Mixed Race Studies

Group provides space for ‘racial Hybrids’

The University News
A Student Voice of Saint Louis University Since 1921
2011-04-14

Sean Worley

Black Student Alliance, Filipino Student Association, Indian Student Association and the list of groups oriented around race goes on. Although these student groups have a noticeable presence on campus, for some students, they just are not enough.
 
“I constantly feel different,” freshman Rebecca Glasgow said. “I relate to things but I always feel different.”
 
Glasgow identifies as an Arab-American with her father being from the United States and her mother from Syria, she often wonders where her chartered student organization is on campus.
 
Hybrid Identities is such a student organization for students who identify with no one particular race. In other words they are mixed race, or hybrid.
 
This CSO is currently in its probationary status but is already starting to gain interest and support…

Read the entire article here.

Multiracial Identity Development: Understanding Choice of Racial Identity in Asian-White College Students

Journal of the Indiana University Student Personnel Association
2011
pages 38-45

Ashley Viager
Higher Education and Student Affairs Program
Indiana University

Asian-White individuals will have greater representation in higher education in coming years, and student affairs professionals must learn how these students make meaning of their racial identities in order to best serve the needs of this group. Analyzing Poston’s (1990) and Root’s (2003) theories of multiracial identity development, this paper examines the experiences unique to this population to demonstrate that Asian-White individuals have the ability to choose from multiple racial identity outcomes.

In 2000, the United States government conducted a census in which multiracial individuals could self-identify with more than one racial category. Multiracial individuals are those whose parents are of two or more different and distinct federally recognized racial groups (Chapman-Huls, 2009). Previously, multiracial individuals had not been formally recognized in the United States. Instead, multiracial individuals who had one White parent were primarily classified according to their parent of color (Zack, 2001). This system of racial classification, also known as “hypodescent,” originated in the eighteenth century as a way to “maintain White racial purity and to deny mixed race people access to privilege,” (Renn, 2004, p. 4) and reinforced rigid categories of race. The 2000 census formally challenged these previous notions of essentialist racial categories by recognizing those who blurred the boundaries.

One of the main purposes in the revision of the census was to reflect the growing prevalence of interracial marriage in American society (Perlmann & Waters, 2002). The multiracial population is one of the fastest growing minority groups in the United States (Shih & Sanchez, 2009), and by the year 2050, one in five Americans could self-identify as multiracial (Farley, 2001). Of any racial minority group in the United States, Asians, both native and U.S. born, register one of the highest rates of marriages outside their race, and marriages to Whites are the most prevalent (Lee & Bean, 2004; Qian, 1997). This growing trend means the population of young mixed race Asian Americans, specifically those who claim Asian and White descent, will increase (Min, 2006). As a result, Asian-White individuals will have significantly greater representation in higher education in the coming years. Because the Asian-White student population is growing, student affairs professionals must learn how these students make meaning of their racial identities. While few studies have explored the racial identity formation specific to Asian-White individuals (Khanna, 2004), current research on multiracial identity development can help student affairs professionals understand the Asian-White experience.

Acceptance or rejection from a racial group can significantly impact how a multiracial student chooses to identify. Multiracial identity theories rely on the notion that individuals “must make choices about their racial identification, navigate validation or invalidation around their choice, and resolve their in-between status while traveling pathways shaped by acceptance and/or denial” (Rockquemore & Laszloffy, 2005). Multiracial students often feel caught between their racial components, unable to fully identify with White students or with monoracial students of color (Renn, 1998). It is important to note, however, that multiracial students experience varying levels of dissonance based on factors that impact the way they identify, and current multiracial identity development models are too general to be applied to any one specific multiracial subpopulation. Asian-White individuals share similar experiences that make their process of racial identity development different from any other multiracial group, thus necessitating a theory that outlines the Asian-White racial identity developmental process. This paper will examine Poston’s (1990) and Root’s (2003) multiracial identity development theories to provide an overview of how various factors influence the racial identity outcomes of multiracial individuals. These theories will then be integrated with current literature regarding the experiences of Asian and Asian- White groups in American society to provide an understanding of the fluidity in racial identity choice for Asian-White individuals…

Read the entire article here.

Blending together

The Stanford Daily
Stanford University
2011-05-05

Ashley Menzies

These students are part of the growing country-wide phenomenon of individuals who identify themselves as “mixed race.” The number of people who check both the black and white boxes has increased by 134 percent to 1.8 million since the 2000 census, the first time it allowed such an option. Among American children, the multiracial population has increased nearly 50 percent to 4.2 million since 2000.

“The growth of this population is clearly a trend that will surely increase every decade into the 21st century,” wrote history professor Al Camarillo in an email to The Daily.

At Stanford, this rise in the mixed-race population may finally create a multicultural community in which mixed-race students feel they can belong.

Multiracial associations have in recent years been popping up on college campuses all around the country. These organizations aim to promote multicultural awareness and provide students with a safe environment to discuss multiracial issues. Many Stanford students were surprised that an organization for mixed-race students does not exist on campus…

…Assistant professor of English Vaughn Rasberry also observed a change in norms concerning racial identity. In Rasberry’s opinion, the increase of individuals in America identifying themselves as mixed race is not just the result of a sociological trend, but “also registers some dissatisfaction with conventional racial or ethnic categories.”…

Read the entire article here.

