Mixed Race Studies

Experiences of racism and the changing nature of white privilege among lone white mothers of mixed-parentage children in the UK

Ethnic and Racial Studies
Volume 33, Issue 2 (February 2010)
pages 176-194
DOI: 10.1080/01419870903023652

Vicki Harman, Lecturer in the Centre for Criminology and Sociology
Royal Holloway, University of London

In a context where mixed relationships are often seen as a visible indicator of increased tolerance, this paper holds up a lens to the particular experiences of racism negotiated by lone white mothers of mixed-parentage children. Based on qualitative interviews with thirty mothers, this paper illustrates how, through their parenting, racism and racial injustice became more visible to the mothers in the study.  It is argued that, as well as experiencing racism directed at their children in a range of contexts (including the extended family, school and the local area), lone white mothers of mixed-parentage children are frequently facing social disapproval themselves.  Drawing on the notion of whiteness as a seemingly unmarked and invisible category, this paper argues that mothers’ experiences can challenge and complicate dominant conceptualizations of white privilege.

Read or purchase the article here.

Mixed-up kids? Race, identity and social order

Russell House Publishing
December 2008
184 pages
ISBN: 9781905541386

Tina G. Patel
University of Salford

Transracial adoptees, children of mixed parentage, children of settled immigrant families… more and more children are growing up in mixed-race families and social environments. And there is increasing variety within this mixed-ness. Yet services for them have been bogged down by restrictive policy and practice guidelines based on:

Mixed-up Kids? argues for better and more informed ways of thinking about how racial identity is flexible, diverse, and possesses a multiple status; and how such thinking will progressively lead to an improvement in the child, family and community support services which seek to assist some of the most vulnerable and marginalised members of society, namely black minority ethnic and mixed race children.

As the book presents the narratives of six adults who had been transracially adopted as children, it is of special interest to anyone working in the field of adoption and fostering. It will also be of compelling interest to academics, researchers and students in the social sciences, especially sociology, social work and family/community studies; and of direct practical value to child, family and community support workers. It can serve both as a handbook on which to base policy and practice, and as a tool for considering key issues in the area.

The Best of Both Worlds? Family Influences on Mixed Race Youth Identity Development

Qualitative Social Work
Volume 7, Number 1 (March 2008)
pages 81-98
DOI: 10.1177/1473325007086417

Susan E. Crawford
Halton Multicultural Council, Canada

Ramona Alaggia
University of Toronto, Canada

This study explored influences on racial identity of mixed race youth who identified themselves to be part of mixed African (Black) and European (White) origin. Research questions emerged following a review of the literature identifying the ways in which views of self, family, peers and society impact youth and their racial identification. Eight in-depth interviews employing the Long Interview Method were conducted, transcribed and coded to determine themes. Family influences emerged as playing a significant role in biracial identity formation. Three major themes were identified: (1) level of parental awareness and understanding of race issues; (2) impact of family structure; and (3) communication and willingness to talk about race issues. Implications for researchers and social work practitioners working with this population are discussed.

Read or purchase the article here.

Mother’s, Father’s, or Both? Parental Gender and Parent-Child Interactions in the Racial Classification of Adolescents

Jenifer L. Bratter, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Associate Director of the Institute for Urban Research
Rice University

Holly E. Heard
Rice University

Sociological Forum
Volume 24, Number 3, September 2009
pages 658-688
DOI: 10.1111/j.1573-7861.2009.01124.x

Research on racial identification in interracial families shows that children are more likely to be labeled as minority if the father is of minority race. Yet, prior studies have not sufficiently considered the role of parent-child relationships in shaping children’s identification with either mother’s or father’s race.  We address this limitation using data on 706 adolescents in interracial families from Wave 1 of Add Health.  We examine whether adolescents identify with their mother’s race or with their father’s race, as opposed to selecting a multiracial identity, within specific combinations of parents’ races. We also explore whether indicators of parental involvement (i.e., quantity and quality of involvement, educational involvement, and social control) explain any gender effects. Contrary to prior studies, we find that the tendency to match father’s race is only true in black/white households, particularly if he is white, while adolescents in Asian/white families tend to match mothers regardless of her race. Moreover, while father’s involvement, particularly educational involvement, was more likely than mother’s to influence racial classification, adjusting for involvement does not explain gender patterns.  This study shows that the well-known gender influences on parenting have little to do with the complex ways parent-child relationships impact racial classification.

Read the entire paper proposal for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, 2006 here.

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Raising Chicanos in the Great White North: A White Mother’s Muse

Qualitative Inquiry
Volume 15, Number 7, (July 2009)
pages 1155-1177
DOI: 10.1177/1077800409338033

Traci Fordham-Hernández, Assistant Professor of Performance and Communication Arts
St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY

This article explores paradoxes in being the White mother of Mexican American children and discusses how some of its attendant issues contrast one another.  The author, an American scholar, believes she is taught to think and to write, not from the heart, but from a detached and “objective,” cerebral cortex, and she sees the places, the prism through which the world is seen, are constantly shifting.  The author writes of liminality and simultaneity, “I’m ‘swimming in the sea’ as both the swimmer, struggling, and part of the sea, itself, pulling myself under, drowning in between-ness . . .”  The headings, “From the Shore,” provide a detached, theoretical reflection upon the author’s experiences as a White mother of mixed-race children: “I’m standing on the banks, looking into my experiences and speaking from my ’head’,” and the headings, “In the Sea,” provide stories: “I’m immersed in the depths of my experiences and reflecting from my ‘heart’.”

Read or purchase the article here.