Native Blend With Billy Brady

Aloha, Hip Hapa Homeez!

It’s been nine years since Your Hip Hapa first posted a blog entry here on Watermelon Sushi World. Mahalo nui loa to all of you who have been with us from the beginning, and to the rest of you who have followed us since.

This bi-month’s post features Hip Hapa Homee Billy Brady of NAMA. Read his incredible story below:

Q: Billy, what does NAMA mean?

A: The National American Metis Association was begun in 1978 and began making possible the identification of being part Native/First Nations heritages that defined us as being "mixed with…”, an altogether newly useful way to identify that didn't crowd those with registered Native heritage by the tribal names alone.

It was also defined here in the U.S. as being a means of bringing identity to being of mixed heritage, which in my own family's case was something thoroughly felt and lived while not being politically broadcast or much discussed. It certainly accounted for how avid we were in my family about the gains being made planetarily and nationally in civil rights on a daily basis from 1954 through the present.

Billy Brady

Q: What’s your life been like?

 

A: I am 67 and when I was not yet 6, we lived where there were many different peoples in National City, an area south of San Diego. It was an era of visual racial segregation and nearby was the black area of Logan Heights. I had cousins who were friends with black kids there, and my own great-aunts (matrilineal-ly) lived just five blocks “above the color line” as people (I learned 30 years later) who passed for white with both Native and Afro-heritage roots and direct, deep Southern roots that had witnessed what Jim Crow meant first-hand.

Billy's mother with her parents, 1918

Q: Who else is in your family?

A: My own family (my two sisters and my widowed, only-child mother) lived in a 55-acre former Naval housing (duplexes) project. My father was already deceased and he had been, I learned, as blonde as your teeth. His father had been born of direct Irish descent in Adelaide Australia. I never met my father’s mother.

But back to National City, I could see we had neighbors who were Hopi and Navajo and, while I knew we were part-Indian, that same 30 years was what it took for my sibs and me to firmly establish our Afro-Georgian-East Texan roots by taking a trip to the town my grandmother had been born in, in the Deep South, where the white Baptist side of town knew nothing about our family's names. So, at age 5, I knew we didn't look just like the tribal peoples in our housing project. And, I took it upon myself to go and query all the neighbors--ALL of them--about what I wanted to know. About 98% of them answered my question about whether they were part-Indian affirmatively!

 

The remainder had an idea they probably were as well. So, I got a very sure sense of how many "Americans" (of the strata of those who were living in low-cost rental housing) were mixed and was all the more intrigued about trying to understand what had happened and what was continuing to happen that was causing people to seem unwilling to claim what they were. And, I also grew a refined eye for seeing mixture-ness within people--something that has served me to much better understand myself and our actual shared connections with each other. I also hunted for what the histories were and what else was being kept from admission. I couldn't understand why people would not even discuss what had just happened in the holocaust of the Second World War at that stage. So, I went everywhere to look for information, from the time I could keep a bike upright. And, in 1973, being part-Indian began to get a name that was not fraught with negativity.

 

Billy's grandmother (left) in San Diego, 1914

Q: Metis means mixed, right?

A: This story is the one we have already posted at the NAMA Facebook page. It was the birth of a national reference to being "Metis" and being “Mixed” was what we meant by this.

It was then that I wrote this contribution to having acceptable language to refer to being mixed, and shared the statistics and bibliographical sheets that were passed around to people of mixed heritage, where I was already involved, by our using lay-counseling tools that were part of the beginnings of the so-called "human growth movement" of the early 1970's.

So, when NAMA came into being with a name, it was seen as appealing to people of mixture who supported that being the case, with an emphasis on what the role of being Indigenous played in us being Americans, regardless of what other heritages we had. That's what got us started.

The stories of many other paths taken along the way of this development--Canada’s part in this, academic pursuits, art, family intermarriages, to name a few, and it's part of understanding what we are doing here, with everyone's sense of how mixed we have become in so many ways. It seems certain to help tie together what we are from and what we will become even a great deal more of.

Q: Kahlil Crawford, who works with multiethnic groups, asks: How did the 1967 Loving vs. Virginia Supreme Court decision affect you?

A: By 1967, we were so far into how to end the war in Vietnam and Nixon's COINTELPRO was so far into our personal lives with illegal disruptions, I had begun my silkscreen career--beginning with creating anti-war bumper stickers--that the Loving decision was within the heartwarming blur of “our side” getting farther on the altogether growing momentum for a world that was starting to make its own sense, that we might just be able to deter nuclear destruction and see humans treating each other with some dignity.

Q: Kahlil asks another question: What actually happened in 1954 that turned your family towards supporting Civil Rights?

A: Mom's mom belonged to Father Divine's order of things in The Depression, but it takes new turns to garner new energy and the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya was what I asked my mother about when so many fearful racists were just going haywire about it, although it was 10,000 miles away! Her answer was, "People are fighting for their freedom.” But, as the educators/teachers my family were, the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision marked that as being a societal reassurance to them that there were forces that wanted fairness and freedom for us all.

Billy Brady today

Q: How can Hip Hapa Homeez reach you and NAMA?

