Mixed Messages: Multiracial Identities in the “Color-Blind” Era

Posted in Anthologies, Books, Family/Parenting, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, Social Science, United States, Women on 2009-10-12 23:29Z by Steven

Mixed Messages: Multiracial Identities in the “Color-Blind” Era

Lynne Rienner Publishers
2006
405 pages
Hardcover: ISBN: 978-1-58826-372-8
Paperback: ISBN: 978-1-58826-398-8

Edited by David L. Brunsma, Professor of Sociology
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

The experiences and voices of multiracial individuals are challenging current categories of race, profoundly altering the meaning of racial identity and in the process changing the cultural fabric of the nation. Exploring this new reality, the authors of Mixed Messages examine what we know about multiracial identities—and the implications of those identities for fundamental issues of justice and equality.

Read the entire introduction here.

Table of Contents

  • Mixed Messages: Doing Race in the Color-Blind Era—David L. Brunsma
  • SHIFTING COLOR LINES.
    • Defining Race: Comparative Perspectives—F. James Davis.
    • Black, Honorary White, White: The Future of Race in the United States?—Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and David G. Embrick.
    • Racial Justice in a Black/Nonblack Society—George Yancey.
    • Carving Out a Middle Ground: The Case of Hawai’i—Jeffrey Moniz and Paul Spickard.
    • New Racial Identities, Old Arguments: Continuing Biological Reification—Rainier Spencer.
    • Color Blindness: An Obstacle to Racial Justice?—Charles A. Gallagher.
    • Racism, Whitespace, and the Rise of the Neo-Mulattos—Hayward Derrick Horton.
  • MANIPULATING MULTIRACIAL IDENTITIES.
    • Race, Multiraciality, and the Neoconservative Agenda—G. Reginald Daniel and Josef Manuel Castañeda-Liles.
    • White Separatists in the Color-Blind Era: Redefining Multiracial and White Identities—Abby L. Ferber.
    • Defining Racism to Achieve Goals: The Multiracial and Black Reparations Movements—Johanna E. Foster.
    • Selling Mixedness: Marketing with Multiracial Identities—Kimberly McClain DaCosta.
  • SOCIALIZATION IN MULTIRACIAL FAMILIES.
  • DILEMMAS OF MULTIRACIAL IDENTITY.
    • Negotiating Racial Identity in Social Interactions—R. L’Heureux Lewis and Kanika Bell.
    • Black/White Friendships in a Color-Blind Society—Kathleen Korgen and Eileen O’Brien.
    • Black and Latino: Dominican Americans Negotiate Racial Worlds—Benjamin Bailey.
    • Finding a Home: Housing the Color Line—Heather Dalmage.
    • Confronting Racism in the Therapist’s Office—Kwame Owusu-Bempah.
    • Culture and Identity in Mixed-Race Women’s Lives—Debbie Storrs.
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Impossible Purities: Blackness, Femininity, and Victorian Culture

Posted in Books, History, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, Monographs, Slavery, United Kingdom, Women on 2009-10-12 23:07Z by Steven

Impossible Purities: Blackness, Femininity, and Victorian Culture

Duke University Press
1998
272 pages
13 b&w photographs
Cloth ISBN: 0-8223-2105-X, ISBN13: 978-0-8223-2105-7
Paperback ISBN: 0-8223-2120-3, ISBN13 978-0-8223-2120-0

Jennifer DeVere Brody, Professor, African and African American Studies
Duke University

Using black feminist theory and African American studies to read Victorian culture, Impossible Purities looks at the construction of “Englishness” as white, masculine, and pure and “Americanness” as black, feminine, and impure. Brody’s readings of Victorian novels, plays, paintings, and science fiction reveal the impossibility of purity and the inevitability of hybridity in representations of ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and race. She amasses a considerable amount of evidence to show that Victorian culture was bound inextricably to various forms and figures of blackness.

