Multi Programs | Oberlin MRC

Programs on Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Racial Issues

Oberlin students began organizing around multi-ethnic, multi-racial issues by forming the MULTI student group in the fall of 2004. In addition to supporting these student based efforts, the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC) has also focused on these issues and concerns through our programming. In both the fall of 2005, 2006 and again in 2009, the MRC sponsored a Bone Marrow-thon dedicated to registering people of color, especially mixed race persons, who are grossly under-represented in bone marrow registries. The MRC will also sponsor a bone marrow-thon during the 2009 GLCA Student of Color Leadership Conference in November. The MRC also sponsored a panel and open-mic night focused on multi-ethnic, multi-racial identities in the fall of 2005. These efforts continued in the spring of 2006 when the MRC supported students organizing Asian Pacific American Heritage Month around a student panel on bi-racial identity. The MRC has also done a significant amount of programming in recent years around transracial adoption. This is a growing issue of interest among students and scholars at Oberlin. See the following highlighted programs for recent examples of this kind of work on multi-racial, muti-ethnic and multi-cultural issues.

Copies of Mavin Magazine in MRC Library, Ongoing Resource

Come and check out copies of current and past issues of Mavin Magazine. It is the only national publication that examines the mixed race and adoptee experience. For other resources check out the Mavin Foundation. The MRC is an institutional member so if there are resources you would like us to order please just come by Wilder and see us.

Screening and Discussion of The Mavin Foundation's Chasing Daybreak, Spring 2010

Follow the historic cross-country journey of the Generation MIX Crew as they travel 10,000 miles across the nation to raise awareness of mixed heritage issues. A documentary film produced by the Mavin Foundation. The MRC plans to screen this film in the spring 2010.

MRC Student Leadership Gathering to focus on discussion of multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural issues and concerns, Spring 2010.

As a part of the MRC's monthly Student Leadership Gathering Series, students across communities are invited to discuss how these issues and concerns impact the experiences of students and brainstorm around strategies to consciousness raise and develop strategies to negotiate the opportunities and challenges that a

Latino/a Heritage Month sponsors Faculty, Staff, and Student Panel on Multi-racial and Multi-ethnic Issues and Concerns, September 2009

Associate Professor of History, Pablo Mitchell was chair for a discussion of mixed race issues and concerns for Latino/a Heritage Month in September 2009. Professor Mitchell is the author of Coyote Nation: Sexuality, Race, and Conquest in Modernizing New Mexico, 1880-1920 (University of Chicago Press, 2005). The book was awarded the 2007 Ray Allen Billington Prize by the Organization of American Historians. His next book project is titled West of Sex: Making Latino America, 1900-1930 and examines sex, race, and citizenship in the American West. Professor Mitchell has also taught a first year seminar titled “American Mixed Bood” for several years. Also on the panel were Professors Renee Romano and Gillian Johns. The fourth panelist was LHM speaker Rudy Guevarra, Assistant Professor of Asian Pacific American Studies at University of Arizona.

MRC Collaborates with AAA and Asian American Month to Screen “Adopted” with Filmmaker Barb Lee, April 2009

Barb Lee, Director & Producer: I'm like everybody else. I love a good story. But, my favorite stories are the ones that teach me something important about myself. That's why I love Adopted. This project is an extension of the very themes that I have spent my whole life probing. As a Korean adoptee growing up in the mountains of North Carolina, I was constantly examining concepts of race, identity, and family. What I'm now learning through the filming of this documentary is changing who I am as a person, an adoptee, and a mother. Wait until you see the personal stories of two families, striving to understand what family means when it crosses international and racial boundaries. You'll never look at your own family the same way again. This project has truly been the best gift of my 20 years in this business. After the screening, Associate Dean and Director of the MRC, Eric Estes offered comments and facilitated a conversation with filmmaker and producer Barb Lee.

Juli Martin, OC'10, Publishes Collection of Writings by Transracial Adoptees, Spring 2009

With support from the MRC and grants from Oberlin Shansi and the Creativity and Leadership Fund, Juli Martin spent much of 2008-2009 connecting with the Asian and Asian American Adoptee networks in the U.S. and Asia. Her travels took to many places including gatherings in Cleveland, Hawaii, and South Korea. As part of her work, she published an Asian adoptee zine. If you are interested in learning more you can connect with Juli through the MRC.

MRC and Mavin Bone Marrow-thons, 2005, 2006, and 2009

Every year 30,000 people are diagnosed with blood diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, and sickle cell anemia, all treatable by blood stem cell and bone marrow transplants. On November 8th and 9th the MRC decided to do take on the challenge of registering Oberlin faculty, staff, and students as potential bone marrow donors.

Bone marrow tissue types are inherited, therefore a person is most likely to find a compatible genetic match with someone of their same ethnic background. The MRC recognized this as a project that would address world wide health concerns pertaining to bone marrow transplants for people of color and people of mixed heritage. The transplant works by replacing the unhealthy blood cells with the healthy blood cells of the donor.

