Critical analysis

Space & Multi-raciality Critique Analysis for Articles Article My life in Pieces” by Jennifer Adese After reading Jennifer Adese’s article there are two main questions I would like to ask the author to know more about her views. How does the author plan to inform the world through her writing that what matters most is not the skin color of a person but the character and attitude? What positives can she attribute to growing up as a biracial child in a society that seemed prejudicial to her?
Adese uses the qualitative method of research to provide verbal data to her readers (Adem & Thompson, 2010). She has gathered information and presents it to readers in an interpretive manner. As noted in the article, the research provided seeks to make readers understand human behavior.
Adese’s article focuses on the problems that people face because they are biracial. The article relates to me indirectly, because I have several biracial relatives who may perhaps feel the same way. In my view, Adese has written an excellent article, reflecting on issues of racism and economical status.
I agree with the author on most of her views. However, there is one point that I chose to disagree with her. Adese points out in page 242 that she wonders how her life would have been like if she had not grown up thinking of herself in “ parts” (Adem & Thompson, 2010). I think she should now focus more on how to embrace the positives and negatives of the two cultures. The author may perhaps have enhanced her methodological approach, if she conducted interviews from other people.
Article 2: “ The Mulatto Millennium” by Danzy Senna
Similar to Jennifer Adese, Danzy Senna also writes an article on children who grow up with similar experiences. There are two questions that arise after one reads her article. Would he views been different if raised from a different racial heritage? Are there positives of growing up as a biracial child?
Like Adese, Danzy Senna also uses qualitative research method to portray the data she has researched on while growing up. The author who is also the researcher in this article is subjectively immersed in the topic of her discussion.
From this reading, it is difficult to tell whether the author is happy as a biracial person. Senna’s reading also impacts on my experiences in an indirect way. I have friends who have both Mexican and black parents and do not have conflicting views.
I find her statement true when she says that in the 1970s, black people connected on shared history and not based on color and hair texture as perceived by most people today (OHearn, 1998). The author uses this point effectively to show the racial issues that exists today and those that existed years ago. To enhance her technique of collecting data, Senna should also have used examples from other people with biracial parents.
Article 3: “ Mixed Messages” by Minelle Mahtani, Burcu Ozdemir and Michelle La Flamme
Do you think most people in many geographical areas have the common society’s lack of understanding for biracial people? Do you think in the next few decades, people may start being more biracial as a way of overcoming racism? These are some of the questions that arise as one reads though Mahtani, Ozdemir and Flamme’s article.
The authors of this article focused more on the use of questionnaires as the method of collecting data. From page 48 to 60, most of the information depicts an ongoing play.
Unlike the first two articles, Manhati, Ozdemir and Flamme’s article is more critical than personal and it reflects on the range of information on the prejudicial views of people perceive in regard to biracial people. Like the first two articles, Manhati, Ozdemir and Flamme’s (2002) article also affects me because I have witnessed such prejudicial views from two people while I was at a bank.
I disagree with one of the authors’ view who shows on page 59 of the play that being mixed, racially, means that a person has to have one white parent and another parent from any other race (Manhati, Ozdemir and Flamme, 2002). In my view, being biracial means that a person has difference racial background, regardless of the color of the skin. The authors may have enhanced their methodological approach by using examples from other people with similar experiences.
References
Adem, A., & Thompson, A. (2010). “ My life in pieces.” In Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out. Toronto: Inanna Publications and Education Incorporated.
La Flamme, M., Manhati, M., & Ozdemir, B. (2002). Script on mixed messages. The Asian American Literary Review, 47-60.
OHearn, C. (1998). The Mulatto millennium. In Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural. New York: Patheon.