iPrince: The Monarchy Of A Multi-Culti Mind

Welcome back to Watermelon Sushi World! Please enter the portal to our universe of mixed-ness where cultures cross and ethnicities blend. Kick back and make yourself at home, Hip Hapa Homeez.

This week, Your Hip Hapa profiles one of several Watermelon Sushi Associate Producers located around the globe. What’s a Watermelon Sushi Associate Producer? Watermelon Sushi is our feature film, which our Associate Producers are dedicated to producing and bringing to the silver screen for you. The worldly Mr. Richard Todd Smith, better known as iPrince, explains. Above is his face, below his thoughts.

Q: What makes you a Hip Hapa Homee?

A: I'm African American and live in the inner city of Detroit Michigan. We’re internationally known as the Motor City and where the Motown musical legends came from.

But last year in 2008, I lived in Phoenix where I worked with the Latino population. As a youth and community developer, I partnered with the downtown, centrally located, YMCA. I established youth enrichment programs, summer camp programs, basketball and soccer tournaments, swim teams, Friday night jams, and parties with local radio stations. The YMCA has different partnerships, like with Arizona State University. Youth At Risk is another organization that we worked with; and, also six local high schools and four elementary schools in the district. There were over 100 participants in our program.

Not only was I able to eat great Latino meals in Phoenix, but I also learned the culture of the population, which is centered on food and family. Besides the hot weather, I was also exposed to bilingual speaking and learned some Spanish. I ate hot tamales, quesadillas and soft tacos with sun-dried tomatoes and jalapenos all day long, as well as lots of fresh fruits—apples, oranges, bananas and plantains; a Latino staple.

Q: What's your role in the Watermelon Sushi film--past and future?

A: My thing is outreach. I enjoy reaching out to multiethnic communities and sharing with them even as I learn more about their histories. I’m interested in teaching others about cross-cultural agendas and mixed-race people, and the message and motivation of Watermelon Sushi. I plan to approach diverse cultures and expose them not only to the producers behind the film project, but the project itself. I want to inform younger generations, teenagers, and my peer group--the 30 somethings, the Gen Xers—and reach out to educate them about crossing cultures and what it means to be multiethnic. I want to speak to an international audience. This project is an international project, and I want to teach about it globally. 

As a project for this summer, I’m also working on sponsoring a basketball team to buy Hapa*Teez t-shirts which advertise and finance the Watermelon Sushi film. We’ll approach, say, a local grocery store and ask them to donate a number of shirts to our team. 10% of the funds raised will be donated to the film’s production. This will give us the spin of outreach. I want to sponsor those ball players and take photos of them to be part of the film. I'm looking forward to doing my part. I plan to showcase these types of activities to potential financiers, especially in an urban setting.

I’m also researching film credits, incentives and tax breaks offered by the Michigan Film Office. Soon, I’ll be contacting some key players in that organization to see how we can work together on Watermelon Sushi. To quote Joe Biden, this is a big blankety-blank deal!

Q: What else do you do?

A: I'm a part-time student at Wayne State University where I study urban development and political science. I also work in the field of fine art and antiques; primarily 20th Century American furniture. I also read a lot to stay informed; mostly magazines like Architectural Digest, Fine Wine, Forbes, and Your Hip Hapa’s cousin’s, Oprah's, publication—O.

Q: How did you grow up?

A: I was born and raised on the east side of Detroit. My family is middle-class and, as business owners, gave me the incentive to be entrepreneurial. My folks owned re-sell shops, a gas station and a local Dairy Queen. The majority of my time was spent being involved in after-school programs, and sports for exercise and staying healthy.

Growing up, I attended a private Catholic school, St. David, where we had mixed populations with both black and white roots. Any mixed-race students were predominantly black and white although some had Asian mothers and black fathers. In Detroit, we have a Chinatown, so our family would go there to eat out. We also have a Mexicantown and Africantown--where West Africans from Ghana display their dance culture.

Q: What impact do you think Obama's presidency has made on multiethnic agendas?

A: I don't think he’s made an impact directly, but indirectly by his image because those communities benefit from his having an image of color. By us having a multiethnic president, it sends a hopeful message to multiracial people of color.

Q: Do you have a recipe for The Official Watermelon Sushi Cookbook?

A: You better believe it! It's going to be my caveat to being a part of the project. I'm not much of a cook though. I have sisters, so I eat and wash the dishes. Yes, that sounds sexist, but we role-play. I stay in my lane and they stay in theirs. I'm a willing participant of it. Even if I cook, my sisters taste the food and are like, “Well…” And, then, they may not wash the dishes, so I'll be stuck washing dishes and cooking, too.

