Writing
Through books and articles, Ralina L. Joseph explores the complex intersections of race, media, culture, and everyday life.
Books that shape the conversation
Transcending Blackness examines how multiracial Americans are often portrayed as either caught between racial identities or symbols of a postracial future. Ralina L. Joseph challenges both narratives, arguing that they remain rooted in the racist idea that blackness is something to overcome.
Postracial Resistance explores how African American women celebrities, cultural producers, and audiences employ postracial discourse—the notion that race and race-based discrimination are over and no longer affect people’s everyday lives—to refute postracialism itself.
Generation Mixed Goes to School radically listens to and weaves together stories of mixed-race children and youth, teachers, and caregivers with perspectives and research from social and developmental psychology, Critical Mixed Race Studies, and education.
Racial Exhaustion challenges us to recognize and address the fatigue that racial discourse brings while offering practical strategies to foster more equitable and productive conversations. This book guides readers in transforming everyday interactions into opportunities for anti-racist change.
Articles
Essays and articles exploring race and the moments where conversations take shape.
Visualizing Mixed Race and Genetics
Race and Media: Critical Approaches
What does it mean to “look mixed”? This problematic question should elicit incredulity and head scratching, given the vast diversity of mixed-race people. But because race is hegemonically understood through the visual, what might emerge is a picture of someone with curly hair, light brown skin, freckles, and light-colored eyes—that is, s