Multiracial

It could have been a historic teaching moment. Instead, President Obama, the most famous mixed-race person in the world, checked off only one race — black — last year on his census form. And in so doing, he missed an opportunity to articulate a more nuanced racial vision for the increasingly diverse country he heads. The president also bucked a trend. Last month, the Census Bureau announced that the number of Americans who identified themselves as being of more than one race in 2010 grew about 32% over the last decade.

Her husband's family history became the narrative underpinning of his political rise — the white mother from Kansas, the black Kenyan father, the Midwestern grandparents who helped raise Barack Obama. But for as long as we've known Michelle Obama, she has been simply, irrefutably black — the first descendant of slaves to reside in the White House; a daughter of working-class South Side Chicago. "American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama" offers up a more complicated story.

President Pieter W. Botha and influential Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, frequent political rivals, appeared together Tuesday for the first time in more than two years to launch a multiracial regional advisory body for Natal province. Botha described the 10-member Joint Executive Authority as an experiment "I am convinced . . . can succeed."

Madison Richardson had no clue that Los Angeles was burning. On April 29, 1992, the head and neck surgeon was touring the Griffith Park Equestrian Center with polo-playing friends from India. A colleague paged him. Could Richardson rush to Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood to help care for a young truck driver who was near death after a beating? Oh, and, by the way, had Richardson been watching TV? No? Then find one and turn it on. What Richardson saw reminded him instantly of the chaos he witnessed during the Watts riots in 1965 and the Washington, D.C., riots in 1968.

Being of both Japanese and Irish ancestry, I was drawn to your article on Houston. People have often taken me to be Hispanic or Native American. This left me feeling like an outsider, a freak, a "half-breed" (as people have called me). Some consider my ethnic background and appearance intriguing, others loathe it, and it was not until junior high school that I finally realized that being multiracial is not a curse. Houston's courage and drive to overcome racism and to promote multiracial understanding through the arts give me hope that people will not think of us as "half-breeds" but as fellow Americans who happen to be of mixed ancestry.

How many films about poor, struggling white families have been mainstream commercial successes? Somehow, the "politically correct" image of blacks in films has become the street-ghetto stereotype, and if white audiences aren't interested in the plight of poor whites, why would they be interested in poor blacks or poor Latinos or poor Asians? Racial problems are minimized by class and interest similarities. Perhaps a more varied view of black life will result in multiracial audiences for all types of black films.

In the latest edition of Time magazine, it states that in the 115-year history of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, there has been only white men elected to it. Can you imagine that? This is the most multiracial county in the nation and yet we have the most enduring bastion of white supremacy in the country. It is also the most undemocratic political entity since it has broad legislative, executive and semi-judicial powers unlike any in the nation. Why do we allow this to go on?

I am writing to commend the article which Dolo Brooking wrote (Counterpunch, Dec. 17) regarding the importance of making arts funding more representative of the wide range of local communities. It is imperative that funding decisions at all levels come to reflect greater awareness of the multicultural and multiracial diversity of American and world society. Brooking admonishes the NEA to transcend what she calls "a rarefied Eurocentric perspective" and to award funds in a way that reflects a broader cultural appreciation.

It now appears that a National Basketball Assn. team will emerge either in Miami or San Diego. Santa Ana's involvement is likely a fruitless dream. Unfortunately, this is history repeating itself. South Coast Plaza, Disneyland and the Angels could also have been a Santa Ana product. However, the self-interest of a relatively small group of people apparently attempting to preserve the relative stagnation in Santa Ana has prevailed. Literally hundreds of thousands of people would have benefited had an NBA team been earned by Santa Ana. Employment, educational and cultural opportunities resulting from such exposure have been lost.

On May 3, I took my three children to the worst hit areas of our city to help clean up and deliver survival supplies. What a wonderful sight: multiracial children working side by side and discussing what has happened and possible solutions. I now cannot help but reflect on two so-called leaders of our community. These leaders have set the worst possible example. These two men have not worked together in the past, and at the very critical first moments of turmoil did not directly communicate.

