Mixed Race Studies

Into the Arms of America: The Korean Roots of International Adoption

The University of Chicago
August 2008
248 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3322621
ISBN: 9780549742289

Arissa Hyun Jung Oh

A Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the division of Social Sciences in candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of History

This dissertation locates the origins of the phenomenon of international adoption in Korea in the 1950s, when Americans began adopting mixed-race ‘GI babies’ produced through liasions between Korean women and foreign military personnel during the Korean War. Seeing no other solution to the existence of these children than their mass emigration abroad, the Korean government cooperated with allies in Korea and in the United States to establish an intercountry adoption system.

Americans had adopted children from Europe and Japan prior to the Korean War, but there are a number of reasons why intercountry took off from Korea. First, the supply of unwanted mixed-race GI babies in South Korea converged with a demand for them in the United States. The newly established Republic of South Korea sought to to redefine itself through a nationalism centered in large part on its sense of itself as an racially homogeneous nation and was therefore eager to send its mixed-race children overseas. At the same time, Americans expressed interest in adopting Korean GI babies for a number of reasons: humanitarianism, a shortage of adoptable children in the U.S., or because they wished to avoid the doctrinal investigations of social workers required under state adoption laws.

Second, a ‘culture religion’ or ‘civic religion’ that I call Christian Americanism emerged in the 1950s to power the early movement to adopt Korean GI babies. Christian Americanism combined patriotism with vaguely Christian principles to form a powerful ideology that promoted U.S. responsibility in the new world of the Cold War. The adoption of Korean GI babies became a Christian Americanist missionary project, and although not all adoptive parents of children from Korea were Christian Americanists, the language of Christian Americanism became the language of the Korean adoption movement. Christian Americanist adopters saw adopting a Korean GI baby as a way to participate in their country’s new Cold War project of proving its racial liberalism and winning the hearts and minds of newly independent countries around the world. Third, Harry Holt, a farmer from Oregon, emerged as a leader of the Christian Americanist Korean adoption movement. Holt founded the Holt Adoption Program in 1956, made Korean adoption available to the masses, and was a crucial catalyst in the establishment and development of international adoption.

In the early 1960s, the composition of the Korean homeless-child population changed such that mixed-race children no longer represented the majority of the Korean children being adopted internationally. The institutions, procedures and laws that had been erected to facilitate the removal of mixed-race children became a convenient system through which to send full-blooded children abroad.

Korean adoption has been a dynamic and ever-changing phenomenon reflecting some of the major trends in Cold War politics as well as shifting ideas about race, family and nation in both Korea and the United States. What began as a race-based evacuation evolved into a Cold War missionary project, and has now become an increasingly common way for Americans to build their families.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• VOLUME ONE
  • LIST OF TABLES
  • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  • ABSTRACT
  • INTRODUCTION
  • CHAPTER 1. Soldiers, Missionaries and the Kids of Korea
  • CHAPTER 2. Creating Intercountry Adoption
  • CHAPTER 3. A New Kind of Missionary Work: Christian Americanism and the Adoption of Korean GI Babies
• VOLUME TWO
  • CHAPTER 4. Making Orphans, Making Families
  • CHAPTER 5. Harry Holt Versus ‘The Welfare’: The Fight Over Proxy Adoption
  • CHAPTER 6. The Turn In the Road
  • APPENDIX U. S. Immigration Laws Pertaining to Korean Adoption
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY

LIST OF TABLES

Purchase the dissertation here.

Critical Narrative of Multiracial Women’s Personal Journey: Negotiating the Intersectionallity of Race and Gender Issues in a Monoracial Paradigm

Georgia Southern University
June 2011
264 pages

Geralda Silva Nelson

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Education

The aim of this study was to examine how three women of color, mothers of Multiracial children, experience gender and racial identity issues in the context of United States; explore their choice of racial indicator for their children and the impact that raising multiracial children would have on their own racial identity. This study was informed by critical race feminist thought, framed by qualitative inquiry and oral history as research methodology. Throughout this study I have attempted to demonstrate that gender and race are significant factors in these three women’s lived experiences. The participants’ accounts revealed how different aspects of sexism, racism, heritage pride, and racial invisibility have been a part of their lives, and influenced the choices of racial indicators for their multiracial children. There was ample evidence from the stories of these three participants that the racial identity indicator of their multiracial children and the consequences of these choices, provided a more significant set of apprehensions than the concerns these three women had for their own gender and racial identity issues. Data was collected through semi-structured open ended interviews.

