Comments on: Cheekbones (part 2)

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:27:41 +0000

I think you handled that great considering it was on the fly! Good for you. I also agree that mixed race kids are fetishized, but I didn’t have to words to describe how people react to my infant son. I just knew it was weird that people aside from myself fawn over him.

By: hapa mama too

hapa mama too — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:05:36 +0000

Excellent post… Our kids identify with the Asian part of their culture even though one of them is half-Asian.
Have you read the book “Does Anybody Else look like me? A parent’s guide to raising multiracial children” by Donna Jackson Nakazawa? I enjoyed this book since the author is a white woman married to a Japanese American man and they have two kids.

By: bj

bj — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:27:25 +0000

“What she has picked up on from my family in Hawaii is that hapa multi-racial “is always better/prettier than uni-racial- especially white”.”

I try to avoid the ranking (so I’m not going to say that hapa is prettier than white), but I do love being in Hawaii. It’s the one place where I can actually loose my kids.

BTW, the data on attractiveness and faces is more complicated than just symmetry — it also suggests that the “average” face matters. That is, the average face is ranked as more attractive. Average correlates with symmetry (since averaging will remove imbalances).

By: Lilian

Lilian — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:59:48 +0000

I think you handled it well, given the circumstances, and I’m thankful that you have lots of readers with so much to contribute and personal experiences to share — I saw some book suggestions in the previous post. Sometimes I feel a bit sad that I won’t be working at Kelvin’s school anymore because the little group of kids was just SO DIVERSE that I usually had good chances of talking to the kids bout race (in my class of 6: 3 siblings 50%African American & 50% Puerto Rican children, 1 hapa, 1 Asian & Kelvin, the only actually Caucasian, but fully Brazilian — here in terms of culture, not race).

Anyway, I always learn so much from your experience and that of other bloggers I read (Dawn, for example), thanks for sharing!

By: Elaine

Elaine — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:02:59 +0000

I find it hilarious that someone else considers saying things like “our culture fetishizes mixed-race people” to their small children. My poor kids get this kind of response from their parents all the time. Race is problematic in our family as well. My 7 year old wants to dye her black black hair light brown because she thinks she looks too Indonesian (she doesn’t at all) and the 3 year old wants to dye her brown hair black because she thinks she looks too much like her Caucasian Canadian friend (she doesn’t at all). They are both from China. But are Americans. Living in Indonesia. With Whitey white white parents. And many mixed race friends. Confusion abounds here as well.