A curated list of articles, books and films centering people with intersecting identities from more than one historically excluded group, including, but not limited to:
- mixed race people whose parents are both people of color
- interracial couples in which both parties are people of color
- people who are both LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC
- people who worked in cross-cultural solidarity
Books
Children’s books by QTPOC authors (pdf)
Children’s books about mixed heritage families or intersectional communities (pdf)
Bengali Harlem & the Lost Histories of South Asian America – book about the history of late 19th century/early 20th century South Asian immigrants who started families with Black, Creole and Puerto Rican women.
Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem – book about the family history of Paula Williams Madison, who is of Afro-Jamaican and Hakka Chinese heritage. Madison was on Black Enterprise Magazine’s “75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America” in 2005 and Asian American Business Development Center’s “Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business” in 2014.
Chinese in the Post-Civil War South – a history of Chinese immigrants in the Reconstruction era South. Many Chinese men married Black or Native American women, assimilating into local communities of color.
Films
Honor Thy Mother: The Untold Story of Aboriginal Women and Their Indipino Children – documentary about the Aboriginal Canadian and Native American women who migrated to Bainbridge Island and married Filipino immigrant men, told through their now elderly children.
In Search of Bengali Harlem – documentary covering the “extraordinary history of mid-20th century Harlem, in which Bengali Muslim men, dodging racist Asian Exclusion laws, married into New York’s African American and Puerto Rican communities.“
Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China – Jeanette Kong’s documentary about former NBCUniversal executive Paula Williams Madison’s search for her Chinese grandfather Samuel Lowe, who left two of his three mixed Chinese-and-Black children behind in Jamaica when he returned to China in 1933. Madison’s search leads to the emotional reunion of hundreds of Samuel Lowe’s descendants from both sides of the Pacific.
American Red and Black: Stories of Afro-Native Identity
PBS – Roots in the Sand – documentary about the cross-cultural wedding boom in California’s Imperial Valley between Punjabi immigrant men and Mexican American women in the early 20th century, told though their children and grandchildren.
Stand Up for Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story – docudrama about a Mexican American high school student who stood with his Japanese American friends during WWII, living in an internment camp with them. As an adult, he continued to actively support redress for Japanese Americans.
Queer romance movies and documentaries with couples of color and optimistic endings
Articles
Growing Together: A Rich History of Cross-Cultural Friendships in King County (pdf)
Seattle mayor Bruce Harrell is the son of Rose Tamaye Kobata and Clayton Harrell, Sr. His African American father and Japanese American mother graduated from Garfield High School together and stayed in a devoted marriage until the end of their lives despite facing prejudice as a Black Asian couple: Bruce Harrell — ‘Love Has Been the Fuel in My Tank’ – Part 1 – Discover Nikkei
Julia Jacobs (1874-1960) was a Black adoptee raised by the Chief Jacob Wahalchu of the Suquamish Tribe, and his wife Mary after her birth mother died. The Suquamish Tribe acknowledges Julia Jacobs as a tribal matriarch and culture bearer whose descendants became prominent tribe members.
Seattle entrepreneur Louie Gong, who inherited his last name from his Chinese paternal grandfather, is considered “one of the most successful Native artists in history.” Raised on the Nocksack reservation, Gong takes his artistic inspiration from the Coast Salish heritage of his Nooksack/Squamish paternal grandmother. He works to create opportunities for other Native artists.
Ralph Lazo was a Mexican-American high school student from LA who lived in a Japanese Internment Camp in solidarity with his Japanese American friends. Lazo is “believed to have been the only non-Japanese person (who wasn’t the spouse of a Japanese detainee) to live in a US-run internment camp.”
When Asians Date – The Juggernaut takes a look at the Asian double standard in accepting interracial couples: Chinese-Indian couples are subjected to doubts and stares that Chinese-white couples are not subjected to.
Black and Brown Love – The Juggernaut takes a look at white supremacy in interracial dating. “I still struggle to comprehend why marrying a white person… is so much more widely accepted than any other race,” said Amit Patel, a South Asian man from London had to overcome family opposition to marry his British Ghanaian wife.
Podcasts
Too Black, Too Latino – Latino USA
Afro-Latinidad: Who Gets to Claim It? (Part 1) – Latino USA
Afro-Latinidad: Who Gets to Claim It? (Part 2) – Latino USA
Reservations – Latino USA
The Yakama Nation is a reservation in Eastern Washington that is home to about 11,000 Yakama people and almost three times as many Latinos. There , frequent intermarriage co-exists with ethnic tensions. A new generation forges a hybrid identity.
Allyship, Accountability, & Performative Activism with Johnathan Gibbs – Yellow Glitter Podcast
Interview with Jonathan Gibbs, the gay, Black and Filipino American creator of the Black and Asian Alliance Network.