NEW YORK - New Yorker drama critic John Lahr set off a social media firestorm in December with a blog comment that called for a moratorium on those "infernal all-black productions of Tennessee Williams plays unless we can have their equal in folly: all-white productions of August Wilson. " The theater community, as viewed from my portal on Facebook, found the comparison not just inept but inflammatory. Emily Mann, who happens to be directing the multiracial Broadway production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" starring Blair Underwood and Nicole Ari Parker that opens later this month at the Broadhurst Theatre, however, refused to take the bait when we spoke during a rehearsal break in March.

It could have been a historic teaching moment. Instead, President Obama, the most famous mixed-race person in the world, checked off only one race — black — last year on his census form. And in so doing, he missed an opportunity to articulate a more nuanced racial vision for the increasingly diverse country he heads. The president also bucked a trend. Last month, the Census Bureau announced that the number of Americans who identified themselves as being of more than one race in 2010 grew about 32% over the last decade.

Growing up in Indonesia, Maya Soetoro-Ng often felt too American. Although she adored her native land's traditional gamelan music and shadow puppets, spiced cuisine and Hindu epics, her manner was too loud, too irreverent — hallmarks, she said, of being raised by a strong American mother. But when she entered the Jakarta International School at age 12, the only student of Indonesian ancestry, she felt too Indonesian. She was more reserved than the confident, boisterous Americans she met there and later in Hawaii, she said.

The kids in these photographs don't look like they belong in a museum. They're having too much fun. They gloat and grin, share secrets and show off their retainers and rock collections. "I wanted to capture them exactly as they are," says artist Kip Fulbeck. " 'If they liked soccer,' I told them, 'Bring a ball.' 'If you're a goof be a goof.' I just wanted to avoid that posed Christmas card thing." Most of all, Fulbeck wanted to give these children -- all of whom are of mixed racial heritage -- the freedom to answer the simple but potentially fraught question: "Who are you?"

When Emma Jordi's mother suggested a Sunday afternoon at South Africa's Confederations Cup watching the national soccer team play Iraq, the pretty blond 14-year-old had an excuse. Homework. "I have to write a speech for English," she said warily, more accustomed to riding her beautiful chestnut gelding, Spring Close Prince Dante, than spending rowdy afternoons at the soccer stadium, the air rent by the blasts of plastic trumpets called vuvuzelas that fans blow.

Four years after New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin tried to endear himself to black voters by playing to their fears that they were about to be "overrun by Mexican workers," things have and haven't changed. Mexican and other Latin American migrants who came to rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Katrina didn't overwhelm the city.

Color this multiracial vocal quartet boring. On the plus side, they bring the harmonious doo-wop sounds of such vocal groups as the Chi-Lites into the '90s, suitably hip-hopped up, laced with racy raps and danceable grooves. But the vocals aren't polished and the raps are downright lame. All their big hit, "I Wanna Sex You Up," has going for it is sexy lyrics. If you're looking for solid dance grooves, only a few songs deliver.

Re "He Looks Like Me" (July 7): Although it was heartening to see an article about Amerasians in View, I was disappointed that The Times offered a narrow definition. The term Amerasian was coined by Pearl Buck to refer to half-Japanese and half-Korean children born either in or out of wedlock during the U. S. occupation of Japan and after the Korean Conflict. The term referred to all multiracial Asians, whether their American half was Anglo, African-American or Latino.

A rainbow runs through Tyler Winograd's veins. His mother, Maile, is half black and half Chinese American. His father, Jeff, is white and grew up Jewish in Evanston, Ill. "I always check 'Other' on my college applications," Winograd said. But on election day, Winograd was filling out a different kind of form. The 18-year-old accompanied his parents to the polling place across the street from their Glencoe, Ill., home to cast a ballot for president for the first time.