Mixed Race Studies

Mixed-Race People Perceived as ‘More Attractive,’ UK Study Finds

Science Daily
2010-04-14

In the largest study of its kind Dr. Michael Lewis of Cardiff University’s School of Psychology, collected a random sample of 1205 black, white, and mixed-race faces.

Each face was then rated for their perceived attractiveness to others — with mixed-race faces, on average, being perceived as being more attractive.

Dr Lewis, who will present his findings to the British Psychological Society’s annual meeting (April 14) said: “Previous, small scale, studies have suggested that people of mixed race are perceived as being more attractive than non-mixed-race people. This study was an attempt to put this to the wider test.

“A random sample of black, white, and mixed-race faces was collected and rated for their perceived attractiveness. There was a small but highly significant effect, with mixed-race faces, on average, being perceived as more attractive.”..

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Why are mixed-race people perceived as more attractive?

Perception
Volume 39, Issue 1 (2010)
pages 136-138
ISSN: 0301-0066 (print), 1468-4233 (electronic)

Michael B. Lewis, Senior Lecturer of Psychology
Cardiff University

Previous, small scale, studies have suggested that people of mixed race are perceived as being more attractive than non-mixed-race people. Here, it is suggested that the reason for this is the genetic process of heterosis or hybrid vigour (ie cross-bred offspring have greater genetic fitness than pure-bred offspring). A random sample of 1205 black, white, and mixed-race faces was collected. These faces were then rated for their perceived attractiveness. There was a small but highly significant effect, with mixed-race faces, on average, being perceived as more attractive. This result is seen as a perceptual demonstration of heterosis in humans—a biological process that may have implications far beyond just attractiveness.

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Personality Characteristic Adaptations: Multiracial Adolescents’ Patterns of Racial Self-Identification Change

Journal of Research on Adolescence
Volume 20, Issue 2 (June 2010)
Pages 432 – 455
Published Online: 2010-03-08
DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00638.x

Rodney L. Terry
Statistical Research Division, U.S. Census Bureau

Cynthia E. Winston, Associate Professor of Psychology
Howard University, Washington, DC

For multiracial adolescents, forming a sense of self and identity can be complicated, even at the level of classifying themselves in terms of racial group membership. Using a Race Self Complexity (Winston et al., 2004) theoretical framework, this study used an open-ended question to examine the racial self-identification fluidity of 66 adolescents during the 7th, 8th, and 11th grades. This sample included 22 Black/White1 multiracial adolescents, as well as a matched sample of 22 Black and 22 White adolescents. Seventy-three percent of the multiracial adolescents changed their racial self-identification in the form of two time change patterns with a number of consolidating and differentiating racial self-identification variations. There was no change for the monoracial adolescents. These results suggest that within the lives of multiracial adolescents, the process of racial self-identification may be a personality characteristic adaptation to the meaning of race in American society that may change across time, place, and role.

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Breaking Barriers for Multiracial Students

National Forum of Multicultural Issues Journal
Sponsored by The Texas Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education
Volume 7, Number 1 (2010)
Pages 1-6

Adriana Jones
Prairie View A&M University
Prairie View, Texas

Jeremy Jones
Prairie View A&M University
Prairie View, Texas

The number of multiracial college students has increased and will continue to increase rapidly over the years thus it is important for Student Affairs educators and administrators, and mental health providers to understand this population.  This essay will provide an overview of barriers often faced by multiracial students and will discuss strategies that can be used to help break these barriers for this population.

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Does the British State’s Categorisation of ‘Mixed Race’ Meet Public Policy Needs?

Social Policy & Society
Volume 9, Number 1 (January 2010)
pages 55-69
DOI:10.1017/S1474746409990194

Peter J. Aspinall, Reader in Population Health at the Centre for Health Services Studies
University of Kent, UK

The England and Wales 2001 Census was the first to include ‘Mixed’ categories which have now been adopted across government. The four ‘cultural background’ options were highly prescriptive, specifying combinations of groups. This paper assesses how satisfactorily these analytical categories captured self-ascribed cultural affiliation based on the criteria of validity, reliability and utility of the data for public services. Finally, the paper asks whether we now need a census question on ethnic origin/ancestry in addition to—or instead of—ethnic group or whether multi-ticking or a focus on family origins might give more useful public policy data and better measure the population’s ethnic diversity.

Read the entire article here.

Who are the ‘Mixed’ ethnic group?

Office for National Statistics [United Kingdom]
May 2006

Ben Bradford

Introduction

The last fifty years have seen the emergence of some new, predominantly British-born, ethnic minorities. These are the children of inter-ethnic partnerships, primarily partnerships between people from the White British group and people from ethnic minority groups. They include the children of White and Black Caribbean parents, White and Asian parents and White and Black African parents, as well as a multitude of other Mixed identities.

The majority of people who have a Mixed ethnic identity have a White parent and were born in Britain. One of the key issues of interest about the Mixed ethnic groups concerns the extent to which they are more similar to the White group, or to the ethnic minority groups, from which they are drawn. For example, whether young people from the Mixed White and Black Caribbean group experience the relatively low unemployment of their White peers, or the much higher unemployment of their Black Caribbean peers.