People of color represent a mere 25% of all potential donors on the National Marrow Donor Program registry, with people of multi-ethnic/multi-racial backgrounds representing an extremely low 2%. This demonstrates an unacceptable disparity in resources. The goal of this Marrow-thon was to diversify the pool of potential donors and to decrease the disparity amongst donors, so that all patients have equal access to resources and treatments.

In 2005, 2006 and 2009 we were fortunate enough to register dozens of Oberlin staff and students. Our partners, the National Marrow Donor Program of Cleveland and Seattle based organization Mavin, were extremely impressed with the turnout and the dedication of many of our organizers. Noel Baker, Anne Lowe, and Marion Parker, were extremely influential in seeing this Marrow-thon to fruition. If you are interested in working on this project or learning more about the process please contact mrc@oberlin.edu.

Workshops by Chris Harley, OC'02

For Asian American Heritage Month in April of 2006 and 2007, Chris Harley, OC ‘02, discussed with students the complexities and experiences of multiracial identities and issues of authenticity when working with and within communities of color.

Multi-Racial, Multi-Ethnic Issues Symposium, fall 2005

The MRC also organized a panel and Open Mic Night for students from multi backgrounds in the fall of 2005. These events were proposed and designed primarily by students themselves. The panel, titled Perspectives from Outside the Box, addressed how students from multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-cultural, and crosscultural backgrounds reconcile multiple identities, break down barriers and find spaces of belonging.

The student panelists included Ramaesh Bhagirat '06, Elizabeth Friedman '06, Emily Hazel '06, Lee Hislop '07, Marianne Tassone '06 and Baraka Noel '06 (chair). This panel was designed to be a conversation among the panelists as well as with the audience. Student panelists were asked to address a wide range of questions, including those dealing with personal histories and issues of internalized prejudice and representation within academia. Members of the audience also shared their own experiences and perspectives in relation to those offered by the panelists.

This panel, organized during Family Weekend, drew a large audience from visiting families and friends. A number of parents in the audience spoke of their own experiences in raising multi children, their frustrations with societal prejudices and ignorance and their hopes for fostering greater understanding among people and communities. The evening ended with Stirring Up the Melting Pot, an Open Mic Night for students, families and friends. The responsibility for educating and raising awareness is not solely that of self-identified multi students. We hope that the dialog generated through these events will be sustained through the combined efforts of students, faculty and staff. We at the MRC look forward to continuing to work with and support students on these issues.

Emi Koyama My Name is My Own Series Lecture, March 2005

Emi Koyama gave a lecture titled “Colonialism and the Queer Adoption Discourse.”

Emi Koyama self-identifies as a multi-issue social justice slut synthesizing feminist, Asian, survivor, dyke, queer, sex worker, intersex, genderqueer, and crip politics, as these factors, while not a complete descriptor of who she is, all impacted her life. Emi is currently the director of Intersex Initiative. Her visit was cosponsored by the Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgender People.

While conversations around multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural identities have gradually been receiving increasing attention on Oberlin's campus, these issues continue to remain on the relative margins of campus dialog. However, a few student groups have made deliberate efforts to rectify this situation by reviewing their organizational missions and structures, and organizing events to increase consciousness around multi-identity issues. Also, last Spring saw the formation of MULTI, a group created to support students with similar backgrounds and histories and to create greater visibility around their issues and concerns. Last semester, in addition to the Marrow- thon, the MRC also organized a panel and Open Mic Night for students from multi backgrounds. These events were proposed and designed primarily by students themselves. The panel, titled Perspectives from Outside the Box, addressed how students from multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-cultural, and crosscultural backgrounds reconcile multiple identities, break down barriers and find spaces of belonging. The student panelists included Ramaesh Bhagirat '06, Elizabeth Friedman '06, Emily Hazel '06, Lee Hislop '07, Marianne Tassone '06 and Baraka Noel '06 (chair). This panel was designed to be a conversation among the panelists as well as with the audience. Student panelists were asked to address a wide range of questions, including those dealing with personal histories and issues of internalized prejudice and representation within academia. Members of the audience also shared their own experiences and perspectives in relation to those offered by the panelists. This panel, organized during Family Weekend, drew a large audience from visiting families and friends. A number of parents in the audience spoke of their own experiences in raising multi children, their frustrations with societal prejudices and ignorance and their hopes for fostering greater understanding among people and communities. The evening ended with Stirring Up the Melting Pot, an Open Mic Night for students, families and friends. The responsibility for educating and raising awareness is not solely that of self-identified multi students. We hope that the dialog generated through these events will be sustained through the combined efforts of students, faculty and staff. We at the MRC look forward to continuing to work with and support students on these issues.