Mixed Race Studies

Performing Bi- and Multi-Racial Identity

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the NCA 94th Annual Convention, TBA
San Diego, California
2008-11-20

13 pages

Melissa J. Edwards
Hofstra University

Bi or Multi Racial identity is not clearly defined within American racial terms. This performative criticism of Kristen A. Renn’s study of college age students who identified themselves as biracial explains the historical, governmental, and social reasons for confusion or the lack of clarification of identity among this group. I explore this phenomenon through various theoretical analyses culminating with a written performance expressing the frustration of the students in this racial identity limbo.

Read the entire paper here.

Gaining Interactional Leverage: School Racial Compositions and Multiracial Youths

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
Hilton San Francisco & Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel
San Francisco, California
2004-08-14
44 pages

Simon Cheng,  Associate Professor of Sociology
University of Connecticut

One of the most important changes in the contemporary American population is the rapid increase of biracial youths. Given the ongoing interest by sociologists and other social scientists in the potentially difficult life experiences and the social advantages that are associated with biracial youths’ identity formation and peer affiliation, I ask: To what extent are biracial adolescents’ life experiences shaped by contextual factors and types of biracial status? Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health of 1994-95, I distinguish between white biracial and non-white biracial adolescents, and examine the contextual effects of school racial compositions on three measures of psychological states—school attachment, general happiness, and psychological disorder. Analyses provide evidence that school racial compositions affect the school attachment of monoracial, white biracial, and non-white biracial adolescents in different ways. For monoracial adolescents, their school attachment increases as the number of their same-race students increases in schools. Whereas school racial compositions show no effect on the school attachment of white biracial adolescents, non-white biracials’ school attachment increases only in schools with large proportions of racial minority students, and these effects are the strongest among all the racial groups explored in this study. The contextual effects of school racial compositions disappear when applied to outcome variables that are less related to school environments, such as students’ general happiness and symptoms of psychological disorder. Theoretical implications of these patterns are discussed at the end of this study.

Read the entire paper here.

Parental Communication and Its Influence on Biracial Identity

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the NCA 93rd Annual Convention, TBA
Chicago, IL
2007-11-15

27 pages
 
Carolyn Brooks

The Biracial identity development process has long been overlooked in society and in research. Few models exist and those models in existence are mostly descriptive. This paper focused on one of the major influential factors in a child’s identity development process – parental communication. The Parental Racial Socialization Communication Model (PRSC) is proposed. A parent’s view of the child’s Biracialness and view of the world impact two dimensions that construct a parent’s communication style. Those two dimensions are the approach technique and valence of racial socialization. Four parental racial socialization styles are created from those two dimensions and are examined as predictors of the child’s ethnic identity label (border, protean, transcendent, and traditional) and their racial-esteem (feelings associated with the label). This model is helpful for counseling practitioners working with this population and for the parents of Biracial children who want information on how best to communicate with their children. The Parental Racial Socialization Communication Model is a needed addition to the limited literature on Biracial identity development.

Introduction

A topic that has gained much interest over the past few decades is that of Biracial identity. The 2000 Census, which was the first Census providing individuals with the option of identifying with more than one racial group, made it clear that the number of Biracial individuals in the United States is increasing rapidly (Buckley & Carter, 2004). Before this, the historical One-Drop Rule, which stated that an individual with as little as one drop of Black blood would be considered Black, was prevalent (Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2004). Therefore, some concluded that Black identity models were sufficient for Black/White Biracial individuals. In the 1980’s, researchers began to recognize that Biracial individuals experience racial issues differently than Blacks and have begun to delve into various investigations to see what factors influence Biracial identity development. (Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2004).

The concept “Bi-racial identity,” however, is rarely defined or understood in any consistent manner in the existing literature. In many ways, Biracial identity appears to be a primitive term. However, various researchers examine Biracial identity in quite dissimilar ways, suggesting that the term Biracial identity is far from being understood. I define Biracial identity as an “emergent category of identification” (Rockquemore, 1998, p. 199) – singular, border, protean, or transcendent – for people with parents that are of “two different socially designated racial groups” (Root, 1996, p. ix). This identification, from which one attempts to gain a sense of self, is a choice based on a continuous process of interactions with one’s family, social network, and society, which are largely influenced by one’s appearance. The central question to be explored here is how parents of Biracial children communicatively influence their child’s Biracial identity development.

This question is not one that appears in most of the literature on this topic. The majority of the models proposed in this field are descriptive, based on qualitative data, and lack process. Thus, an understanding of what factors and how the factors influence Biracial identity has not yet been achieved. Although prior work has primarily been descriptive, they provide a substantial foundation upon which more predictive models can be built (Poston, 1990). The literature on racial identity suggests that parental influence is important in the identity development of their children, as parents are the “primary socializing agents” of their children (Hughes, 2003, p. 15). Hence, the scope of this paper is to examine one of those factors – parental influence and develop a model that has a process and predictive power. The following review of the Biracial identity literature will reveal just how integral parental influence seems to be in the racial identity process for Biracial children…

Read the entire paper here.

