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Welcome to the community!

This introductory episode introduces listeners to the premise of Our True Colors. In this opening episode, I discuss terms and concepts surrounding issues of race and racial ambiguity.

I encourage you to reach out to me and share your thoughts! What topics would you like to discuss? Do you have some feedback? Reach out with a direct text.

Want to be a guest? Click this link to send me your thoughts on how you could add to the convo as a guest on the show!

Link further exploration:

• Race as a Social Construct
• Human Genome Project
• Race, Ethnicity, and Culture with Jelly Beans
• Eugenics and Scientific Racism
• Biden Administration's Proposal for Updated Census Data Collection
• Honorary Whiteness - Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
• Colonialism
• Culture
• Being a 3rd Culture Kid
• Being a Third Culture Kid
• Gender Neutral Terms

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Transcript

Hello, and welcome to our true colors. I'm your host, Shawna Gann. I'm so glad that you're here and to join the conversation. 

I am the founder and CEO of True Colors Consulting, a business psychologist who specializes in diversity, equity, and inclusion or DEI. I am not a clinical psychologist. I'm also not a sociologist, nor will I ever pretend to be those things. I'll never pretend to have all the answers because quite simply, I don't. I'm here as your host. I'm here to facilitate discussions and to bring in experts as I mentioned before, that way we'll have a solid foundation on which to learn about each other and to better understand our varying perspectives. When I do share my beliefs know that they're backed by resources, which I'll include in the show notes are on the website.

Every once in a while, in some of the earlier episodes, you may hear reference to Tribe and True, which was the previous name of our true colors. But you can find out more about the story behind that switch to OTC in season two, the episode is called What's in a Name, check it out.

The purpose of this first episode of our True Colors is to explain what the show is about - the premise. And also to explain my approach to certain topics. I will share some of my beliefs and understandings throughout the episodes. But in this particular episode, I want to make sure that I go over some very specific terms or vocabulary that I use, I think it's important that you have an idea of my perspectives, or basically where I'm coming from. 

Language is always changing as society continues to change. That may mean some updates as we go along the way, but for now, this is a great place to start. I am a lifelong learner and always welcome new insights. Send your ideas my way! 

So what's the show about? Well, OTC is meant to be a platform to share thoughts, and express ideas, and a place to be heard, and to be understood. It isn’t about being multiractial, b-racial or mixed, although we talk about that quite a bit. In fact, though I am often perceived to be racially ambiguous, I am not multiracial. I am a monoracial Black woman with a rich multiethnic heritage though, and like most folks, I am still on my identity journey. Does that journey every really end? In my opinion, it doesn’t.

I am your host, but OTC isn’t meant to be just my voice. Every season I invite a new cohost to join me – someone who can relate to the experiences that we talk about but also can offer a perspective different from my own.

For example, in Season 1 my cohost is Shannon Edwards. She is part of a different generational cohort than me and has one Black and one White parent.

In Season 2 you’ll meet my older brother, Jason Mitchum. We share blood but not childhood memories, since we didn’t meet until we were both near adulthood. He brings a different gendered perspective to the conversation.

Hear different points of view from my Canadian cohost in Season 3, Carmen Watson. I met Carmen in the previous season when she talked about her family’s story of discovery and reunion.

At the time of this recording, Season 4 is underway with cohost Yolandie Hamilton of Hamilton Styles. She is of Jamaican and Polish descent and lives in a small town in Michigan. 

Each of these cohosts are wonderful, but episodes include conversations with professionals who study and work in race relations as well as folks who share their own stories and experiences of being a person who, as I often say, can somehow fit everywhere but simultaneously feels a longing to belong. I’m talking about people who are multiracial, multiethnic, and multicultural, but also folks who are expats and 3rd culture kids as well as transracial adoptees. Who else might this show be for? People who are in interracial relationships and parents of multiracial children. You might be interested if you are diversity, equity, and inclusion specialist, a scholar, or a leader in your organization. Perhaps you are someone who just wants to hang out with us and learn about the experiences of people who are different than yourself. A little more on this in a bit, but the point is…

You are ALL welcome! 