Opening with a reading of Daniel Defoe’s “A True-Born Englishman,” which posits the mixed origins of English identity, Brody goes on to analyze mulattas typified by Rhoda Swartz in William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, whose mixed-race status reveals the “unseemly origins of English imperial power.” Examining Victorian stage productions from blackface minstrel shows to performances of The Octoroon and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she explains how such productions depended upon feminized, “black” figures in order to reproduce Englishmen as masculine white subjects. She also discusses H. G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau in the context of debates about the “new woman,” slavery, and fears of the monstrous degeneration of English gentleman. Impossible Purities concludes with a discussion of Bram Stoker’s novella, “The Lair of the White Worm,” which brings together the book’s concerns with changing racial representations on both sides of the Atlantic.

This book will be of interest to scholars in Victorian studies, literary theory, African American studies, and cultural criticism.

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Callaloo Nation: Metaphors of Race and Religious Identity among South Asians in Trinidad

Posted in Asian Diaspora, Books, Caribbean/Latin America, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Monographs, Religion on 2009-10-12 22:38Z by Steven

Callaloo Nation: Metaphors of Race and Religious Identity among South Asians in Trinidad

Duke University Press
October 2004
280 pages
9 b&w photos, 2 maps
Cloth ISBN: 0-8223-3376-7, ISBN13: 978-0-8223-3376-0
Paperback ISBN: 0-8223-3388-0, ISBN13: 978-0-8223-3388-3

Aisha Khan, Associate Professor of Anthropology
New York University

Mixing—whether referred to as mestizaje, callaloo, hybridity, creolization, or multiculturalism—is a foundational cultural trope in Caribbean and Latin American societies. Historically entwined with colonial, anticolonial, and democratic ideologies, ideas about mixing are powerful forces in the ways identities are interpreted and evaluated. As Aisha Khan shows in this ethnography, they reveal the tension that exists between identity as a source of equality and identity as an instrument through which social and cultural hierarchies are reinforced. Focusing on the Indian diaspora in the Caribbean, Khan examines this paradox as it is expressed in key dimensions of Hindu and Muslim cultural history and social relationships in southern Trinidad. In vivid detail, she describes how disempowered communities create livable conditions for themselves while participating in a broader culture that both celebrates and denies difference.

Khan combines ethnographic research she conducted in Trinidad over the course of a decade with extensive archival research to explore how Hindu and Muslim Indo-Trinidadians interpret authority, generational tensions, and the transformations of Indian culture in the Caribbean through metaphors of mixing. She demonstrates how ambivalence about the desirability of a callaloo nation—a multicultural society—is manifest around practices and issues, including rituals, labor, intermarriage, and class mobility. Khan maintains that metaphors of mixing are pervasive and worth paying attention to: the assumptions and concerns they communicate are key to unraveling who Indo-Trinidadians imagine themselves to be and how identities such as race and religion shape and are shaped by the politics of multiculturalism.

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America Beyond Black and White: How Immigrants and Fusions Are Helping Us Overcome the Racial Divide

Posted in Asian Diaspora, Books, Media Archive, Monographs, Social Science, United States on 2009-10-12 22:03Z by Steven

America Beyond Black and White: How Immigrants and Fusions Are Helping Us Overcome the Racial Divide

University of Michigan Press
2007
296 oages
6 x 9. 296 pgs. 1 table
Cloth: 978-0-472-11609-6
Paper: 978-0-472-03320-1
Ebook Formats: 978-0-472-02175-8

Ronald Fernandez, Professor of Sociology
Criminal Justice Department
Central Connecticut State University

For the first time in U.S. history, the black-white dichotomy that historically has defined race and ethnicity is being challenged, not by a small minority, but by the fastest-growing and arguably most vocal segment of the increasingly diverse American population—Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Indians, Arabs, and many more—who are breaking down and recreating the very definitions of race.

Drawing on interviews with hundreds of Americans who don’t fit conventional black or white categories, the author invites us to empathize with these “doubles” and to understand why they represent our best chance to throw off the strictures of the black-white division.