Biracial Identity Development in Black/White Biracial Individuals

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
Montreal Convention Center
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2006-08-11

21 pages

Monique Porow

An increase in the population of biracial individuals in the U.S. has caused the proliferation of theories of biracial identity development and maintenance. Presently theories on biracial identity development do not fully capture the complexity of biracial identity formation for the black/white biracial population in the twenty-first century. In my work I conceptualize identity categories for biracial individuals that reflect this complexity. I present a model of biracial identity development that reevaluates the weight given to specific influences on identity, and explores the complexity of various influences on racial identity. In this model I identify previous models of racial identity formation for biracial individuals and expand these models to include dynamics of this process that are neglected. This new model will elaborate on existing models of racial identity development, and will stress the two factors I believe influence the racial identity formation process most: an individual’s appearance and the neighborhood’s tolerance of a biracial identity. The model suggests that these two factors, along with other factors, contribute to biracial individuals choosing a black, white, or biracial identity, developing a marginal identity, fluctuating between a singular or biracial identity circumstantially, or an individual choosing not to adopt a racial identity at all. This work also attempts to add to the body of literature on biracial identity by explicitly identifying the ways in which culture and racial identity diverge in the black/white racial population.

Read the entire paper here.

Narrating the Racial Self: Symbolic Boundaries and the Reference Group Identification Among Biracial Black Jews

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
Marriott Hotel, Loews Philadelphia Hotel
Philadelphia, PA
2005-08-12

45 pages

Bruce Haynes, Associate Professor
Sociology Depertment
University of California at Davis

Few studies of bi-racial or multiracial identity have considered the symbolic boundaries people use to establish their reference group identification to different social groups.  This analysis focuses on the ontological dimensions of social identification (Hart 1996) by considering the symbolic boundaries social actors use to emplot their life stories and claim membership in two distinct American ethno-racial groups, Blacks and Jews. The analysis seeks to answer two related questions: 1) How do self-identified Black and Jewish biracial individuals utilize symbolic boundaries in their personal narratives to claim membership in two publically recognized mutually exclusive groups? 2) To what degree traditional ethno/racial social boundaries have weakened as markers for social identification.  Although the content of any individual Black-Jewish identity is variable, many subjects report a “double-minority” status as both Black and Jewish, while others articulate identities as “Black Jews.”  The reproduction of Black and Jewish identity along traditional racial and ethnic group boundaries challenges both the presumed path towards the majority culture that is predicted by classic assimilation models, and romantic notions that the impact of race and the one drop rule has declined at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

Introduction

The following analysis uses the intersection of Jewish and Black reference group identification as a way to explore the degree to which traditional ethno/racial social boundaries have weakened as markers for social identification among self-identified bi-racial Black and Jewish Americans. The data for this study is drawn from eleven in-depth life history interviews of self-identified Black and Jewish bi-racial people; five men and six women were selected who range from 22 to 46 years of age.

Self-identified bi-racial Black and Jewish Americans claim membership in two American ethno/racial groups that have historically been understood to be mutually exclusive. While holding a particular reference group identity is ultimately a matter of self-identifying with a specific group (Putnam 1993, 114), being both Black and Jewish requires making claims on both Black and Jewish collectives. Identity by definition carries consequences; otherwise it wouldn’t hold such salience to the orientations of social actors (Jenkins 1996)…

Read the entire paper here.

Status Maximization or Identity Theory?: A Theorectical Approach to Understanding the Racial Identification of Multiracial Adolescents

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
Marriott Hotel, Loews Philadelphia Hotel, Philadelphia, PA
2005-08-12

Matthew Oware, Associate Professor of Sociology
DePauw University

Previous research has found that there are multiple factors that influence the racial identification of mixed-race adolescents.  This paper examines whether the racial identification of mixed-race adolescents can be understood through the broader theories of Status Maximization or Identity theory. Status Maximization theory posits that mixed-race adolescents will attempt to identify as the highest racial status group they possibly can. Yet, due to the “one-drop” rule, mixed-race black-white adolescents will be limited to selecting only “black” as their primary identification when forced to select one race. Identity theory posits that the higher frequency or better quality contacts with parents or individuals in mixed-race adolescents’ peer networks affect the racial identification of mixed-race adolescents. I use the National Longitudinal Adolescent Health (Add Health) dataset to perform statistical analyses on mixed-race adolescents. I find that Asian-white and American-Indian-white adolescents do not status maximize, but that black-white adolescents do adhere to the one-drop rule when forced to choose one race. Also, several social-psychological variables are found to influence the racial identification of mixed-race adolescents, corroborating previous research. My research suggests that racial identification for Asian-white and American-Indian-white adolescents are both fluid and optional; this is not the case for black-white adolescents.

