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10 Berkeley J. Afr.-Am. L. & Pol'y 52 (2008)
From Color Line to Color Chart?: Racism and Colorism in the New Century

handle is hein.journals/afamlpol10 and id is 58 raw text is: From Color Line to Color Chart?: Racism and Colorism in the New Century Angela P. Harris* INTRODUCTION When my sister graduated from college in the mid-1980s with a degree in musical theater she moved to Chicago with her new husband in search of work in television commercials and the performing arts. To her frustration and dismay, however, despite her good looks, acting ability, and musical talent, she was rejected in audition after audition. Getting rejected for arbitrary reasons or for no reason, of course, is just life in the entertainment industry. After a while, though, my sister began to hear some repetition in the rejections she received. You don't look black enough, is the apology she would get. My sister is very fair-skinned, with hair that streaks blonde in the summer. Yet, at least to discerning eyes, she can't pass for white: her features, her creamy skin, and her African booty distinguish her from the Scandinavian- descent blondes that populate beer commercials and musical revues. For casting directors, then, she fell into a limbo: too white to play black, but too black to play white. Today, my sister has a recurring role on a children's television show (she's Prudence the Musical Genie on Jack's Big Show, produced by Nickelodeon, if you want to see her), and fortunes are changing not just for her but for many women and men in the performing arts who read as racially ambiguous, or racially mixed. To put it bluntly, the ambiguous/mixed look is now hot. Celebrities such as Tiger Woods, Mariah Carey, and The Rock discuss their mixed background with pride;' television, catalog, magazine, and Professor of Law, University of California - Berkeley (Berkeley Law). My thanks to Trina jones for her comments on a previous draft. 1. As a recent discussion on NPR's Talk of the Nation indicated, these public figures now proudly call attention to their mixed-race heritage, although a generation ago they would probably have identified themselves solely as black. See Talk of the Nation: Multi-Racial Identity In America Today (National Public Radio broadcast Apr. 26, 2007); see also Mireya Navarro, When You Contain Multitudes, N.Y. TIMEs, Apr. 24, 2005, §9, at 1. (The so-called ambiguous look is hip). Tiger Woods has probably gone the furthest in the direction of calling attention to his multicultural background, by coining the term Cablanasian to describe himself. See Multi- Racial Identity in America Today supra.

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