Hines Ward & the Multiracial Dream

Melissa Hung
February 17, 2006

Like in the case of Miss Georgia. If you are like me, and don’t follow beauty pageants, you might have missed the fact that Miss Georgia is hapa. See this story: The Biracial Belle.

The gist of the story is, "Hey, look how great Georgia is! Not like long time ago when everyone was segregated. Now we are a diverse place. Yeah, us! Don’t think we’re backwards cause we’re in the South. Did we mention that segregation stuff was a long time ago?” This builds to a crescendo that ends like so:

People can change. Regions can change. Nations can change. Pageants can certainly change. And Georgia can win.

(Miss Georgia didn’t win, in case you were wondering. The new Miss America is Miss Oklahoma)

For more on this topic, check out this story, Multi-racial Dream, by Claire Light, a Hyphen founder and a former editor for us. Claire refutes the points made in a article called “What Are The Strengths of Interracial Families,” which has a wow-isn’t-it-so-great tone smiliar to the Miss Georgia website. The story presents interracial families as perfect, super-families.

Claire sarcastically writes:

See, this is why I’m glad to be biracial. All of you monoracials out there are just people, but me? I’m a magic pill on legs. Doesn’t matter if I never lift a finger in my life, even to pick my nose. Like Haile Selassie or Frodo Baggins, I was born to a higher purpose: to end the racial problem by erasing it.

She also addresses the fallacy of the wonders of color-blind societies (or raceless ones, for that matter), and why positive stereotypes of Asian Americans are not OK. It’s a good, interesting read.

Contributor: 

Melissa Hung

Founding Editor

Melissa Hung is the founding editor of Hyphen. She was editor in chief for the magazine's first five years and went on to serve in many other leadership roles on the staff and board for more than a decade. A writer and freelance journalist, Melissa has written for NPR, Vogue, Pacific Standard, Longreads, and Catapult. She grew up in Texas, the eldest child of immigrants.

Comments

Comments

Anonymous wrote on Tue, 08/22/2006 - 7:01am
Anyone here interested in Hines Ward? I wonder what type of season he will have?
Amy wrote on Fri, 02/17/2006 - 1:22pm
Another quote from Claire's article: "Multiracials are not convincing evidence of the obvious -- that the races can have unprotected sex for five minutes -- but rather that the races can meld winningly into one race, the human race."Gee, only 5 minutes?
tireless wrote on Fri, 02/17/2006 - 3:10pm
no quitting 'til the job is done Amy!5 minutes is just the pre-warm-up stretch.
Anonymous wrote on Mon, 02/20/2006 - 1:09am
Ive read many stories about this and I visited South Korea on numerious occasions, Osan, Pusan and will be there again in the future. Im surprised he is getting so much attention. His story is heart warming if you've ever read it. You cant help but cheer for him. Many biracial kids in Korea see him as a Heroe and hope his status will bring upon social change. Biracial kids, especially the ones mixed with black. Korea really looks down on mixed kids,if you are mixes with Black and Asian, its worse. Times are changing.
a questioner wrote on Mon, 02/20/2006 - 10:15am
well, interesting observation. You should see the debate on the 'Mississippi Masala' thread on this blog. Could it be that a desire to shift opinion lies at the heart of the 'masala' effect? Claire Light's essay was very interesting.
Anonymous wrote on Mon, 02/20/2006 - 8:54pm
His new fame has catapulted him to a Social position he probably wasnt ready for. He has inspired a Generation, some of which has something in common with him. I think they are looking for a success story because his brings them hope. When I read his story, I wanted to cry. All the struggles his mother went through, Devorced in a country where she doesnt know the language and sacrificed everything for her son. She worked 3 jobs day and night. Hines was a Jock, but at the same time he was a straight A student. He couldve went to the University of Georgia on a Academic Scolarship if he wanted to. I remember his days at Gerogia and thought he would get picked as a Quaterback, but after his Senior I saw him get drafted to the Pittburgh Steelers as a Wide Receiver. There where other Mixed Asians and black in the NFL. Chad Morton and Johnny Morton Black/Japanese. They were pretty good to. His mother doesnt have to worry about money again. She still works as a Janitor at Hines High School, and refuses to quite despite her son riches. I hope this story continues to uplift and give hope to people that only feels despair
Anonymous wrote on Thu, 02/23/2006 - 3:45am
Im a big football fan, I saw the game nothing personal here. Ive been following Hines career since the beginning. Let the Mississippi Masala threads stay over there. All I said was im rooting for him. Ill leave it at that. That is the name of this post right, Hines and the multi-racial dream. Im just a fan and I hope to see him succeed, or anyone succeed. Even Mrs Georgia. I think it would be more appropiate for a woman to comment on the Claire Lights essay. Im not into the pageants, but what ever the case may they both shine brighter than the biggest stars. Maybe theres a Hapas out there looking at both of them because both of them are now in positions to inspire. Im not sure if America is infatuated with multi-racil dreams or not. futures to come I think the numbers will grow