Table of Contents

• 1. INTRODUCTION
  • Multiracial Individuals in the United States
  • Exploring Adequate Racial Identity
  • Educational Significance of the Study
• 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
  • Racism as a Factor in the U.S. Society
  • Gender as a Determinant Factor
  • Gender and Race Intersection
  • Study Framework: Critical Race Feminism
  • Issues of Ethnic Identity
  • White Mothers of Multiracial Children
  • Racial Labeling
  • Children‟s Perception of Their Racial Identity
  • Racial Identity via Peer Pressure
  • Social and Racial Power
  • Racial Categorization
  • Politics of Education and Language
  • Literacy and the Development of Identity
  • Themes Presented in the Literature Reviewed
• 3. METHODOLOGY
  • Oral History
  • Oral History Interviews
  • Listening to One Story at a Time
  • Context of Research
  • History of Turmoil
  • Narratives
  • Researcher/participants‟ Roles
  • Participant Selection
  • The Rules of Disclosure
  • Data Analysis
  • Synthesized Dominant Themes
  • Dominant Interview Themes
  • Recurrent Themes
  • Ethical Consideration and Possible Limitations of this Study
  • Conclusion
• 4. NARRATIVES
  • Maria
  • Jane
  • Sonia
• 5. RACISM
  • The Impact of Racism in the Lives of the Participants
  • Situated Race Relations in Country of Origin
  • Racial Awareness Before Relocating to the U.S.
  • Dealing with Racial Constructs Upon Arriving in the United States
  • Navigating the Complex Racial Landscape of the United States
  • Racial Interaction and Group Membership
  • Racism in the Form of Invisibility
  • Race as a Confounding Issue
  • Contesting Static Racial Construct
  • Breaking the Racial Conventions and Rethinking the Color Line
  • Exploring Racial Interactions
  • Situated Racial Awareness and the Construction of Difference
  • Becoming Aware of Multiraciality
• 6. THE IMPACT OF SEXISM IN THE LIVES OF THE PARTICIPANTS
  • Sexism as it Relates to the Oppression of Women of Color
  • Sexism in the Form of Patriarchy
• 7. FACTORS INFLUENCING THE PARTICIPANTS‟ DECISION TO CHOOSE A PARTICULAR RACE INDICATOR FOR THEIR CHILDREN
  • Responding to Institutions‟ Request for Racial Labels for Multiracial Children
  • Cultural Currency as a Factor
  • Checking Monoracial Boxes for Multiracial Children
  • Racial Heritage Pride as a Racial Identity Determinant
  • The Impact of Racial Indicators on the Educational Experience of Multiracial Children
  • Awareness of Self Racial Identity as Result of Having Multiracial Children
• 8. DISCUSSION
  • A Final Consideration
  • Recommendations for Further Scholarship
• REFERENCES
• APPENDICES
  • A Summary of Respondents‟ Information
  • B Participant Data Sheet
  • C Survey
  • D Interview Procedure
  • E Interview guide – English
  • F Interview Guide –Spanish
  • G Participant Informed Consent

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Kept In, Kept out : The Formation of Racial Identity in Brazil, 1930-1937

Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
November 1996
95 pages

Veronica Armstrong

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Latin American Studies Program

