The mixed-race population in the United States has increased by 5 million since 2000, according to the March issue of the AARP Bulletin. That’s a 25 percent increase since the prior Census! Thus, more children of Black-Asian unions exist - and in my perception, they are expressing their pride.
I am not raising a straw-man argument for my advocacy of BlAsian relationships. I am, rather, alluding to the BlAsian children that I hear from online as well as in person. These individuals, whether they are the lady from London or the UCLA guy, have been among the biggest supporters - and buyers - of my book. They have told me things like BlAsian Exchanges “affirms my existence and my humanity” and that I should keep writing about BlAsian relationships. They have also told me that my book tells them that they, too, should pursue a similar or other interracial relationship and be proud enough about it to be as public as I am.
Whether or not that comes to fruition, I know that the political/public part is already happening on the Internet - mostly in social networking sites like facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Yahoo. No, we don’t have a significant increase in BlAsian marriages yet, but the above-stated increase certainly is going to make the “you’re a rare couple” reaction to interracial couples a dated concept in the next five years, as the extra 5 million mixed-race individuals pair up with someone and an automatic interracial coupling happens.
Remember that a mixed-race person who marries a person of any race is automatically a mixed-race marriage if the couple checks off the proper boxes on the Census form. Of course, I am hoping that the Census Bureau will do a better job of counting mixed-race individuals as well as interracial marriages and relationships as an enhanced priority, given that we do have a BlAsian president in the White House.
And speaking of mixed-race persons, the Mixed Roots Film and Lit Festival (mxroots.org) will take place next month in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo neighborhood on June 12-13. I have been invited by my friend Yayoi Winfrey, producer of Watermelon and Sushi (watermelonsushiworld.blogspot.com and watermelonsushi.com), to be a participant on her panel on “Mixed Race Relationships” on June 12. So, if you are planning on being in Los Angeles that weekend, please check out this panel. I will also have copies of my book, BlAsian Exchanges, a novel, available for sale. Also, please check out my blogs (blackwomanasianman.wordpress.com and blasianexchangesanovel.blogspot.com) for more info and the latest.
Finally, I would like to applaud Parker Publishing, based in Southern California, for being the first publishing company ever to feature an imprint specifically dedicated to BlAsian relationship fiction. Check out their site at parker-publishing.com and scroll down to their “Current Releases” lineup. More on PP in my next column! Please let me know if you know of any BlAsian happenings, personalities or productions that you think deserves this column’s attention. And, have a wonderful late spring and summer!
Author Sam Cacas is currently completing his next novel and a nonfiction work about BlAsian history.
Posted: Fri 05 Jun 2009 13:44 Post subject: BlAsian
sagascend wrote:
Quote:
given that we do have a BlAsian president in the White House.
I'm confused. He's not talking about Obama, is he?
Either the author made a mistake, or he is expanding "BlAsian" to include Asian relatives and upbringing (Obama's boyhood in Indonesia, Indonesian step-father, Hapa half-sister).
I have seen articles where Obama is introduced as the first Asian-American president (in quotation marks of course), but it still seems bold that they would dare do that for someone with his phenotype. Racial ambiguity is normally only extended to people with a White or nearly White appearance.
The term "BlAsian" is usually used to refer to someone who is supposed to have some sort of biological mix of "black" and "Asian." I always thought this was a dubious concept because "black" and "Asian" are not defined by similar parameters. Wouldn't African and Asian (AfrAsian) or Black and Yellow (Blellow) make better sense?
Anyhow.
I have never heard of anyone who has no recent Asian ancestry being called "BlAsian" on the grounds that they posses some sort of Asian cultural heritage. But I say, "why not?" Perhaps it is not the authors right to label Barack Obama's identity for him. But if someone raised in similar circumstances to Barack Obama were to choose a "BlAsian" identity based on the way that they viewed themself, such would be more rational than any of the sorts of "racial" identities that society tries to impose upon us.
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