Having said that, I may consider submitting a recipe for a fruit salad with watermelons, cherries, strawberries and apple slices. And, I’ll use hummus and olives rolled in rice and seaweed for what I’ll call “Middle Eastern Sushi.” It sounds terrible, but it is catchy.

Q: What do you see in Watermelon Sushi’s future?

A: Not only will it be a film, but a brand--a household name. It will be in your library as a novel, in your kitchen as a cookbook, in your den on a DVD, in your child’s room as a paper doll, and even in your home as houseware like china and linens. It will be in all kinds of homes of all different races as a constant reminder of what it takes to work together in the world. We live to learn about each other so what is it going to take for us to exist together? I see Watermelon Sushi educating the world about the ways and principals of how to relate and understand other ethnic groups and other cultures. 

Wow! No wonder Watermelon Sushi is growing so successfully—thanks to Associate Producers like iPrince. btw, HAPA birthday, iPrince! (Friday, April 9)

To contact Richard Todd Smith:

Email him at iprincesmitty@gmail.com or mrtsmitty@hotmail.com

Friend him on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/iPrinceSmitty

Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mrtsmitty

Stay tuned, Hip Hapa Homeez, as we continue to present Watermelon Sushi Associate Producers from around the planet along with regular profiles in the coming weeks. We’ll also be developing The Official Watermelon Sushi Cookbook where your vegan recipes will be published along with your photo and story. For more info about the cookbook, email yourhiphapa@me.com

Now, here’s a shout-out to our Hapa*Teez supporters. Remember, if you make a purchase, contact us at hapateez@me.com for your rear crawl credit. This week’s featured Hip Hapa Homee in Hapa*Teez t-shirt is British beauty Sogba Bruce Jaja. Looking good, girl!

And, here’s an announcement from Andrew Grant-Thomas, Deputy Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity (Ohio State University). Andrew is soliciting a wide range of views on the subject of future race relations and besides tapping advocates, researchers and other professionals, he’s also looking for “bloggers, poets, writers of speculative fiction, futurists, young and old, immigrants, poor and working class people of color and just plain folk.” Get more info at this link:

http://www.race-talk.org/?page_id=3512

Speaking of Obama, this week’s featured Amazon product is Watermelon Sushi Associate Producer Pearl, Jr.’s on-demand video titled Barack Obama: The Power of Change.

Let’s end with a BIG UP to all you Hip Hapa Homeez Group members and Watermelon Sushi Fans on Facebook, and to you tweeting Twitterers. Anyone can join us, so please do. And, keep your comments and emails coming. Like iPrince, above, we love it when you reach out. Soon we’ll meet again, and until then, I am

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Blasian, Blackanese And Beautiful

Ni Hao, Hip Hapa Homeez! In case you’re not familiar, that’s “hello” in Mandarin. This week’s greeting is in honor of our featured Hip Hapa Homee, Kimberly Campbell, who has lived in China with her family. What’s so unusual about that, you may well ask? Well, Kim, her husband and two children are African Americans--which really shouldn’t be all that remarkable. Yet, most people still consider it significant when blacks live abroad, and we don’t mean in Africa or the Caribbean either.

That’s Kim with her Chinese students in the photo above and below, a spread of her family.

Q: Why China, Kim?

A: I’m a professor in the Communication Department at Texas Southern University, and am conducting interviews and holding meetings about ways to build bridges between African American and Asian American communities. I appreciate all the bridge builders who have been working towards that end for many years. Anyone who would like to connect, share resources, and/or exchange ideas should email me at kdctheory@msn.com 

Q: When did you first develop an interest in Asia?

A: As a child, I was interested in traveling and learning about various cultures. I recall being attracted to Asian philosophies, books, and films as a high school student. I do have some pretty early memories of connecting with Chinese stories and people as a very young child. I remember enjoying the Seven Chinese Brothers book, and recall enjoying the accent of a Chinese woman who worked at my pre-school. So, perhaps my attraction to Chinese culture was ignited early on. 

I also recall really enjoying Bollywood musicals and dance routines. Hopefully, I will get to visit India in the near future. I am definitely open to other cultures and find that learning about them is a great way to learn about myself. I love to share my Blasian stories!

Q: Did you or your husband grow up in multicultural environments?

A: My husband and I both grew up in predominately African American environments within Detroit. Both of us, even as young people, demonstrated an openness to people and friendships with persons of diverse backgrounds. Our parents were open to diversity in professional settings, but maintained almost exclusive African American personal friendships--at least while we were children. Nonetheless, once I became a teenager, I recall that my mother’s circle of friends became more inclusive of diverse persons and has continued that way today.   

Q: How long did your family stay in China?