This thesis examines the roles of historian Gilberto Freyre and the Sao Paulo black press in the formation of racial identity in Brazil. In Casa Grande e Senzala, published in 1933, Freyre presented a hypothesis of Brazilian national identity based on positive interpretations of slavery and miscegenation. His emphasis on racial harmony met with the approval of Getúlio Vargas, a president intent on the unification of Brazilian society. With Vargas’ backing, racial democracy became Brazilian national identity. Supporters included the black press which welcomed an idea that brought blacks into definitions of Brazilianness. Yet, blacks were embracing an interpretation of Brazilian identity that would replace a growing black racial awareness. Reasons for the undermining of black racial consciousness and the enshrining of racial democracy as Brazilian national identity emerge in an overview of shifts occurring during the first decades of the twentieth century. The forces of mass immigration, negative evaluations of Brazil by scientific racism, and the nation-building politics of Vargas affected the elite minority and the poverty-stricken majority of Brazilians, but in differing ways. For while economic stability and national pride were the goals of the former, research suggests that survival was the paramount aim of the latter. Addressing the needs of both groups, the adoption of racial democracy as national ideology in the late 1930s maintained elite privilege, defused the potential of racial unrest, and promised social mobility to the masses.

Benefits to the largely-black masses, however, had strings attached. Social mobility depended on their acting “white” and becoming “white” through miscegenation. In the face of desperate poverty, blacks had few options and assimilation seemed a way to move beyond their low socio-economic status. Furthermore, contrasts with American segregation convinced black writers that battling discrimination had to be secondary to the economic survival of their community. The thesis concludes by seeking to explain the paradox of a society characterised by many foreigners and most Brazilians as a racial paradise from the 1930s to the 1970s even though Brazilian reality evinces gross inequality between the small Europeanised elite and the large black and mixed-race underclass.

Table of Contents

• Approval
• Abstract.
• Acknowledgments.
• Preface.
• Introduction kept in, kept out:the question of brazilianness and black solidarity 1930-1937
  • The March for national identity
  • Brazilianness vs. Blackness
• Chapter 1. Ideology and Identity
  • The dawning of a new era of national thought
  • A historic moment
  • Whitening
  • A New Era
• Chapter 2. Race
  • Miscegenation and Racial Terminology
  • Racial Democracy: Theory and Revision
• Chapter 3. The Making of a Cultural Hero
  • Freyre: the child and the man
  • Freyre s “Old Social Order”
  • Ciasa Grande e Senzala
  • Freyre, the Intellectual
  • Freyre, Father of National Identity.
• Chapter 4. The Politics of Identity
  • The Black Press in Brazil
  • The Meaning of Language
  • From the mulato to the black press
  • The Black Press: an alternative path
  • Assimilation vs. segregation
  • A Frente Negra
• Chapter 5. Only we, the negros of Brazil, know what it is to feel colour prejudice
  • A Voz da Raza
  • Conclusion: We are Brazilian
  • Intellectuals and Ideology
  • Searching for identity
• Epilogue
• Bibliography

List of Figures

• figure 1: Roquete Pinto’s prediction of the racial make up of Brazilian populations based on official statistics 1872-1890
• figure 2: System of values within the miscegenation process

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Who are the Blacks? The Question of Racial Classification in Brazilian Affirmative Action Policies in Higher Education

Cahiers de la Recherche sur l’Éducation et les Savoirs
Number 7 (October 2008)
18 pages

Luisa Farah Schwartzman, Assistant Professor in Sociology
University of Toronto

Debates about racial classification and its agreement with the uses of “race” and “color” in everyday life have been central to the discussion about affirmative action in Brazil. Using quantitative and qualitative data regarding the relationship between socio-economic status and racial identification in Brazilian universities, this paper investigates how particular kinds of policies may have different impact in terms of which particular “kinds” of individuals are benefited. I argue that both the labels that are used and the socio-economic limits that are imposed may have significant and not always intuitive consequences for which individuals are admitted, and for how contestable their eligibility will become. The label negro, when used as the sole criterion for admissions, may be too restrictive and exclude “deserving” non-whites from these policies. On the other hand, because potential non-whites from higher socio-economic classes are more likely to come from “multi-racial” families, the absence of a socio-economic criterion may lead to a substantial number of candidates who may feel that they can lay claims to a wide range of racial labels, not all of which may be acceptable to policy designers and scrutinizers concerned with restricting eligibility for quotas to “deserving” candidates.