Now let's talk about what our True Colors is not. It is okay and it is natural to vent or complain about lived experiences that have impacted us. But this is not a place to put down others as a group or individual. I want our true colors to be a source of energy of positive energy and support and a place where we can welcome others thoughts and opinions in the spirit of inclusion. 

It's not meant to be an echo chamber. It is very important to me that listeners joining me at OTC have a sense of belonging. That's the main premise of the show. And it remains a passion of mine. Every voice is welcome here even those voices of dissent and differences of opinion. It's all part of the conversation. 

Okay so with all of that explained, what does it mean to be racially ambiguous? anyway? Do any of these questions sound familiar to you?

Where are you from?
What are you?
What's your background? 
What's your ethnicity? 
But where are you really from? 
Where are you from originally though? 

Those questions don't necessarily come from a place of mal intent or rudeness or prejudice or racism or anything like that. Usually, people are just coming from a place of curiosity. It is human nature after all, to be curious. We live in a world where lots of people see race as a binary and our brains are wired for bias. That’s right. Bias just is. It’s how we survive actually, sorting people and things into categories for understanding, but this sorting gets super wonky when we talk about social categorization which leads to in-group/out-group dynamics.

You're either this or you're not. Well, I'm here to tell you race is, not as clear as black and white, literally or figuratively. It's important to note that the show is not about being black or white, or even black and white. Racial ambiguity is not code for mixed. The word ambiguous means unclear or an exact or, according to Lexico. It means being open to more than one interpretation. 

You might be perceived as racially or sometimes it's called ethnically ambiguous if people tend to have a hard time pinpointing your racial ancestry. Or you might perceive someone as being racially or ethnically ambiguous when you find yourself wondering “quote” what they are or where they're from. 

Our True Colors focuses on identity. As mentioned earlier, we could be talking about people who identify as being biracial, multiracial, or even monoracial, but with physical or cultural characteristics that make their ancestry hard to determine. 

An example could be someone like me, someone who identifies monoracially or as having one race, but my skin color and other physical features (called my phenotype) make it hard for people to figure out my racial or ethnic background. By the way, there's lots of ways to be multiracial. on this show, nothing is ever just black and white. 

We recognize other aspects of racial identity such as being transracial. One example of this is when a person is adopted by a family that does not share their same ethnic ancestry. Also important to consider are the many layers or intersections which include age, gender, sexuality, socio economic status, and so on. When these intersections include identities that have been historically marginalized, this is called intersectionality. 

Other things like our professions and where we've lived, have shaped us and continue to shape us into the person we are and continue to become all of those things. They bring us our many lenses through which we view and approach life. There's so much more to us than our physical characteristics. I've used a lot of terms so far. Let's take a second and break down some of these a bit more. intersectionality was coined by Kimberly Crenshaw in the 80s. It has to do with our multifaceted selves, but very specifically, it has to do with the intersections of marginalized groups of people. Merriam Webster defines intersectionality as, quote, the complex cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination such as racism, sexism, classism, and how these things combine and overlap, or intersect, especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups. Check out the notes on intersectionality to learn more.

There are some other terms that folks sometimes use interchangeably. I want to explain each one and how I typically use them on the show. Some of these words are race, ethnicity, ancestry, nationality, heritage and culture, but for now, we'll focus on these four: race, ethnicity, culture, and nationality. 

Merriam Webster defines race as a category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits, you'll often hear me talk about those physical traits being described as phenotypes, or I might say something like someone presents phenotypically a certain way. Presenting in this case means how they look not how they purposely portrayed themselves. 

The American Sociological Association explains race as referring to physical differences, that groups and cultures consider socially significant key word socially. Race is socially constructed, some say politically constructed, it doesn't have anything to do with our genes, or what's inside of us. But the concept came about based purely on what people see or what they think they see on the outside. No matter what color you are, what color your hair is, how your hair type is, your eye color, however you look any of those things. Human beings we have more in common genetically speaking than we know. So how did the idea of race come about? And why is it considered socially or politically constructed time for history lesson here we go. 