The revolution is already under way, as newcomers and mixed-race fusions reject the prevailing Anglo-Protestant culture. Americans face two choices: understand why these individuals think as they do or face a future that continues to define us by what divides us rather than by what unites us.

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Perspectives and Research on the Positive and Negative Implications of Having Multiple Racial Identities

Posted in Articles, Census/Demographics, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, United States on 2009-10-11 16:14Z by Steven

Perspectives and Research on the Positive and Negative Implications of Having Multiple Racial Identities

Psychological Bulletin
Volume 131, Number 4 (June 2005)
pages 569–591
DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.131.4.569

Margaret Shih, Professor in Management and Organizations
Anderson School of Management
University of California, Los Angeles

Diana T. Sanchez, Associate Professor of Social Psychology
Rutgers University

Much attention has been directed toward understanding the impact having a multiracial background has on psychological well-being and adjustment. Past psychological research has focused on the challenges multiracial individuals confront in defining a racial identity. The implication is that these challenges lead to outcomes that are psychologically detrimental. However, evidence to support this assertion is mixed.  The authors review qualitative and quantitative empirical research examining multiracial individuals’ identity development, depression, problem behaviors, peer relationships, school performance, and selfesteem, finding support for detrimental outcomes only in studies sampling clinical populations. Studies on nonclinical samples find that multiracial individuals tend to be just as well-adjusted as their monoracial peers on most psychological outcomes. Earlier assertions of maladjustment may have been due to reliance on qualitative research that sampled clinical populations. Other implications and futureresearch are discussed.

Tiger Woods has received much attention, not only for being the youngest person to win the prestigious Masters Golf Tournament, but also for being an individual of mixed-race ancestry. His father is Black, Native American, and Chinese, and his mother is Thai, Chinese, and White. Woods represents a growing trend in American society. Since the repeal in 1967 of miscegenation laws prohibiting racial mixing, the number of interracial marriages in the United States has increased dramatically (Kennedy, 2003; Root, 2001). Consequently, the number of individuals who can claim membership in multiple racial categories has also increased dramatically (Root, 1996). The population of multiracial children has multiplied from 500,000 in 1970 to more than 6.8 million in 2000 (Jones & Symens Smith, 2001).

This explosion in the number of individuals with multiracial backgrounds has raised the issue of understanding where these individuals fit into preexisting social categories. Nowhere is this difficulty more clearly illustrated than in the controversy over whether the 2000 Census should have included a multiracial category.  Until then, individuals of mixed ancestry had to choose between their component identities on the census form. However, multiracial groups have argued that picking just one identity forces multiracial individuals to deny other parts of themselves (Gaskins, 1999) and does not accurately reflect the nation’s true racial make-up (Holmes, 1997). On the other hand, prominent civil rights activists, such as Jesse Jackson and Kweisi Mfume, argued against the creation of a separate multiracial category in order to preserve minority numbers and maintain political influence (Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2002).

A federal task force was set up to investigate the political and social implications of creating a new racial classification (Holmes, 1997).  The task force asked questions such as, “If a multiracial category were included, would all people with different combinations of racial backgrounds, such as Black/Asian and Native American/White, be considered members of the same group?  Would there still be individuals with multiracial identities who would choose to identify by a single race?” This issue was finally resolved in 1997, when it was recommended that the category “multiracial” should not be included in census forms but that instead multiracial individuals could check off more than one racial category.