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Politics: President Obama, of All People, Should Know That Some Rights Can’t be Left to the States

The New Gay
2011-07-18

Tony Phillips

In 1961, when Barack Hussein Obama II was born in the brand new State of Hawaii, laws on the books in 22 of the other 49 United States forbade the marriage of his White American mother to his Black Kenyan father. Arizona’s anti-miscegenation law prohibiting marriage between whites and any persons of color was repealed in 1962. Similar laws in Utah and Nebraska were overturned the following year. Indiana’s law prohibiting interracial marriage held out until 1965, Maryland’s until 1967, the same year that such laws were finally overturned in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Loving v. Virginia that ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States…

…Yes, we all know about America’s racially conflicted past, so what’s the point?
 
The point is that it’s incomprehensible to me that Barack Obama, a man whose legitimacy as an American has been publicly questioned by hate-rousing provocateurs, a man whose early life confounds the prevailing norms of his generation, a man whose ascendency in the 21st Century was made possible only by the bravery of justice-seekers in the 20th, that he, of all people, would be behind the times on marriage equality. How is it possible that his stance on gay marriage is still evolving?…

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Performative Aspects of Brazilian Music as a Means of Creating Identity in Rio de Janeiro

Universität Wien
October 2008
215 pages

Adriana Ribeiro-Mayer

In Rio de Janeiro’s multi-ethnic society with its colonial and slave-based past creating a common identity is a major problem. Standard Portuguese, as opposed to spoken “Brazilian”, is remote to many Brazilians. Therefore, music and dance, the Carnival events and Baile Funk, substitute for language-based common performances. They have become extraordinarily big events based on a “sincretized” rhythm, on the body and mostly Afro-Brazilian body movements.

With the help of “participant observation” and “ero-epic conversation” I tried to participate as closely as possible in numerous events and describe them in performance protocols. These I analyzed according to the concepts of performance theory.

Richard Schechner’s emphasis on deep structures (such as the escola rehearsals) and rules; Victor Turners shift from play to ritual; Nicholas Cook’s “process-“ rather than “product-character” of performances and the musical work, e.g. a samba-enredo, as giving performers something to perform; Erika Fischer-Lichte’s emphasis on co-presence, interaction and feed-back as well as the body and its expressions; and finally Johan Huizinga’s prediction of a shift in social play, trough rules, competition and the audience to more seriousness. All these concepts of performance theory both proved useful tools, and at the same time were put to an interesting re-evaluation when applied to these mostly Afro-Brazilian events.