A: Through BUFFALOSAGE, an actual First Nations/Metis Company:

www.buffalosage.ca

www.buffalosage.org

https://www.facebook.com/NAMA1978

http://nama1978.blogspot.com/

Well, Hip Hapa Homeez, we’re starting the New Year with a bang! Please patronize the following links to learn more about us:

Watermelon Sushi film

http://www.watermelonsushi.com

Watermelon Sushi on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/watermelonsushi

Hapa*Teez on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBIMaJUljjI

Hapa*Teez on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/hapateez

Hapa*Teez on Café Press

http://www.cafepress.com/hapateez

War Brides of Japan v.2 on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNSEUkT2N4E&feature=plcp

War Brides of Japan on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnJkujn1iek&feature=colike

War Brides of Japan on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/WarBridesOfJapan

Yayoi Lena Winfrey fan page on Facebook (sorry, but Your Hip Hapa can’t add any more friends to her regular profile page)

https://www.facebook.com/yayoilenawinfreyfanpage

Sexy Voices of Hollywood

https://www.facebook.com/sexyvoicesofhollywood

Twitter

https://twitter.com/watermelonsushi

We shall return on April 1 and until then, Gung Hay Fat Choy, Omedettou Gozaimasu and Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Loving The Loving's

Perhaps no other couple in U.S. history loved each other more publicly than Richard and Mildred Loving. Because of the Loving’s, the banning of interracial marriage in 16 states was finally overturned by the Supreme Court in 1967.

photo of Loving Day celebration by Michael Kirby

It’s unthinkable now, but up until then only whites were allowed to marry other whites in states like Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Texas. And, there was actually a law on the books called the Racial Integrity Act of 1924.

Yet in Virginia, Richard and Mildred Loving—a white man and mixed black and Native American woman—were asleep in their bedroom when local police arrested them for being interracially married. The Loving’s had actually tied the knot in Washington, D.C. where their coupling was legally recognized, but upon returning to Virginia they were criminally charged.

photo of Loving Day celebration by Michael Kirby

Although my parents were also married at the same time as the Loving’s, anti-miscegenation laws hadn’t been enacted for them. No one in America really cared that a Japanese woman (former WWII enemy) cohabited with a Negro man (African slave lineage) since both were considered undesirable minorities anyway. Instead, anti-miscegenation laws were passed to perpetuate the myth of white supremacy by keeping white bloodlines pure through forbidding the mixing of it by marriage to non-whites. Despite the Supreme Court ruling in the case of the Loving’s, South Carolina still banned mixed marriages until 1998, and Alabama…2000!

photo of Ken Tanabe on the mic at Loving Day celebration
by Mauro Clerici

This week’s featured Hip Hapa Homee, Ken Tanabe, pictured above, is the founder of Loving Day in New York City. These photos are of the Loving Day celebration he organizes. 

Q: Ken, who are your parents and how did they meet?

A: My father is from Japan and my mother is from Belgium. They met while they were in college in Washington, D.C., through mutual friends and--bada boom, bada bing--here I am! I consider myself very lucky to be alive.

photo of Loving Day celebration by Mauro Clerici

Q: What inspired you to create Loving Day?

A: When I discovered the Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia, I felt like I had discovered a missing part of our Civil Rights education. Why wasn't this case taught in schools alongside Brown v. Board of Education, Dr. King and Rosa Parks? And with a name like "Loving", why wasn't this case as well known? Years later, the Loving case became the inspiration for my graduate thesis at Parsons the New School for Design in New York, and Loving Day was born. Today, Loving Day's mission is to fight racial prejudice through education and to build multicultural community.

Q: What are some of the events that your organization plans for that day—June 12?

A: We organize the Loving Day Flagship Celebration in New York City, which brings out 1,000 guests a year. We have free barbecue, free beer, amazing DJ's, and an incredibly diverse crowd--all under a big festival tent on the East River waterfront. Our goal is to show the world what Loving Day is about, and to inspire others to host a Loving Day Celebration of any size. Other organizations and individuals organize all of the other national/global Loving Day Celebrations. These include the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Celebration in Los Angeles, the annual MAVIN Foundation Loving Day Celebration in Seattle, and many more. Folks can find a complete list of celebrations and inspiration for their own celebrations at http://lovingday.org/celebrate

Q: Are there other things that your organization does besides the June 12 Loving Day celebration?

A: Yes! Loving Day is active all year. We are especially passionate about education, and we have been more active than ever with our collaborations with university groups. In the past six months or so, we have participated in the Harvard SWAYA Conference, a screening and discussion of the documentary One Big Hapa Family at Columbia, the Hapa Japan Conference at UC Berkeley, the Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference at DePaul in Chicago, a Biracial and Multiracial Student Association meeting at NYU, Clarvit Design Week at University of Maryland (College Park), and a Loving Day Celebration at Wesleyan. We also provide educational and community resources every day through LovingDay.org

Q: What are some of your future plans for this group?

A: We would like to see Loving Day become a new tradition that is shared among friends and passed down from generation to generation. We'd like to see a strong, sustainable multiethnic community that stays connected through Loving Day Celebrations. We encourage everyone to participate in Loving Day by celebrating and spreading the word!