Colonilization has been around since the 1400’s, but finding new lands to claim really took off in the 1800s.  Anthropology and ethnography began to explode with works by Darwin writing about evolution in his publication, The Origin of Species and JC Pritchard writing about “quote” savage races, or in 1864, when W Winwood Reed read published his book Savage Africa, in which he wrote that quote, 

England and France will rule Africa, Africans will dig the ditches and water the deserts, it will be hard work and the Africans will probably become extinct. We must learn to look at the result with composure. 
It illustrates the beneficence law of nature that the week must be devoured by the strong

End quote

Y’all… Are you catching the air of white supremacy here?

Anyhoo, It was during this time that the scientists and scholars began to try to categorize people into races. In 1866 Frederick Farrar wrote about the aptitudes of races in which he categorized people into three groups. Though in his paper, he did admit that Ethnology had not yet advanced enough to say that his determination was final. Nevertheless, he described the three groups as being Savage, semi civilized, and civilized. 

He considered Africans indigenous, and pretty much all people of color except the Chinese to be Savage. He considered the Chinese to be semi civilized, basically, on their way to civilization but then suffering from Arrested Development, as he described it. Lastly, the civilized groups of Europeans and ariens and the Semitic people were considered superior to all 

Enter eugenics. The dictionary says that eugenics is the practice or advocacy of controlled selective breeding of human population, done sterilization in most cases, to improve the population’s genetic composition. 

Well, y’all, since the scholars had somehow concluded that the people belonging to what they considered “civilized groups” were superior. There was the push to breed a better species of human from this so-called superior race. 

This is also when the push for segregation began and guess where German Nazis got their ideas from? That's right. American eugenics was the model the very model for the German Nazis. It’s a wild thought, but by the early 19 hundred's eugenics was pumped out at full throttle through American colleges, and it was taught as a legitimate science, 

Check out race equity tools.org, for more interesting facts about this, and other developments of racial categories and implications of these categories that point to the invention of the concept of race in order to justify those deemed civilized, ie, white as being superior and granted the gift from God as manifest destiny to rule superior over the land 

It’s deep, y'all. 

Listen… people are just people. But certain folks took it upon themselves to decide which people were better than others, and which could hardly even be considered people at all. The rest is history. And unfortunately, also a lot of our present. Science has proven that there are no I mean, zero genetic markers to determine different races, there never was such a thing. But, some anthropologists back in the day checking out people and places that were different than what they knew and were used to deemed people to be uncivilized. That's how race and therefore racism was born. 

Now, race is a heavy word, I just gave you the background on why it's considered socially and politically constructed. That being said, I still use the word race as a descriptor. Sometimes you might hear these descriptions as being racialized. Though I may still use the word “race” in conversation, you need to know that my use of race is not my subscription to racial or racist ideals. Race is usually used as a way to categorize people according to how they look, taking cues from phenotypes such as skin color, hair texture, facial features, etc.

Now, ethnicity is a subset of race.  It has more to do with shared ancestry and genes, but can include language, religion, and some aspects of culture. An example could be describing people who are racialized as being White. Examples of ethnicities, may be folks who have Slavic, Nordic or English ancestry.

Culture can be found within ethnic groups, but it doesn’t have to be. Culture describes the way of life of a group of people, such as dialect, shared beliefs, expressions of art like music, dance, and cuisine, and other traditions and practices. Think about different ways you experience culture depending on the context. Your work culture might be different from your culture at home vs. the culture of your neighborhood and so on. Culture does not have to be tied to ethnicity. 

Now consider how people might be racialized, or racially categorized and the assumptions that come with this racialization. What if the person being racialized in a certain way actually doesn’t share the culture of the group with which they are being categorized. This is sometimes the case with transracial adoption. 