Rio’s Carnival’s counter-world has to fulfill so important and different needs in a divided society that it split to be able to present opportunities for spontaneous play of the individual, e.g. in the street blocos and the Intendente Magalhães parades, and to present a choreographed show of unity and common identity, in the main sambodrome parades. Baile Funk has so far catered for the first needs, i.e. entertainment and individual expression, as it has not involved all layers of carioca society through city-wide events.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Rio de Janeiro Society and the African Influence
  • 2.1 The African Population in Brazil
  • 2.2 The African Population in Rio de Janeiro
  • 2.3 Abolition of Slavery
  • 2.4 African Cultural Heritage
• 3. Identity in a mixed Society
  • 3.1 The Situation of Afro-Brazilians today
  • 3.2 Affirmative Action? Quotas for “Black” Students
• 4. Concepts of Performance
• 5. The Method of “Participant Observation” and “Ero-Epic Conversation”
  • 5.1 Questions of Presentation
  • 5.2 Research Trips
• 6. Hypothesis
• 7. Carnival and Samba in Rio
  • 7.1 Origins of Samba and Carnival in Rio
    • 7.1.1 Samba
    • 7.1.2 Carnival
  • 7.2 The Escolas de samba
    • 7.2.1 Origins and Evolution of the Escolas de Samba
    • 7.2.2 The Special Group Escolas de Samba
    • 7.2.3 Case study “Madureira”
    • 7.2.3.1 Escolas de Samba from Madureira
    • 7.2.4 Preparation of the Parades
    • 7.2.4.1 Cidade do Samba – Samba City
    • 7.2.5 The Sambodrome
    • 7.2.6 The Competition “The Best Escola de Samba of the Year”
  • 7.3 Performative Aspects of Samba and the Escolas’ Parades
    • 7.3.1 Dramaturgy of the Parades
    • 7.3.1.1 Example: Sequence of the 2008 Portela parade
    • 7.3.1.2 Performance Protocol of the Escolas’ parade
      • 7.3.1.2.1 Preparation Events
      • 7.3.1.2.2 Rehearsals in the Quadras
      • 7.3.1.2.3 Street Rehearsals
      • 7.3.1.2.4 Portela Rehearsal in the Sambodrome
      • 7.3.1.2.5 Group A parade – Formation and Dissolution
  • 7.4 Social and Economic Aspects of the Escolas de Samba for Rio
• 8. Funk Carioca
  • 8.1 Origins
  • 8.2 Funk Carioca music
    • 8.2.1 Charme
    • 8.2.2 Proibidão
    • 8.2.3 Erotic funk
  • 8.3 Performative Aspects of Baile Funk
    • 8.3.1 The Dramaturgy of Baile Funk
    • 8.3.2 Performance Protocol Baile Funk
      • 8.3.2.1 Baile Funk in a Suburb
      • 8.3.2.2 Baile Funk in Rio downtown
  • 8.4 The Rio Hip Hop Movement
  • 8.5 Baile Funk vs. Samba Parades and Rehearsals
  • 8.6 The Social and Economic Aspects of Baile Funk
• 9. Interpretation
  • 9.1 Performance Theory applied to Samba and Funk Performances
    • 9.1.1 The Parade of Império Serrano in the Sambodrome
    • 9.1.2 Rehearsals
    • 9.1.3 Traditional parades on Intendente Magalhaes Avenue
    • 9.1.4 Baile Funk
  • 9.2 Samba and Funk’s Contribution to Rio’s Cultural Identity
  • 9.3 Examples of Samba-Enredo and Funk Carioca Lyrics
    • 9.3.1 “Bum, Bum, Paticumbum” – Samba-enredo
    • 9.3.2 “Guerreiros da Paz” – Funk Carioca
• 10. Conclusions
• 11. Zusammenfassung
• 12. Resumo
• 13. Bibliography
• 14. Glossary
• 15. Abstract in English
• 16. Abstract auf Deutsch
• Appendix

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Brazil’s new racial reality: Insights for the U.S.?

Race-Talk
The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
2011-07-19

Cheryl Staats, Research Assistant

Brazil has been a long-standing place of interest for many scholars due to its fluid racial categorization that focuses on phenotype rather than hypodescent.  With the release of Brazil’s 2010 census data, the newly-minted “minority-majority” country only further piques the interest of many in the U.S. as our country quickly approaches its own “racial tipping point” in approximately 2042.  What insights can the U.S. gain from Brazil and its experiences with this demographic transition thus far?  While the two countries possess similar yet distinct racial histories, some possible parallels are worth considering.
 
Non-white birth rates outpacing those of white women is one of the key factors in the U.S. demographic transition, as twelve states and the District of Columbia already have white populations below 50% among children under age five.  Seven additional states are poised to also attain a “minority majority” designation among children within the next decade.
 
Similar to the U.S., one of the drivers behind the numeric rise of nonwhites in Brazil has been the rise of the non-white birth rate.  Moreover, experts also cite an increased willingness of Brazilians to self-identify as black or pardo, a Brazilian term akin to mestizo or mixed race.  Among the reasons attributed to this include: a period of economic growth that is helping to dispel associations between poverty and skin color; increased presence of blacks in high-profile positions, including the appointment of a black judge to Brazil’s Supreme Court and the country’s first black actor in a leading telenovela role; and a sense of hope that is permeating the country…

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The “inter” land: Mixing autobiography and sociology for a better understanding of twenty-first century mixed-race

Villanova University
October 2009
105 pages
Publication Number: AAT 1462397
ISBN: 9781109073102

Felicia Maria Camacho

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of The Department of English Villanova University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English

