. . .I didn't realize that what I was also documenting was the everyday life of our multiracial family. This was told through photographs and stories of the relationships that my children have with their grandparents, the food that we eat, some of the traditions that we celebrate and the questions my children were asking as they became older and more self aware of racial identity. Readers always responded to these posts and wanted to read more. It inspired me to seek out other families to photograph so they too could tell their stories.
It's a bit hard to imagine that up until 1967, interracial marriages were illegal in the US. Since then, the population of biracial children soared 300% in the 1970s and rose accordingly every decade. Multiracial Americans have become the fastest growing demographic group. According to the 2010 Census, more than 9 million Americans identified themselves as multiracial - a jump of 32% in 10 years.
The Mixed Race Project is a glimpse inside the homes and lives of some of these multiracial families. I didn't want to focus on taking traditional portraits - there is certainly enough visual documentation on the beauty of mixed race people out there already - but I felt that portraying families in the context of their homes made a stronger impression of how we live. Mixed race families are, in fact, just like any other American family. While the stories of these particular urban families are just a very small survey and do not represent the experiences of all multiracial families, these photos are candid portraits of what Mixed Race America looks like today.
McTojo will no doubt bemoan the pollution of racial purity, but as they say, America is a melting pot.