This article profiles the four Mixed ethnic groups identified in the 2001 Census. These groups are necessarily abstractions from the multitude of actual Mixed ethnicities which exist in Britain today. The three specific groups identified in the Census—Mixed White and Black Caribbean, Mixed White and Black African and Mixed White and Asian—were designed to allow the greatest number of people possible to easily identify themselves. Those who did not identify with one of these Mixed ethnicities could use a write-in space to provide their own description of their ethnicity.

We look at the size of the groups, their demographic and socio-economic characteristics and we consider how they compare with other ethnic groups. This article is intended to complement similar analysis of the ‘Other’ ethnic groups already published by ONS. Together this work provides an overview of the characteristics of these less well known ethnicities.

Table of contents

Introduction
Executive Summary
1. The introduction of Mixed ethnic group categories on the Census
2. Who are the Mixed ethnic groups?
3. The size of the Mixed ethnic populations in England and Wales
4. Age profile of the Mixed ethnic groups
5. Country of Birth
6. Religion
7. Region of residence
8. Socio-economic occupational class
9. Economic Activity
10. Unemployment
11. Educational Attainment
References

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“… But … But I am Brown.” The Ascribed Categories of Identity: Children and Young People of Mixed Parentage

Child Care in Practice
Volume 13, Issue 2 (April 2007)
pages 83 – 94
DOI: 10.1080/13575270701201169

Annabel Goodyer, Principal Lecturer in Social Work
London South Bank University

Toyin Okitikpi

This paper explores the concept of the categorisation of social groups by looking at the issue of ascribed categories of identity for children and young people of mixed parentage. Our exploration of the knowledge-base in this area reveals that children and young people have clearly expressed views about their racial identity and that these views are broadly consistent across research studies. In essence, children and young people’s expressed views are that they are not mixed-race, black or white, but are in fact brown. The emerging sociology of childhood and the government’s current child participation agenda emphasise the centrality of children and young peoples’ perspectives on the provision of services that seek to support them. Through this perception, which places children and young people’s own understandings of their racial identity at the forefront of the analysis, we added fresh understandings to the existing data concerning ascribed categories of identity for children and young people of mixed parentage.

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The Meaning of Style: Black British Style, and the underlying political and social environment

New Art Exchange
Nottingham, England
2010-01-16 through 2010-04-10
Monday to Friday 10:00-19:00 BT; Saturday 10:00-17:00 BT
Admission:  Free

Artists:

Vanley Burke (Photography)
Clement Cooper (Photography) [Includes a selection of prints from the DEEP Project]
Michael Forbes (Photography)
Gerard Hanson (Painting / Photography)
Barbara Walker (Painting / Drawing)
 
Curated By:

David Schischka Thomas

New Art Exchange presents an exhibition exploring the presence of young African Caribbean men in Britain over the last 40 years, and how Black music, fashion and culture have influenced mainstream society.

Young African Caribbean men have often been portrayed as low achievers and perpetrators of crime in British society. But now, with Barack Obama winning the presidency of the biggest superpower in the world, will we see these same young men portrayed in a different light; as a source of huge potential for the future? Will the achievement of black youth in Britain over the last 40 years be recognised and honoured?

Read the complete description here.

DEEP: A Photo-Essay by Clement Cooper

Clement Cooper

DEEP explores the contentious issue surrounding British Mixed-Race identity through image & oral testimony.

From 1992 to 1997, Clement Cooper journeyed to and lived in several port cities throughout the UK. Locations where: Toxteth, Liverpool, St Paul’s, Bristol; Butetown, Cardiff & Manchester.

Using available natural light and shooting for the first time on medium format, Clement Cooper explored the possibilities of portraiture to reveal a powerful and deeply moving monograph—the very first of it’s kind.  From a personal perspective, Clement Cooper was particularly keen to emphasize that behind all notions, concepts and constructs of racial stereotyping there lies one fact.  That there is no such thing as a “race”, there is only the human race.  DEEP celebrates this undeniable truth by revealing the common humanity of all those photographed explicitly.

A humanity that unites us all regardless.

View the photo-essay here.

Double Consciousness in the Work of Helen Oyeyemi and Diana Evans

Women: A Cultural Review
Volume 20, Issue 3 (December 2009)
pages 277-286
DOI: 10.1080/09574040903285735

Pilar Cuder-Domnguez, Associate Professor
University of Huelva, Spain

The first novels published by Helen Oyeyemi and Diana Evans feature twins of mixed-race parentage—a Nigerian mother and an English father—growing up in Britain. Eight-year-old Jessamy in Oyeyemi’s The Icarus Girl is unaware that she was born a twin, but on travelling to Nigeria she encounters TillyTilly, a troublesome girl she seems unable to shake off. Georgia and Bessi in Evans’s 26a are identical twins who share all their experiences until a visit to their mother’s homeland of Nigeria opens a breach in their perfect union. Both novels were published in 2005 and display certain commonalities of plot, characterisation, location and stylistic choice. Oyeyemi and Evans both explore Yoruba beliefs surrounding the special nature of twins—half way between the world of humans and gods. If one twin dies, parents commission a carving called ‘ibeji‘ to honour the deceased and to provide a location for their soul. The specialness attributed to twins by the Yoruba is compounded in both novels by the fact that they are mixed-race and by the diverging locations, cultures and languages of their parents. Thus, this article addresses how the two writers deploy Yoruba beliefs in order to raise questions about the cultural grounding of their characters’ identities, and how being twins becomes a metaphor for the ‘double consciousness’ of being black and British.

Read or purchase the article here.