Mixed Race Studies

Blacks may be second class, but they can’t make them leave: Mexican racial formation and immigrant status in Winston-Salem

Latino Studies
Volume 10, Issue 1 (Spring/Summer 2012)
pages 60-80
DOI: 10.1057/lst.2012.7

Jennifer A. Jones, SBS Diversity Post Doctoral Fellow
Ohio State University, Columbus

In this article, I investigate how race is produced by looking at the reception experiences of Afro and Mestizo Mexican migrants to the new South. Despite the fact that Afro and Mestizo Mexicans are both phenotypically and culturally distinct from one another, they assert a shared racial identity as minorities and as Latinos. On the basis of ethnographic field work in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, I argue that their perceived similarities with African Americans and pervasive discrimination owing to status drives Afro-Mexicans to assert a race-based Latino identity that is shaped by their understanding of African American experiences.

Read the entire article here.

Parental messages concerning Latino/Black interracial dating: An exploratory study among Latina/o young adults

Latino Studies
Volume 10, Issue 3 (August 2012)
pages 314-333
DOI: 10.1057/lst.2012.24

Erica Morales, Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Missouri

Many immigrant groups have racially distanced themselves from Blacks due to anti-Black prejudice and stigma. Racial distancing can be transmitted to children through regulating intimate contact with Blacks. Few studies have examined how Latino young adults receive racialized messages from their immigrant parents about dating Blacks. In-depth interviews reveal that Latino young adults encounter messages regarding mixed race children, perceived cultural differences and the US racial hierarchy. This regulatory process is gendered with Latinas experiencing more explicit sanctioning than Latino men. This study illuminates how Latino parents create racialized and gendered boundaries between their children and Blacks.

Read or purchase the article here.

ETHS 309 D: Race & Ethnicity

Edgewood College, Madison, Wisconsin
Ethnic Studies
Spring 2013

Cynthia Rolling, Professor of Anthropology and Sociology

This course engages students in an analysis of historical and contemporary experiences of race and ethnicity in the United States as influenced by changing migration trends and economic developments. Special consideration is given to the social construction of racial categories; issues of whiteness; and multiracial identity.

Racial endogamy in Great Britain: A cross-national perspective

Ethnic and Racial Studies
Volume 3, Issue 2 (1980)
pages 224-235
DOI: 10.1080/01419870.1980.9993301

Richard T. Schaefer, Professor of Sociology
DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois

Introduction

Large numbers of Blacks and Asians have migrated to Great Britain since World War II, and especially between 1955 and 1967. These ‘coloured’ people, as they are referred to in Britain, were met with increasingly less sympathy and harsher immigration restrictions until the barriers to entry were almost insurmountable.

Initially British observers were optimistic about the likelihood of a multi-racial society succeeding in Britain. Kenneth Little advanced the ‘colour-class hypothesis’ in the early 1950s arguing that the Commonwealth immigrants were seen by the English as representatives of the natives in the Empire. The acquisition of wealth, education, and knowledge of the arts could make the immigrant acceptable to the host country. Implicit in this argument was that intolerance shown to the people from the former colonies was due to their being immigrants, not because they were coloured. Although the British experience of the last two decades has refuted this hypothesis, little data have been accumulated with respect to the ultimate measure of acceptance—intermarriage. The rate of intermarriage between races is affected by numerous factors, and may be viewed as a specific social action with significance both to the individual participants and the society of which they are member.

The experience in the Empire would have predicted little acceptance of marriage between whites and coloureds. For example, the English and Indians intermingled freely in the latter’s native country and the East India Company under British control first encouraged intermarriage in the belief that racially mixed people would serve as a ‘bridge’ between Britain and India. However, by the end of the eighteenth century the official policies had turned full circle; marriages crossing racial lines were treated with distrust and even regarded at a potential threat to the Empire.

Gunnar Myrdal outlined the theory of the ‘rank order of discrimination’ in which he postulated that the primary concern of whites during the Jim Crow era in the South in their relations with blacks, is to prevent complete intermarriage. When marital assimilation, as Milton Gordon termed it, ‘takes place fully, the minority group loses its ethnic identity in the larger host…

Read or purchase the article here.

U-M’s Understanding Race Project examines issues at heart of the human experience, advances national conversation on race

University of Michigan
News Release
2012-12-19

Contacts:

Frank Provenzano, (734) 647-4411
Maryanne George, (734) 615-6514
Deborah Greene, (734) 763-4008

Twitter hashtags: #UnderstandRace, #UMtheme

 
ANN ARBOR—Few subjects provoke as strong a visceral response as the topic of race. One-hundred-and-fifty years after the United States was nearly fractured by the battle over slavery and more than a half-century since the modern Civil Rights Movement emerged, the University of Michigan is launching the Understanding Race Project.
 
From January through April, an extensive range of public exhibits, performances, lectures, symposia and more than 130 courses in several disciplines will explore the concept of race and its impacts. The historical, cultural, psychological and legal interpretations of race will be examined from both national and global perspectives.
 
Highlights of the project include the “Race: Are We So Different?” exhibit developed by the American Anthropological Association and the Science Museum of Minnesota and “IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas,” a Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit.
 
Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center; Angela Davis, educator and civil rights activist; and Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, N.J., are among the dozens of lecturers speaking at U-M as part of the project…

…JANUARY EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
 
WHAT: IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas, a Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit

WHEN: Jan. 9-31

DESCRIPTION: The story of people who share African American and Native American ancestry has long been invisible. For 500 years or more, African American and Native people have come together, creating shared histories, communities and ways of life. Often divided by prejudice, laws or twists of history, African-Native Americans are united by a double heritage that is truly indivisible.

WHERE: Duderstadt Center Gallery on U-M’s North Campus, 2281 Bonisteel Blvd., Ann Arbor. The gallery is open Noon-6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Noon-5 p.m. on Sundays. The gallery will be open from Noon-6 p.m. on Martin Luther King Day.
 
WHAT: “Identities in Red, Black and White: A Roundtable Discussion”

WHEN:  4-6 p.m. Jan. 10

DESCRIPTION: This public program will address mixed-race identities from autobiographical and storytelling perspectives and within the context of social and cultural analysis.

EXPERTS: Roundtable panelists express a mixed native identity of some kind—whether that connection is via family ties and/or cultural ties, including:

• Tiya Miles, U-M professor of Afroamerican and African studies and Native American studies
• Adesola Akinleye, dance scholar and founder of Dancing Strong
• Elizabeth Atkins, U-M alumna and Detroit-based best-selling novelist and journalist
• Robert Keith Collins, assistant professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University.
• Philip Deloria, U-M professor of history, American culture, and Native American studies

For more information, click here.

Commentary: Black Is…

Black Entertainment Television (BET)
2012-12-17

James Braxton Peterson, Director of Africana Studies; Associate Professor of English
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Black in America explores what it means to be Black.

CNN’s Black in America series has become something of a welcome crucible for the Black community these last four years — especially as the community has developed discursively across social media networks and platforms. The fifth iteration of the series debuted, with host Soledad O’Brien, last week to conflicting reviews and reports (especially on Facebook and in the Twitterverse) asking what does it mean to be Black in America and how do we define who is Black?

As usual, there is no easy answer, especially when we meet Nayo Jones and Becca Khalil, two teenage women of color who wrestle with their identities in the face of society’s need to categorize them in outdated and restrictive racial boxes.

Nayo, who would certainly be categorized as a Black woman on the street, struggles with being abandoned by her Black mother and raised by her white father. Nayo’s younger sister readily identifies as Black, but Nayo is conflicted and reluctant to identify herself as her sister has. Her best friend, Becca, an Egyptian-American, readily and enthusiastically identifies herself as African-American…

…Becca and Nayo are not alone in the conflicts they encounter as they seek to form their own identies. Yaba Blay’s (1)ne Drop Project was the inspiration behind this year’s Black in America, and is a revelation of how intra-racial bias and/or colorism continues to deeply affect the Black community. Blay interviewed light-complexioned people of African descent about self-determination and the resulting extraordinary project is both historical and relevant to identity formation…

Read the entire article here.

Ethnicity: what the census doesn’t tell us

New Internationalist: People, ideans and action for global justice
2012-12-17

Amy Hall, Editorial Intern

As the story goes, we are hurtling towards the anniversary of an important census, when Jesus’s family made its way to Bethlehem. Here in Britain, we have recently been analysing the results of our own 2011 survey – completed without most of us having to undertake an arduous journey (on donkey) back to our home towns…

I have had countless conversations with curious strangers who ask me: ‘Where are you from?’ I would normally answer Cornwall, England or Britain. I often receive a sympathetic smile, or a mildly infuriated expression, and then a ‘yes, but where are you actually from?’ Short of producing a copy of my birth certificate, it can be hard to know how to reply.

The more accusatory their tone, the more they actually mean ‘why are you not white?’ After all, if I were, my initial reply would have been enough. So I explain that my dad was born in Jamaica, my mother in England.

The 2011 census results have been reported as evidence of ‘the changing face of Britain’, celebrating the harmony of the production of children like myself – the ‘Jessica Ennis generation’. There are now over a million people ticking the ‘mixed/multiple ethnic groups’ box.

But nowhere in the mixed section (which wasn’t even added until 2001) is ‘British’ mentioned, despite the presence of mixed-race people being almost as old as the country itself. We are told that immigrants and their descendants need to identify more closely with Britain, but even when they do it is not reflected in monitoring forms like the census. Many mixed-race people can follow multiple cultures and religions, speak multiple languages and support multiple teams in the World Cup and while still feeling British…

Read the entire article here.

The Color of Colorblind: Exploring Mixed Race Identity

Vitamin W: Your Daily Dose of Women’s News, Philanthropy & Business
New York, New York
2012-12-12

Lindsay C. Harris

The Color of Colorblind: Addressing the History of Racial Classification and Mixed Racial Identity in the U.S.

Like 60 million other Americans, I cast my ballot to reelect our first black president last month. I endorsed a man whose accomplishments are certainly emblematic of progress in the fight for civil rights in this country, but who’s multiracial heritage, identity, and “degree of blackness” under constant scrutiny represents a long and complicated history of racial classification in the United States.

I understand why it may be easy for some to call this the age of colorblindness; why it may seem like “colorblind” is what we should aspire to; and why some might even think we have finally reached this elusive goal as we wave around our newest trophy—the Obamas on Capitol Hill. However, before we pat ourselves on the back and walk away thinking job well done, it’s important to examine a few realities that make our society certainly not post-race—because we could be on the verge of setting ourselves  backward under the guise of progress if we don’t.

Like Obama, I am born of a black father and a white mother. Like many children of mixed parentage, I had my share of struggles to find myself and my community. Moreover, like any adolescent I stru­ggled to feel comfortable with myself and with my body. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend some great schools and to have mentors who have helped me find my voice, critically and artistically. I identify as black and of mixed race—I am of African American, Norwegian and Native American heritage. I acknowledge that calling myself mixed race is a distinct privilege afforded to my generation, and moreover a privilege afford to me because of the way that I look (lighter skinned) and the environment in which I live (New York City). It is with this criticality that I approach not only my own identity, but my artistic body of work surrounding mixed race and complicating identity…

…I believe that identity is two-fold—how we view ourselves and how others view us. And these views are informed by the racialized and sexualized violence of our past. To talk about contemporary identity also involves talking about the history of race in this country. There is a reason that Obama identifies as black not biracial, much of it has to do with society seeing him as first and foremost a black man. How can we understand and move this country toward real progress if we ignore race, and how as mixed race individuals can we deconstruct categories all together, rather than just create new ones?…

Read the entire article here.

The Life Narrative of a Mixed-Race Man in Recovery from Addiction: A Case-Based Psychosocial Approach to Researching Drugs, ‘Race’ and Ethnicity

Journal of Social Work Practice: Psychotherapeutic Approaches in Health, Welfare and the Community
Published online: 2012-12-06
DOI: 10.1080/02650533.2012.745841

Alastair Roy, Senior Lecturer
Psychosocial Research Unit, School of Social Work
University of Central Lancashire

This paper explores the use of a psychosocial approach to researching drugs, race and ethnicity. It produces an analysis of interviews with Bobby, a mixed-race man in recovery from addiction. Sociological and psychoanalytic perspectives are brought to bear on the data in order to consider the character of Bobby’s opportunities, identifications, crises and resolutions. Despite the affective components of the wider discourse on drugs and race, the majority of previous research on the subject has focused on the production of rational explanations produced within objectivist epistemological frames. In contrast, the methods used in this project seek an explicit engagement with the irrational and unconscious aspects of researching these subjects. The paper concludes by reflecting on the value of psychosocially oriented narrative methods in this field.

Read or purchase the article here.

Britain is now a better place to grow up mixed race. But don’t celebrate yet

The Guardian
2012-12-15

Lanre Bakare, The Guide’s Previews Editor

Prejudices have receded significantly in the past 20 years, but a report out this week shows racist attitudes remain

Growing up as a mixed race child, with a mother from Leeds and a father from Nigeria, my Bradford childhood certainly wasn’t trouble-free. But I had the kind of relatives to see me through any tricky moments. As well as a fantastic, loving family on my mother’s side, I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by a strong Nigerian community, focused around a friendship club my father founded, which acted as a focal point for a small but vibrant community.

With my dad and his mates I would hear Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa spoken; I’d listen to the music of Fela, Shina Peters and Ayinla Kollington, and get to taste jollof rice, eba, moinmoin and other Nigerian cuisine. This understanding and engagement with the other side of my ancestry and culture was vital to me. It gave me confidence to fall back on when people would question who I was. Both my parents instilled the idea in me that being different was a huge positive. It was something special, that should be celebrated and cherished rather than hidden or denied.

Not everyone is so lucky, of course. But this week a report released in the wake of the 2011 census threw fresh light on mixed race relationships in the UK and the public’s perception of them. And it seemed to bring good news. The census revealed there are a million people who identify as mixed race. British Future, the thinktank that produced the report (titled The Melting Pot Generation – How Britain Became More Relaxed About Race), found that 15% of the public have a problem with these relationships, compared to 50% in the 80s and 40% in the 90s.

The so-called Jessica Ennis Generation (those born in the 80s and 90s, like me) was portrayed as more tolerant of, and essentially not bothered by, mixed race families…

Read the entire article here.