American story that usually goes unwritten.   Recently released reports by the Pew Center and the US Census Bureau indicate that intermarriage across racial and ethnic lines and an…

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  • Is the 'Tanning' of America Only Skin Deep?

    In a piece for the Huffington Post, Marcia Alesan Dawkins says that a meaningful conversation about America turning into a “majority minority” nation must go beyond the numbers. It’s official: The United States is officially “tan.” According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s first population estimate by age, race, ethnicity, and sex since the 2010 Census,…

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  • Mitt Romney and the Politics of 'Passing'

    Marcia Alesan Dawkins writes at the Huffington Post that she’s not surprised Romney campaign has been plagued by accusations of “passing,” or representing himself as a member of a different social group from the one to which he belongs. Most recently, Saturday Night Live aired a skit called “Road to the White House,” in which…

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  • The Million Hoodie March: It's About Right and Wrong

    In a piece for Truth Dig, Marcia Alesan Dawkins writes that while the Million Hoodie March was leaderless, the protesters’ demands for justice for Trayvon Martin, combined with their digital footprint, sent a clear message. [B]ecause it was leaderless, the march was very difficult for the NYPD to control. The three crowds diverged and converged…

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