In contemporary autobiographies by black/white biracial Americans, personal identity is a major source of conflict. The proposed study will address topics that are key to an understanding of biracial subjectivity and identity as presented in these autobiographies. The first chapter addresses the physicality of biracial people, paying special attention to such topics as family resemblance in interracial families, and the trope of “biracial hair” which is used as a metaphor for a distinct biracial identity that is neither black nor white. The second chapter examines another identity choice for black/white biracial subjects: singular black identity. It shows how biracial individuals can turn on its head the traditional notion of the “tragic mulatto” who is forced by the one-drop rule to accept his/her blackness. By exploring and honestly acknowledging the social experiences of both parents, the biracial individual can come to assert a healthy black identity. The final chapter links black/white biracial identity with intrinsically multiracial Latino identity. Do ethnicity, nationalism, and language suggest a way to avoid the black/white binarism of American society?

While examining these issues of biracial identity, this study will engage in a commentary on the relationships between and among various academic disciplines. When analyzing literature about race, critics often turn to race theory for secondary material. However, contemporary race theory does not do much to engage and illuminate these autobiographies of biracialism. Interestingly, sociological texts speak more directly to the “biracial phenomenon.” Therefore each chapter of this study shows how sociology and autobiography complement one another and provide a fuller, more informed picture of biracial identity.

Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Chapter One: The Roots of Biracialism: Physical Appearance, Inheritance, and Identity in the Autobiographies of Elliott Lewis, Angela Nissel, and June Cross
• Chapter Two: The End of Tragedy: The New Biracial Subject, Self-Exploration, and Singular Black Identity in the Autobiographies of James McBride and Barack Obama
• Chapter Three: Finding the Third Space: Jews, Latinos, and Black/White Biracialism in the Autobiographies of Rebecca Walker, Elliott Lewis, and Angela Nissel
• Conclusion
• Works Cited

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SOCI 006-601: Race and Ethnic Relations

University of Pennsylvania
Department of Sociology
Fall 2011

Tamara Nopper, Adjunct Professor of Asian American Studies

The election of Barack Obama as the United States’ first Black president has raised questions about whether we have entered a post-racial society.  This course examines the idea of racial progress that is at the heart of such a question, paying close attention to how social scientists have defined and measured racial inequality and progress in the last century.  We will consider how dramatic demographic shifts, the growing number of interracial families and individuals who identify as mixed-race, trans-racial adoptions, and the increased visibility of people of color in media, positions of influence, and as celebrities inform scholarly and popular debates about racial progress.  Along with some classic works, we will also read literature regarding the class versus race debate and color-blind racism.  In the process, students will become familiar with sociological data often drawn from in debates about racial progress and will also develop analytical and critical thinking skills.
 
Course Professor:

“The Last Stand”: The Fight for Racial Integrity in Virginia in the 1920s

Richard B. Sherman, Chancellor Professor of History
College of William and Mary

The Journal of Southern History
Volume 54, Number 1 (February, 1988)
pages 69-92

By the 1920s many southern whites had come to believe that the race question was settled. White supremacy had been assured and the subordinate position of blacks effectively guaranteed by ostensibly constitutional methods of disfranchisement, Jim Crow laws, and other forms of racial discrimination. In Virginia, however, a small but determined group of racial zealots insisted that such steps were not enough. The race problem, they argued, was no longer political; it was biological. Believing that extreme measures had to be taken to prevent the contamination of white blood, they initiated and led an emotional campaign for stringent new laws to preserve racial integrity. Without these, they warned, amalgamation was inevitable. These racial purists were convinced that their fight was a “Last Stand” to keep America white and to save civilization itself from downfall. The campaign for racial integrity in Virginia was not the product of a great popular ground swell. Rather, it was primarily the work of this dedicated coterie of extremists who played effectively on the fears and prejudices of many whites. Ultimately they were able to achieve some, although not all, of their legislative goals. Their activities, nonetheless, were significant and had an impact on Virginia that was felt long after the 1920s.

During the first two decades of the twentieth century a number of steps had been taken in Virginia to “settle” the race question and to guarantee white supremacy. One of the most important measures had been the adoption of a new constitution in 1902 with provisions that severely contracted the franchise. As a result Virginia came to be controlled by a remarkably small political and social elite, while blacks were largely eliminated as a political force capable of providing…