This controversy illustrates that having a multiracial identity challenges American society’s traditional notions and assumptions about race and racial categories (Johnson, 1992; Ramirez, 1996; Root, 1992; Spickard, 1992). Given the seeming difficulty American society has with trying to understand the notion of multiracial identity, psychologists have begun studying many of those questions considered by the U.S. Census Bureau Task Force, such as, how do multiracial individuals understand their racial identities? In addition, because multiracial families and multiracial individuals may pose a challenge to existing racial categories and the social systems upon which these categories rest, psychologists have become interested in understanding the consequence of coming from a multiracial background and in identifying the tremendous difficulties multiracial families and multiracial individuals encounter in navigating their social world (Gibbs, 1987, 1989; Root, 1992). For example, multiracial families contend with hardships such as a lack of social recognition (Nakashima, 1996), disapproval from extended family, exclusion from neighborhood and community (Kerwin & Ponterotto, 1995; Kerwin, Ponterotto, Jackson, & Harris, 1993), discrimination, and social isolation (Brown, 1995; Gaskins, 1999)…

Read the entire article here.

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The Social Construction of Race: Biracial Identity and Vulnerability to Stereotypes

Posted in Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Social Science on 2009-10-11 15:47Z by Steven

The Social Construction of Race: Biracial Identity and Vulnerability to Stereotypes

Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology
Volume 13, Number 2 (April 2007)
pages 125–133
DOI: 10.1037/1099-9809.13.2.125

Margaret Shih, Assistant Professor, Organizational Psychology
University of Michigan

Courtney M. Bonam
Stanford University

Diana T. Sanchez, Associate Professor of Psychology
Rutgers University

Courtney Peck
Harvard University

Multiracial individuals are more likely to have a heightened awareness of race as a social construct than monoracial individuals.  This article examines the impact that a heightened awareness of race as a social construct has on the relationship between racial stereotypes and performance. Study 1 finds that multiracial individuals reported subscribing less to the notion that race biologically determines ability.  Study 2 finds that monoracial individuals show stereotype activation, whereas multiracial individuals show stereotype inhibition in reaction to race salience. Study 3 draws on the work on stereotypes and performance to test the susceptibility of multiracial individuals to racial stereotypes about ability.  The authors find that Asian/White and Black/White multiracial individuals were less susceptible to racial stereotypes than monoracial individuals. Whereas monoracial participants showed significant performance changes in reaction to race salience, multiracial individuals did not. Study 4 finds that emphasizing the social construction of race buffers individuals from stereotype threat effects.

Read the entire article here.

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Not So Black and White: Memory for Ambiguous Group Members

Posted in Articles, New Media on 2009-10-10 21:10Z by Steven

Not So Black and White: Memory for Ambiguous Group Members

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Published by The American Psychological Association
2009, Vol. 96, No. 4
795–810 0022-3514/09
DOI: 10.1037/a0013265

Kristin Pauker
Tufts University

Max Weisbuch
Tufts University

Nalini Ambady, Professor and Neubauer Faculty Fellow
Tufts University

Samuel R. Sommers
Tufts University

Reginald B. Adams, Jr., Assistant Professor of Psychology
Pennsylvania State University University Park Campus

Zorana Ivcevic
Tufts University

Exponential increases in multiracial identities, expected over the next century, create a conundrum for perceivers accustomed to classifying people as their own- or other-race. The current research examines how perceivers resolve this dilemma with regard to the own-race bias. The authors hypothesized that perceivers are not motivated to include ambiguous-race individuals in the in-group and therefore have some difficulty remembering these individuals. Both racially ambiguous and other-race faces were misremembered more often than own-race faces (Study 1), though memory for ambiguous faces was improved among perceivers motivated to include biracial individuals in the in-group (Study 2). Racial labels assigned to racially ambiguous faces determined memory for these faces, suggesting that uncertainty provides the motivational context for discounting ambiguous faces in memory (Study 3). Finally, an inclusion motivation fostered cognitive associations between racially ambiguous faces and the in-group. Moreover, the extent to which perceivers associated racially ambiguous faces with the in-group predicted memory for ambiguous faces and accounted for the impact of motivation on memory (Study 4). Thus, memory for biracial individuals seems to involve a flexible person construal process shaped by motivational factors.

Read the entire paper here.