A: From 2006 to 2008, we lived and worked in south China in a city called Shunde, about 25 miles south of Guangzhou and about an hour and a half north of Hong Kong. Our children are fluent in Chinese and are culturally Blasian, or Blackanese as some refer to them, in many ways.

Q: What did you do there?

A: My husband and I worked at a K-12 private international baccalaureate school. I worked with high school juniors and seniors teaching critical thinking and helping them prepare for admission to colleges/universities in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia. Teaching high-schoolers was new to me as my entire career before going to China had been teaching at the college level for about 13 years.

Q: And, your kids?

A: Our children attended the international school where we taught for the first year. The teachers in the lower grades spoke very little English so our children learned Mandarin quickly. After only five months, both children (7 and 9 when we arrived in China) were fluent! At the end of their first year, they were ranked 1st (daughter) and 2nd (son) in Mandarin speaking, reading, and writing out of about 200 foreign students. Our children often served as translators for my husband and me, and for other foreigners living in China.

Q: What was it like being black in Asia?

A: I was the first African American woman, or woman of African descent period, to have worked/taught at the school. There was another African American man from Texas who started teaching there when my husband and I did, so my husband was one of the first African American men to teach at the school. After two years, the school made very generous offers for us to stay. After we left, the school recruited five African Americans to teach there. We really feel we were trailblazers and cultural ambassadors for the school!

Q: Did you visit other Asian countries?

A: Over the two years, we had the opportunity to travel to Thailand, Philippines and throughout China. The exposure was quite enriching for our family. It was very rare to see other African Americans--especially ones traveling with a family. We wouldn't trade the experience for anything. We will always remain connected to Asian culture.

Q: What did you guys eat? 

A: The food in southern China was definitely different from the taste and style of Chinese food served in U.S. restaurants such as Panda Express. What an adjustment!  As we traveled to different parts of China, we became more knowledgeable about the diverse food and cooking traditions in those places. Lamain noodles--a long stretchy noodle from Islamic Chinese areas of Western China--were one of my family's favorite foods.

Q: What are you doing now?

A: I have returned to academia and currently serve as Interim Chair of the Speech Communication Department at Texas Southern University. My husband has started an ESL company in Houston.

I am involved in several research projects and am developing an organization designed to identify opportunities and overcome challenges in strengthening African American and Asian American relationships. Some of the projects also seek to uncover key differences in communication styles that may present cultural blocks for the two groups. By the way, I’m brainstorming ideas for a name for the organization I’m starting if anyone has any suggestions. Also, I'm writing about African American families living abroad, and at least three of the families reflect on their experiences living in Asian countries.

Q: What about your children?

A: The children attend an international baccalaureate school in Houston, and study Chinese at their school.

Xie xie, Kim! (That’s pronounced sheh sheh and means thank you.)

Now for some announcements:

Hip Hapa Homee Vanessa Chong is working on a Biracial Identity and Family Study for those who are half Asian and half Caucasian. This is a part of the University of Windsor’s multicultural research program in the Department of Psychology. You must be between 18 and 30, and live in the U.S. or Canada to participate. As a token of appreciation, participants will be entered in a drawing for $25 gift cards. The website link is  

http://uwindsor.ca/biracial and requires using “biracial” as your ID and “survey” as your password. For more info, contact Vanessa at brstudy@uwindsor.ca

And, Hip Hapa Homee Michelle Hughes sent us info about the 2010 Census and why it’s important for those of us identifying as being more than one race to complete the form. For more info, visit http://2010.census.gov or contact 2010 Census National Partner, Association of MultiEthnic Americans (Jungmiwha Bullock or Harold Gates ), at 818-230-2285 or amea2010census@gmail.com

Remember, your purchase of a Hapa*Teez t-shirt will help support our Watermelon Sushi film while earning you a rear crawl credit. You can also join our Hip Hapa Homeez Group page on Facebook, where we post the latest news for blendies, mixies and transracial adoptees, and our Watermelon Sushi Fan page where we keep you updated about the film. In the next few weeks, we’ll be profiling Watermelon Sushi Associate Producers on this blog, so keep coming back. You can also follow watermelonsushi on Twitter where we post excerpts from the film script.

If you're looking for a good book to read, check out my friend Nashieqa Washington's cleverly titled Why Do Black People Love Fried Chicken? Obviously, Nashieqa's never eaten lamain noodles. Nevertheless, buy her book. You won't be disappointed.

Finally, here’s a shout-out to all you Hip Hapa Homeez for your continuing loyalty. It’s so heartwarming to watch our numbers growing every day especially when so many of you are not mixed-race, a transracial adoptee, or even in an interracial relationship. The fact that you still champion the cause for those of us claiming our multi-ethnic heritages speaks volumes about your spirit.

Until we meet again, I remain

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi