Mixed Race Studies

Multirace.com: The Promise and Pitfalls of Multiracial Cyberspace

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
Atlanta Hilton Hotel
Atlanta, Georgia
2003-08-16
27  pages

Erica Childs, Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology
Hunter College at the City University of New York

Through the Internet, multiracial individuals and families, even those who have felt isolated in racially segregated communities, can transcend geographically defined communities just by clicking and typing.  Type “multiracial” in any search engine and hundreds of results will be given, identifying the varied websites that exist.  Surfing through these sites from individual webpages of interracial couples to larger sites, it becomes clear that these sites are not detached and separate but rather form an intricate web, connected by links. These websites are an instrumental part of the multiracial movement.

The promise and potential of multiracial cyberspace is that it does provide a multiracial community and network, an “imagined” community among the specific assemblage of linked sites and web browsers not bound by geographical boundaries where most of the members may never meet though “in the minds of each lives the image of their communion.” Y et the Internet mirrors the larger society in that websites and web publications are often racialized, primarily geared towards one racial group or community thereby reinforcing the color line. Likewise multiracial websites exist on the color line, with a few challenging the racial status quo by bringing together all races, while most simply reproduce the racial hierarchy by further demarcating a separate multiracial community. This paper explores the significance of these “multiracial” websites, the ideologies they support, and their role in the multiracial movement. The images and ideas they project about multiracialism and racial politics is addressed. In particular the ways that these websites attempt to construct a multiracial community and promote a particular type of multiracial identity is highlighted.

Read the entire paper here.

Homelands and Indigenous Identities in a Multiracial Era

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting
Sheraton Boston and the Boston Marriott Copley Place
Boston, Massachusetts
2008-07-31
27 pages

Carolyn A. Liebler, Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Minnesota

Although multiple-race responses are now allowed on federal forms like the census, most interracially married single-race parents report their children as single race.  I argue that homelands – physical places with cultural meaning – are an important component of the intergenerational transfer of a single-race identity in multiracial families. I make my case by focusing on families with an interracially married American Indian who was living with his or her spouse and child in 2000 (Census 2000 5% PUMS [Public Use Microdata Series]). Logistic regression reveals that there is a strong effect of living in an American Indian homeland on the child’s chances of being reported as single-race American Indian.  This effect remains even after accounting for family connections to American Indians and other groups, family and area poverty levels, geographic isolation, and the racial composition of the area.  The intergenerational transmission of strong indigenous identities can continue in this multiracial era (as it has for centuries) in the context of culturally meaningful physical places.

Read the entire paper here.

What about the Children?: Black/White Children, Family Approval of Interracial Relationships, and Contemporary Racial Ideology

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

16 pages

Rachel Sullivan, Associate Professor of Sociology
Montgomery College, Germantown, Maryland

“Concerns” about the welfare of Black/White biracial children are frequently cited in the discourse opposing interracial relationships. This paper uses data from 44 in-depth interviews with interracial couples and their relatives to examine how contemporary racial ideology shapes discourses on Black/White children.

In these interviews, worries about biracial children’s place in the current racial order were central to the process of family approval of interracial relationships. Fears about biracial children are the most commonly reason cited for opposing a relatives interracial relationship; however, the origins of those concerns are different for Black relatives and White relatives. Ironically, most Black/White couples reported that having children lead to a decrease in family opposition to their relationship. Since the “what about the children” argument is so prevalent, most members of interracial couples have developed a set of counter discourses trumpeting the advantages of biracial children. They argue that— 1) biracial children have the best of both worlds 2) they are beautiful 3) they have genetic advantages, and 4) they are a sign of racial progress.

Unfortunately, both the dominant discourses relatives use and couples’ counter discourses are trapped by the logic of colorblindness and racial essentialism. Although counter discourses may represent a change in the racial order, they do not represent an anti-racist challenge to contemporary racial ideology. Acknowledging racism and trying to actively challenge it are very difficult, and the changing politics of race makes this even more difficult for interracial families.

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.

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.

Global Bodies: Narratives of Gendered ‘Mixed-race’

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

Suki Ali, Department of Sociology
Goldsmiths College, University of London

‘Mixed-race’ bodies are a source of endless fascination in the popular imagination.  They may encompass a range of racialised types but are determined by what they are not.  Falling between the feared predatory ‘black’ body and the safe, unsexed ‘white’ body, the ‘exotic’ global body radiates subtle but powerful sexuality, it is the source of desire and unease, something to be admired and owned. How do those who are ‘mixed-race’ manage this discursive space which is constituted as a site of instability and uncertainty? For these people backgrounds it is a site of ambivalence, the source of strength and inauthenticity, a paradox which provides insights into the problematic nature of visible raciality. In this paper I use narrative and memory work to show how the revisioning of embodied experience operates as a form of recuperation of the indeteminability of the ‘mixed-race’ global body.

Read the entire paper here.

‘Mixed Race’ Studies: A Reader

Routledge
2004-06-17
352 pages
Trim Size: 246mm x 174mm
Binding(s): Hardback, Paperback
ISBN13: 9780415321631; ISBN-10: 0415321638

Editor:  Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe, Visiting Associate Professor of African and African American Studies
Duke University

Mixed race studies is one of the fastest growing, as well as one of the most important and controversial areas in the field of race and ethnic relations. Bringing together pioneering and controversial scholarship from both the social and the biological sciences, as well as the humanities, this reader charts the evolution of debates on ‘race’ and ‘mixed race’ from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. The book is divided into three main sections:

• tracing the origins: miscegenation, moral degeneracy and genetics
• mapping contemporary and foundational discourses: ‘mixed race’, identities politics, and celebration
• debating definitions: multiraciality, census categories and critiques.

This collection adds a new dimension to the growing body of literature on the topic and provides a comprehensive history of the origins and directions of ‘mixed race’ research as an intellectual movement. For students of anthropology, race and ethnicity, it is an invaluable resource for examining the complexities and paradoxes of ‘racial’ thinking across space, time and disciplines.

Table of Contents

• Part 1:  Tracing the Origins: Miscegenation, Moral Degeneracy, and Genetics
• Part 2:  Mapping Contemporary and Foundational Discourses: ‘Mixed Race’, Identities Politics, and Celebration
• Part 3:  Debating Definitions: Multiraciality, Census Categories, and Critique.  Index.

Interrogating the Hyphen-Nation: Canadian Multicultural Policy and ‘Mixed Race’ Identities

Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture
Volume 8, Number 1, 2002
pages 67-90

Minelle Mahtani, Associate Professor
Department of Geography & Planning
University Toronto

This paper examines the ways ‘mixed race’ women in Canada contemplate their relationship to national identity. Through qualitative, open-ended interviews, the research demonstrates how some women of ‘mixed race’ contest ideas of the nation as constituted through the policy of multiculturalism in Canada. To challenge the tropes of the national narrative, some women of ‘mixed race’ develop nuanced models of cultural citizenship, illustrating that national identities are formed and transformed in relation to representation. Refusing to be positioned outside the nation, they effectively produce their own meanings of identity by working through their own personally identifed ‘mixed race’ bodies to the national body politic, where some of them see their own bodies as intrinsically ‘multicultural’.  The paper ends by addressing the paradoxes of multiculturalism, emphasising through narratives that the policy produces hierarchical spaces against which some ‘mixed race’ women imaginatively negotiate, contest and challenge perceptions of their racialised and gendered selves.

Read the entire article here.

Volume 65, Number 1 issue of Journal of Social Issues, (published by The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues) is entirely focused on mixed-race issues.

Journal of Social Issues
Volume 65, Number 1
pages 1-245
2009-03

You can read this issue online for free here or click on the individual articles below.

OVERVIEW AND INTRODUCTION

• When Race Becomes Even More Complex: Toward Understanding the Landscape of Multiracial Identity and Experiences (p 1-11); Margaret Shih, Diana T. Sanchez

MULTIRACIAL IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION

• Racing to Theory or Retheorizing Race? Understanding the Struggle to Build a Multiracial Identity Theory (p 13-34); Kerry Ann Rockquemore, David L. Brunsma, Daniel J. Delgado
• The Interpretation of Multiracial Status and Its Relation to Social Engagement and Psychological Well-Being (p 35-49); Kevin R. Binning, Miguel M. Unzueta, Yuen J. Huo, Ludwin E. Molina
• Multiracial Identity Integration: Perceptions of Conflict and Distance among Multiracial Individuals (p 51-68); Chi-Ying Cheng, Fiona Lee

MULTIRACIAL PEOPLE’S VIEWS OF RACE

• Multiracial Faces: How Categorization Affects Memory at the Boundaries of Race (p 69-86); Kristin Pauker, Nalini Ambady
• Exploring Multiracial Individuals’ Comfort with Intimate Interracial Relationships (p 87-103); Courtney M. Bonam, Margaret Shih

PERCEPTIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS OF MULTIRACIAL PEOPLE

• Policing the Borderlands: White- and Black-American Newspaper Perceptions of Multiracial Heritage and the Idea of Race, 1996–2006 (p 105-127); Michael C. Thornton
• To Disclose or Not to Disclose Biracial Identity: The Effect of Biracial Disclosure on Perceiver Evaluations and Target Responses (p 129-149); Diana T. Sanchez, Courtney M. Bonam

PUBLIC POLICIES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES FOR MULTIRACIAL PEOPLE

• Is Valuing Equality Enough? Equality Values, Allophilia, and Social Policy Support for Multiracial Individuals (p 151-163); Todd L. Pittinsky, R. Matthew Montoya
• Educational Policy, Politics, and Mixed Heritage Students in the United States (p 165-183); Kristen A. Renn
• My Choice, Your Categories: The Denial of Multiracial Identities (p 185-204); Sarah S. M. Townsend, Hazel R. Markus, Hilary B. Bergsieker

COMMENTARY

• Plus ça Change? Multiraciality and the Dynamics of Race Relations in the United States (p 205-219); Frank D. Bean, Jennifer Lee

Ethnicity and family – Relationships within and between ethnic groups: An analysis using the Labour Force Survey

Equality and Human Rights Commission
2009-01-19

Lucinda Platt, Professor of Sociology
Institute of Education, University of London

This paper outlines the ethnic composition of families in Britain today using the Labour Force Survey household data. That is, it explores whether adults from different ethnic groups are living with someone from the same ethnic group (co-ethnic or ‘same race’ partnerships) or are living with someone from a different ethnic group (inter-ethnic or mixed race’ partnerships), or are living on their own. It also looks at the experience of children living with parents of the same or different ethnic groups (to each other and to the child).  Given the growth of those defining themselves in terms of mixed or multiple ethnicities, the prevalence of adults and children of mixed ethnicity is also summarised. Religious affiliation as well as ethnicity may also be a point of similarity or difference within couples. The report also considers the extent to which men and women of different religious affiliations are in co-religionist and interreligionist partnerships. Finally, some indication of trends is given by comparison with earlier analyses of family composition and ethnic group…

Read the entire report here.

…However, if we start to look across generations there are indications of change and increases in diversity of the population.  Almost 20 per cent (or one in five) children under 16 were from minority groups, and nearly 3 per cent of children under 16 were from one of the mixed ethnicity groups.  Around 9 per cent of children were living in families which contained mixed or multiple heritages. While population ageing is the story for the majority, the minority groups tend to be younger.  This is particularly true for the mixed groups . The majority of mixed ethnicity children are under 16. Half of the White British group are over 40 and half are under 40, but the median age for all the minority groups is younger than this. Half of Caribbeans are under the age of 36, for Indians the median age is 33, it is 32 for Chinese, 26 for Black Africans, 24 for Pakistanis and half of Bangladeshis in Great Britain are aged 21 or under. Conversely, nearly a quarter of White British are aged 60 or more, but only 16 per cent of Black Caribbeans, 11 per cent of Indians and fewer than 10 per cent of the other minority groups are (with the exception of the Other White group). This suggests that minorities will make up a larger proportion of the population in the future, and the numerical significance of those claiming a mixed or multiple heritage in particular is set to increase if current trends continue…

…The analysis showed that overall these expectations were fulfilled. Rates of inter-ethnic partnership were lower among the majority White population (three per cent for men and four per cent for women) than among minorities
(where they ranged among couples from the non-mixed groups between seven per cent for Bangladeshi men, to 48 per cent of Caribbean men, and between five per cent of Bangladeshi women, to 39 per cent of Chinese women). Those groups, such as Pakistanis and Bangladeshis which tend to be more geographically concentrated had lower rates of inter-ethnic partnership (seven and eight per cent among men and five and six per cent among women) than more geographically dispersed groups such as Chinese (17 per cent among men and 39 per cent among women in couples), or Black Caribbeans (48 per cent among men and 34 per cent among women).  Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are also those which tend to be the most economically marginalised of the minority groups, which could also have been reflected in their lower rates of inter-ethnic partnerships…

…At the other end of the spectrum, Black Caribbean men and women were the most likely of any group to be in an inter-ethnic partnership (48 per cent of men and 34 percent of women in couples were in an inter-ethnic partnership); and this increased between first and second (or subsequent) generations and between older and younger men and women. Rates were also higher among couples with children. For 55 per cent of Caribbean men living with a partner and children under 16, and 40 per cent of Caribbean women, that partner was from a different ethnic group. It therefore appears a trend that is set to continue and that will result in an increasing number of people with diverse identities of which Caribbean heritage forms a part…

Read the entire report here.