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Multiracial Faces: How Categorization Affects Memory at the Boundaries of Race

Posted in Articles, Asian Diaspora, Media Archive, Social Science, United States on 2009-10-10 16:26Z by Steven

Multiracial Faces: How Categorization Affects Memory at the Boundaries of Race

Journal of Social Issues
Volume 65, Number 1 (March 2009)
pages 69-86
DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.01588.x

Kristin Pauker
Tufts University

Nalini Ambady
Tufts University

Monoracial and multiracial individuals are likely to have different conceptualizations of race and subsequently different approaches toward racial ambiguity.  In particular, monoracial individuals may be more likely to rely on categories when processing ambiguous faces, whereas multiracial individuals may tend to ignore such categorizations due to a reduced tendency to essentialize race.  We compared monoracial (White and Asian) and biracial (Asian/White) individuals’ memory patterns.  Specifically, we examined participants’ memory for White, Asian, and biracial faces labelled as either White or Asian.  Both White and Asian participants relied on the labels, remembering faces labeled as the in-group better than faces labeled as the out-group. Biracial participants relied less on the labels, exhibiting better recognition memory overall. Biracial participants’ memory performance was also highly correlated with a less essentialist view of human traits.  This cognitive flexibility may serve an adaptive function for biracial individuals and contribute to enhanced facial recognition.

Read or purchase the article here.

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To Disclose or Not to Disclose Biracial Identity: The Effect of Biracial Disclosure on Perceiver Evaluations and Target Responses

Posted in Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, Social Science, United States on 2009-10-10 16:16Z by Steven

To Disclose or Not to Disclose Biracial Identity: The Effect of Biracial Disclosure on Perceiver Evaluations and Target Responses

Journal of Social Issues
Volume 65, Number 1 (March 2009)
pages 129-149
DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.01591.x

Diana T. Sanchez, Associate Professor of Psychology
Rutgers University

Courtney M. Bonam
Stanford University

Are biracial people perceived more negatively than their monoracial counterparts? Across two studies, we compared ratings of warmth, competence, and minority scholarship worthiness for biracial (Study 1: Black/White, Study 2: Asian/White), White, and minority (Study 1: Black, Study 2: Asian) college applicants.  Findings suggest that both biracial applicants were perceived as colder and sometimes less competent than both White and corresponding minority applicants.  Moreover, biracial people were also perceived as less qualified for minority scholarships than other racial minorities, which is partially explained by penalties to warmth and competence. Study 3 shows that disclosing one’s biracial identity makes biracial people vulnerable to negative feedback.  Taken together, these studies suggest that biracial people who disclose their biracial identity experience bias from perceivers and may be more vulnerable to that bias because of the personal nature of racial disclosure.  Findings are discussed considering the stereotype content model (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2007), cultural stereotypes about biracial people (Jackman, Wagner, & Johnson, 2001), and the costs of disclosing devalued identities.

Read or purchase the article here.

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Plus ça Change? Multiraciality and the Dynamics of Race Relations in the United States

Posted in Articles, Media Archive, Social Science, United States on 2009-10-10 16:10Z by Steven

Plus ça Change? Multiraciality and the Dynamics of Race Relations in the United States

Journal of Social Issues
Volume 65, Number 1 (March 2009)
pages 205-219
DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.01595.x

Frank D. Bean, Chancellor’s Professor
School of Social Sciences
University of California, Irvine

Jennifer Lee, Associate Professor, Sociology
School of Social Sciences
University of California, Irvine

The issue of race has long cast a shadow on the founding mythology of the United States, but today some scholars argue race is declining in significance, as evidenced by the rise of interracial unions and the fact that the offspring of such unions can now officially acknowledge their mixed-race backgrounds. However, the sizeable growth of the Asian and Latino populations in the United States through immigration complicates the issue. Seemingly neither black nor white, the new immigrants are generating increased diversity and raising questions about whether today’s color line replicates the old Black–White demarcation.  The research results introduced in this article suggest the contemporary color line in the United States more reflects a Black/non-Black division than a White/non-White one.

Read or purchase the article here.

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