Q: I met you at the recent Hapa Japan Conference in Berkeley. Do you have any thoughts you'd like to share?

A: The first Hapa Japan Conference felt like an historic moment. I had been in touch with many multiethnic community leaders with Japanese roots, but it couldn't compare to having everyone in the same space. To me, an entire conference that focuses on such a specific part of the multiethnic experience is an encouraging sign. I see it as evidence that the multiethnic community as a whole is growing and developing. My congratulations to the organizers for such an excellent conference. Also, thanks to enka superstar Jero for his performance!

Q: Do you foresee a time that there will not be a need for organizations that promote the multiethnic agenda?

A: Many people hope for (and work towards) a time when race will no longer be an issue. Even when that day comes, I believe there will still be a need for education--and people will feel the need for a sense of community with people who share a common experience. That's what Loving Day is about, and I hope that Loving Day will continue to grow and be shared for years to come.

Thank you, Ken; and, of course, thank you to the late Mr. and Mrs. Loving.

Hey, Hip Hapa Homeez--don’t forget to “like” our Watermelon Sushi and Hapa*Teez t-shirt Fan pages on Facebook. You can also request to join our Hip Hapa Homeez Group page where we’ve been discussing everything from Bruce Lee’s multi-ethnicity (did you know his mother was half white?) to mixed-race New Zealander’s Taika Waititi’s latest flick—Boy--about a Maori family. And, if you purchase one of our Hapa*Teez t-shirts at Cafe Press, you'll get a rear crawl credit on our Watermelon Sushi film. You might even look as good as Cassie, above. Oh, and you can tweet us, too: watermelonsushi

Until next time, Happy Loving Day! from...

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Amazing Race/Passing As Black!

What a profound sense of wonderment in the realization that we may soon have our first mixed-race president in America. Of course, we know that Obama is mixed-race because we know his history. But how many ex-presidents were actually mixed-blood, and didn't proclaim it? Rumors have abound for decades about Warren Harding having Negro blood. Ditto, folks like Jimmy Carter (just look at them lips!) and even Bill, the Ill, Clinton (dope-smoking, sax-playing, womanizer--puhleeze, as if those traits are attributable only to blacks).

It wasn't so long ago when folks would whisper about those who "passed". Passing, the act of denying your birth race and pretending you're of another ethnicity--especially when it means being black but living as white--gained in popularity, ironically, with the progression of freed blacks. As opportunities opened up for regular black folks released from the bondage of slavery, some of those with mixed-blood who could, indeed, would pass for white. Why not? Life was easier for them living as a white person in a white world. And, they could appreciate the advantage of being treated as an equal; that is, if no one ever discovered their dark (ha-ha) secret.

Most black people seemed to be of two minds about the passing phenomena. For one, the black community felt that if one of their own could make it out of the oppressiveness that automatically came with having darker skin, perhaps it was a good thing that one less of their people was suffering.

On the other hand, some blacks saw the rejection of their race as a traitorous act. How could someone choose to be white and leave all their sisters and brothers behind to suffer?

It's an interesting concept, passing, and I've even written a feature film script about such a character in modern times. Email me at hiphapa@comcast.net if you'd like to know more.

One true life story that comes to mind is the tale of Johnny Spain, a follower of the George Jackson Brigade and one of the San Quentin Six who was convicted of murder. A friend once gave me a copy of Spain's bio, Black Power, White Blood, and I was absolutely riveted. Incredibly, Spain was born in 1949 to a white woman in Mississippi who was married to a white man. For some unfathomable reason, she kept her baby following an affair with a black man. In her defense, she may have thought the child was her husband's, but as the baby got older it became clear to everyone that he had darker skin and tighter hair than anyone in their Anglo family. By the time he was six and ready for school, his parents couldn't take it anymore. His mother feared that her husband would harm him, and Spain's white "father" refused to be further humiliated. So, Spain was put up for adoption and sent to live with a black family in Los Angeles. In Mississippi, he'd been too black; in L.A., he was too white. Because he never felt as if he belonged, he acted out by getting into trouble. When he killed a man in a botched robbery, Spain was sent to prison. There, he found George Jackson and, in many ways, himself. Today, Spain is a community worker in the Bay Area.

Of course, it's just speculation, but had Spain been born a little later, he might have been an Obama (the murder rap and bad behavior aside). Certainly his political activism shows he has concern for the community. In some ways, his white mother was as progressive as Obama's. She didn't see color, she said in the book. To her, the black man she had a relationship with was just another man. The Loving v. Virginia case that went to the Supreme Court challenging anti-miscegenation laws didn't occur until 1967. That means, Spain's mother could've been arrested for her act of rebellion. Talk about idealism. Perhaps, that's where Spain inherited his sense of resistance.

In any case, Spain only passed as white because he was a child who had no control over his environment. If anything, Obama is passing as black. Although he's never denied his white mother, Obama refers to himself as a black man. Nothing wrong with that. Passing has now come full circle!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Here's the link to a really great article on Johnny Spain. http://www.chipbrown.net/articles/spain.htm