Imagine a white American family adopting an infant from south Asia. That child will grow up to have the physical characteristics of their ethnic ancestry, but may only identify with American culture and even more specifically, the various sub cultures of that family or the region in the US where that family resides. 

To go a little deeper, people can have culture that is made up of several cultures as an example of third culture kids or third culture people. These might be the children of expats, foreign service professionals or military professionals to name a few who have lived in a variety of cultural settings throughout the world in different periods of their lives. But usually, it's referring to the formative or developmental years of childhood, in most cases. 

Why is it called the third culture? Well, the first culture is the culture of your parents or their parents place of origin. The second is the current location, which is different than that place of origin. And remember that current location can change. The third culture is the combination of these things, which could include cultures of several places, not just three. Now nationality is all about your citizenship. It is your citizenship to the nation to which you belong. Consider expats, for example, they might hold a passport from the US, but maybe reside abroad in another country. Here's another puzzler for you. Consider a person with African ancestry who holds a US passport practices, typical American traditions, but they live in Australia. Can you see all the differences? 

Finally, I want to talk to you about terms like Black versus African American or white versus Caucasian. Let me first start by saying you can use whichever terms you want to there is nothing right now that has to do with what's politically correct or not politically when it comes to using black or white, African American or Caucasian. Different folks hold different preferences with this, but I just want to give you my take on this since you’ll hear me use these terms throughout the episodes. 

Most often you'll hear me use the terms black and white to describe groups with African ancestry and European ancestry. I also recognize that not every black person is from Africa. Though many are part of the African diaspora, there are plenty of black folks don't identify with Africa at all. I think the term Black is actually more inclusive than African American. 

Jesse Jackson made the term African American more popular in the late 80s, even though it really was around for at least 200 years before that, well, why did they embrace it in the 80s? Well, Jesse Jackson, and some others pointed out the fact that other ethnic groups in America all had some reference to a land outside of America, attached to their identity. So like Chinese American, Italian, American, and so on, whereas black only evokes thoughts of skin color, or on a social level, perhaps the side of town you live on, so I get it, I super get it. 

Though, like many others, I am interested in my ancestry, I do not personally have ties to Africa. I think if people who emigrate from Africa and gain American citizenship to be African American, or maybe even their children who may be first generation immigrants as there may be some ethnic culture that continues to define their African identity, and it's prevalent in their lives, even while living in America. 

When it comes to white versus Caucasian, why do I use white instead of Caucasian? Well, the term Caucasian came from the 1700s Johann Blumenbach, one of the anthropologists that I mentioned earlier, was visiting Caucasus region, which lies somewhere between Russia and other countries in the Middle East like Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and so on. Blumenbach saw the people there and described them to be amazingly beautiful – or something like that. Well, the term Caucasian was one of the five racial groups that he used as classification. The others were Mongolian ,Malayan, Ethiopian and American. 

• Caucasian folks represented those that he thought of as white.
• Mongolias were called “quote” yellow and refer to all East Asians 
• Malayan or “quote” brown folks, were described as those with southeastern Asian or Pacific Islander ancestry
• Ethiopian or black people were those in Sub Saharan Africa. 
• And he thought of the American or the “quote” red race to include the indigenous people of America, the Native Americans. 

Once in a while, I'll talk about being an “honorary white person” or use the term honorary white. There is one association to the term that refers to the privilege given during apartheid in South Africa. But here on OTC and likely other contexts you may encounter honorary white refers to groups that are not of European descent, but who are able to adopt the social privileges afforded to white people in America. I sometimes call this a guest pass to the in-group. People who may have some proximity to whiteness and may experience some of the social racial privilege that comes with this proximity to whiteness but still experiences some degree of marginalization at the same time.

Check out work from Eduardo Bonilla Silva to learn more about racial/social hierarchy, particularly in the United States. He has written about this theory of social hierarchy in his book Racism without Racists in which he breaks down the tri-racial structure as being whites being composed of traditional whites, European immigrants, and those who are multiracial but visibly pass as whites, including Latin x folks who have been assimilated. Then there's the collective blacks, which he describes as black and brown folks including in his words, African Americans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, and maybe even the Filipinos. But the honorary whites are considered to be Japanese, Chinese Koreans, South Asian Indians, Middle Easterners, and most Latinx folks. This also includes most multiracial Americans that wouldn't be considered white or wouldn't pass as white. 

