|
(BEREA, Kentucky) – The experiences of interracial families and multiracial students in the post-civil rights era will be the focus of a special presentation at Berea College at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29, 2008.
Elliott Lewis, a television reporter and author of “Fade: My Journeys in Multiracial America” (Carroll & Graf, 2006), will discuss the shifting landscape of racial identity in the United States today. The presentation will take place in the Baird Lounge, located in Alumni Building on the Berea College campus.
Lewis’s book, “Fade,” weaves his own life story as a black-and-white biracial American with the voices of dozens of other multiracial people, illuminating a variety of coping strategies and revealing stark generational differences in the ways mixed race people have come to terms with their identity.
“People often make snap judgments of anyone who says they’re biracial,” says Lewis, whose mother and father are both mixtures of black and white. “Some people think we’re confused or we’re trying to escape being black. Others go to the opposite extreme and think we’re exotic and the wave of the future. Neither view captures our reality.”
Lewis is a freelance television journalist in Washington, DC, and a former board member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). Highlights of his presentation include excerpts from an award-winning documentary Lewis produced on interracial families. A book signing will follow his remarks. |