Read the entire paper here.

Dimensions of Self-Identification among Multiracial and Multiethnic Respondents in Survey Interviews

Research supported in part by contract HHS 0009430486 from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Publication Date: 1997-12
ISSN: ISSN-0193-841X

Timothy P. Johnson
University of Illinois at Chicago

Jared B. Jobe
National Center for Health Statistics

Diane O’Rourke
University of Illinois at Urbana

Seymour Sudman
University of Illinois at Urbana

Richard Warnecke
University of Illinois at Chicago

Noel Chavez
University of Illinois at Chicago

Gloria Chapa-Resendez
University of Illinois at Chicago

Patricia Golden
National Center for Health Statistics

This paper reports findings from a laboratory study designed to investigate self identification among 69 multiracial and multiethnic women. Respondent reactions to two current questionnaire formats for collecting racial information, and a third version that includes a “multiracial” response option, were examined. Findings suggest that respondent’s racial identification varies considerably across question formats and that persons of mixed heritage prefer a racial identification question that provides them, at a minimum, with the opportunity to acknowledge their multi-cultural background. In addition, many respondents also expressed the desire to identify each of the specific groups that constitute their racial/ethnic background.

Read the entire article here.

One Drop, No Rule: Identity Options among Multiracial Children in the U.S.

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
Marriott Hotel, Loews Philadelphia Hotel
Philadelphia, PA,
2005-08-12

Anthony Daniel Perez, Assistant Professor
Chapel Hill Department of Sociology
University of North Carolina

This paper examines the links between family background characteristics and patterns of identification among multiracial children in the U.S. I improve upon previous studies of multiracial classification by expanding the identity choice set to include a broader and more thorough range of classificatory options. In undertaking this analysis, I examine the large, nationally representative 5% Public Use Microdata from the Census 2000 long form. I find that children living in two-parent households with one white parent and one non-white parent are almost equally likely to identify (or be identified) as white, non-white, or multiracial. I further note that: 1.) Patterns of identification vary widely by mixed race subgroup and socioeconomic status. 2.) Racial differences in identification vary by socioeconomic status. 3.) The pathways to “white passing” are related but distinct from pathways to multiracial identification.

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Miscegenating the Discourse: Mixed Race Asian American Art and Literature

Jessica Hagedorn In Conversation with Wei Ming and Laura Kina
As part of The President’s Signature Series 2009-2010

2009-10-22 at 18:00 CDT (Local Time)
DePaul University Art Museum
2350 N Kenmore

This event is co-sponsored by Asian American Studies, The Cultural Center, English, The President’s Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity, OMSA, and The Women’s Center.

What does it mean to be a Mixed Asian American Writer/Artist?

Mixed Race Studies scholar Wei Ming Dariotis, Assistant Professor Asian American Studies San Francisco State University, and Laura Kina, DePaul University Associate Professor Art, Media, & Design, Vincent dePaul Professor & Director Asian American Studies, will take on identity, categorization, and issues specific to Asian American mixed heritage populations in their dialogue with award winning writer, screenwriter and performer, Jessica Hagedorn, author of Dogeaters, Dream Jungle, The Gangster of Love, Danger And Beauty, and editor of Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction and Charlie Chan Is Dead 2: At Home in the World. Her next novel, Toxicology, will be published by Viking Penguin in 2011.

This event is free and open to the public.

The Social Process of Racial Identity Development Across Adolescence: Monoracial vs. Multiracial Pathways

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
Marriott Hotel, Loews Philadelphia Hotel
Philadelphia, PA
2005-08-12

33 pages

Steven Hitlin, Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Iowa

J. Scott Brown
Carolina Population Center
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Glen H. Elder, Jr.
Carolina Population Center
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Research on multiracial individuals has been increasing recently, partly due to the advent of a new racial measurement convention in the 2000 Census. However, the cross-sectional nature of this work obscures a vital aspect of multiracial identity; multiracial identity appears much more fluid than monoracial identity. Using a longitudinal, nationally representative sample of adolescents, we find that a significant percentage of American adolescents demonstrate fluidity in racial self-reports as they make the transition to adulthood. We identify six possible pathways of multiracial identity development and find that significant numbers of adolescents report racial identification consistent with each pathway. Importantly, over time many more adolescents add a racial identity (Diversify) or subtract one (Consolidate) than remain consistently multiracial. We then turn to exploring mean differences between pathways along a number of psychological and social characteristics. Finally, we attempt to predict developmental pathways of racial identification within a multinomial framework. Ultimately, our study attempts to re-frame a developmental perspective by focusing on the demonstrated fluidity inherent in multiracial identity development. 

Read the entire paper here.