Remember, when I said race isn't binary, honorary whites aren't considered black, nor white, but they are afforded most of the social privileges that whites enjoy without being truly accepted into the white community. understand now that I am speaking very generally, I don't mean this to be true of every person in every group. But I wanted you to have an understanding of what I mean when I use the term honorary white, moving on from race and ethnicity and all that jazz.

What’s with all this talk of whiteness and proximity to whiteness? Well, unfortunately western history (particularly European and American) is largely anchored in colonialism with white supremacy as a driving force. And, despite what many believe, we are absolutely not post-racism. Even people who aren’t white can exhibit signs of white supremacy culture. Check out the show notes to learn more about that. It’ll blow your mind. 

We are not trying to play oppression Olympics on OTC, but it’s good to understand how this all manifests in our everyday experiences. One way this plays out is in experiences of upward mobility. One size doesn’t fit all, y’all. Ever heard of codeswitching, when people change the way they look, speak, or behave depending on the context of where they are and who they are with? It might have to do with power dynamics in general, but the point is, since Whiteness has been the metric for what is deemed professional, appropriate, civil, etc. for so long, sometimes we look to these standards as the only way to be. Who says straight hair is professional? Who says we have to talk a certain way and keep our voices at a certain volume? Take a moment and think about what you have been conditioned to understand about the standards of professionalism. Why are tattoos not professional? Why are piercings not professional? Why do we have to wear suits and ties and why isn’t pink hair okay to rock in an office? 

Let's talk about what this means in society when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. D E I, diversity equity inclusion, is a huge part of my life. I am a DEI professional, supporting organizations and individuals who want to move beyond checking boxes and really make their workplaces and practices equitable for their employees where they feel included and have a sense a belonging. This work was integral in my doctoral studies as well as my own lived experiences. 

Diversity revolves around the idea of difference. These differences can be manifested in a variety of ways such as age, gender, ability, ethnic background, etc. It does not have to automatically mean race, but a lot of people think of race as soon as they hear the word diversity. Diversity should be valued because these differences allow us to be exposed to various perspectives. 

Inclusion is how you provide the space for people to weigh in and share their many perspectives. often quoted are Verna Meyers famous words, diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance 

Equity (not to be confused with equality)  means leveling the playing field. Equality means everyone has the same thing. Consider this bicycle example, a family of four gets all the same bike equality would mean providing everyone with a large 10 speed road bike to ride even three year old Alexis and her brother john. While that illustrates equality because everyone has a bike. Those bikes are not appropriate for everyone. Maybe even the parents need adjustments to their seats or the style of bike to be successful riders will equity is providing those appropriate adjustments or providing the appropriate things in the first place for each rider such as the seat height and style, or the bike might look completely different. For example, three year old Alexis might need a tricycle while her six year old brother needs a bike with training wheels. And consider a rider who may be a person that uses a wheel chair so they need a hand bike in order to equitably enjoy the bike-rising activity.
Providing the appropriate bicycle for each person sets them up for success. it levels the playing field. 

No matter what you look like, where you're from, or who you are we are here at Our true Colors to celebrate each other and learn from one another. 

So please subscribe to our true colors so you never miss an episode. And you get to take part in these great conversations. I want to hear from you! Write to me at truecolors@shawnagann.com or find me on LinkedIn. Let me know what you want to discuss, who would be great to have on the show, or even suggest yourself as a guest! You are all welcome!

You can also head to truecolorsdei.com if you want to learn more about applying the principles of DEI in your work place. Come along on the journey, y'all. I'm so glad to have you. In the meantime, Be safe out there. Share a smile with someone and please find a way to make someone feel welcome. love y'all 

Talk to you soon.