The phone rings. I can't believe what I'm hearing. My father tells me about a book, a play and a man with whom he knew I would resonate--Incognito: An American Odyssey of Race and Self Discovery and Michael Sidney Fosberg. As usual, Dad was right. By the time I'd clicked on Fosberg's website I knew I had to learn more. So, I ordered the book and a copy of the performance directly from the author. Then, I set myself to reading and watching.

The first quarter of 2011 has ushered in the year of the “mad man.” From Charlie Sheen to Chris Brown to George Lopez to Jared Loughner and David Prosser we’ve seen it all: everything from attempted murder to assault and battery, to polygamy, to verbal and emotional abuse against women. Sadly, this idea of mad masculinity is being turned into a commodity that can be consumed repeatedly across a range of media outlets.

Dr. Dawkins discusses her forthcoming book Clearly Invisible: Racial Passing and the Color of Cultural Identity and trades expert opinions with Latoya Peterson of Racialicious.Com, Galina Espinoza of Latina Magazine and Farai Chedaya of NPR on beauty, mixed race identity and "mad masculinity" in The Beauty Shop on National Public Radio's Tell Me More.

In this letter to the editor of "The Chronicle of Higher Education" I respond to Professors Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Rudolph P. Byrd...

In their article "Jean Toomer's Conflicted Racial Identity," The Chronicle Review, February 11, the authors Rudolph P. Byrd and Henry Louis Gates Jr. claim that Toomer suffered from a case of "conflicted racial identity." Toomer, one of the first proponents of thinking about race in multiracial "American" terms, is now said to have been passing as white. The authors justify this assertion by presenting new evidence that Toomer identified himself differently based on location and situation.

Are mixed race faces considered the most beautiful? A recent report from Allure magazine says yes. Results of a survey conducted by Allure reveal that 64 percent of its readers thought mixed race was the most attractive. The editors attribute the results to the growing population of mixed race youth. As much as I’d like to agree it appears that this is just another case of wishful racial thinking.

In November 2010 I received the National Communication Association's Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award in San Francisco, California. The Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Awards program recognizes new scholars who have recently completed their dissertations.

Receiving this award was a true honor and a great way to begin a career in writing. It was especially wonderful to be supported by Harry Guillermo, Deborah Hanan, Terry Nance, Randy Lake, and my colleagues and friends at USC Annenberg, CSU Fullerton and Brown. Mostly, it was humbling to be surrounded by so many scholars whose work makes important contributions to the discipline of communication.

It’s official. We’re a “miscegeNation.” The 2010 Census results are reminding us that multiracialism is not only our destiny but our reality. We’re seeing the rise of the most diverse cohort of youth in the nation’s history with a record low white population—the millennials. According to the New York Times, “Young Americans are far less white than older generations, a shift that demographers say creates a culture gap with far-reaching political and social consequences.”