Biracial Identity and the College Social Environment: An Examination of the Effect of College Racial Composition on Black-White Biracial Students’ Racial Identity Construction and Maintenance

29th Annual SouthEastern Undergraduate Sociology Symposium 2011
Co-sponsored by Morehouse College and Emory University Departments of Sociology
Emory University, February 25-26, 2011

Kristen Clayton
Emory University

Winner of the first place prize at the 2011, 29th Annual SouthEastern Undergraduate Sociology Symposium (SEUSS).

The majority of the extant research on biracial identity focuses on documenting and describing the variety of ways in which individuals of mixed black and white ancestry identify, while paying substantially less attention to the social factors which affect biracial identity development. This study aims to address this gap in the literature by examining some of the ways social context affects biracial identity; this study specifically examines the effect of college racial composition on black-white biracial students’ racial identity construction and maintenance. In this paper I draw upon the transcripts of five taped interviews with biracial men attending an all male HBCU [Historically black colleges and universities] to show how the majority black institution affected their racial identities. Preliminary analysis of these interviews indicates that the racial composition of the men’s HBUC affected the students’ racial identities by affecting the individuals available for social comparisons, increasing students’ exposure to and familiarity with black people, and influencing the messages students received about race through both the peer and academic cultures of the institution. These social processes are the same ones described by researchers like Renn (2004), Khanna (2007), Rockquemore and Brunsma (2002*; 2002**) and Twine (1996). Taken together, these studies imply a connection between racial identity and social context that warrants further exploration.

More Iowans identifying as mixed race

The Daily Iowan
The Independent Daily Newspaper for the University of Iowa Since 1868
2011-04-19

Alison Sullivan

Photo: Christy Aumer/The Daily IowanSophomore Tevin Robbins poses in the window of the second floor at the Afro-American Cultural Center on April 5. Robbins is currently majoring in psychology but has switched his major from engineering to better accompany other areas of his life.

University of Iowa student Tevin Robbins sat lounging on the couch at the UI’s Latino Native American Cultural Center with friend, Michael Harbravison, on a Friday evening.

Robbins’ light coffee-crème complexion is juxtaposed by his hair — a thick, rusty-red mass sitting on top of his head.

“I don’t even know what type of skin color I am,” Robbins said. The 19-year-old, part Cherokee, African American, and white, makes the statement not out of confusion but merely the inability to choose.

Robbins is one among an increasing number of Iowans who identify as more than one ethnicity, according to data from the 2010 U.S. Census released in March. The number is still small—fewer than 2 percent of Iowans identified themselves as more than one race—but it is a 68 percent jump from 2000.

Growing up for Robbins was difficult because of his complexion. Too light, he said, to pass as African American, but dark enough to not pass as white. He never felt accepted in any one “group.”

“Why do I have to choose to identify as something?” he said. “I’m not one ethnicity.”

The 2010 census was the first time researchers were able to use the comparable data. In Johnson County, there has been a 77 percent increase. And at the University of Iowa, 223 students identified as two or more ethnicities in the fall of 2010—an increase from the 133 students in 2009, when the UI first began collecting such data.

Overall, the census shows a 60 percent increase in minorities in Iowa.

“This is a group whose choices have changed,” said Mary Campbell, a UI associate professor of sociology.

Campbell said roughly 40 years ago, people who had more than one ethnicity faced the pressures to identify with a single one, but now, social change has eased such constraints…

Read the entire article here.  View the slideshow here.

The Missing Box: Multiracial Student Identity Development at a Predominately White Institution

University of Nebraska, Lincoln
May 2011
153 pages

Ashley Michelle Loudd

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts

The purpose of this study was to add to the growing body of research aimed at deciphering the unique identity development experiences of multiracial college students. In doing so, this particular study sought to explore the process for self-identified multiracial students attending a Mid-western predominately white institution. Personal interviews and a focus group were utilized to delve into the students’ stories, and the participants’ pathways through negotiating their racial identities were linked with Renn’s (2004) ecological identity development patterns. The result was an in-depth and critical understanding of how a predominately white institution places multiracial students in an unsupportive environment, where they are often forced into racial identities that they might not have otherwise chosen for themselves.

This study explored how five self-identified multiracial students’ experiences attending a predominately white institution led to Renn’s (2004) ecological patterns of multiracial identity development through the completion of five interviews and one focus group. The following sub-themes emerged from the analysis of the participants’ connection to Renn’s (2004) five ecological patterns of multiracial identity development: “I think diversity is important,” “I am proud of my heritage,” “I’ll switch back and forth between my identities,” “Identifying as ‘x’ and ‘y’ – that’s key,” “Why can’t you be both,” “I classify for ease, but this is who I really am,” “People like me only happen in America,” “I’m racially ambiguous,” “Too Black to be White, too White to be Black,” and “The amount of non-White people is very low.” The results from this qualitative study indicated that the process of identity development for multiracial students attending a predominately white institution is highly influenced by the environment, leaving them little agency in determining how they racially identify and forcing them to enter situational modes of identity. Implications for multiracial student identity development, as well as, student affairs practitioners are provided. Additionally, recommendations for future research are reviewed.

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1 – Introduction
  • Context
  • Purpose Statement
  • Significance of Study
  • Research Questions
  • Research Design
  • Definition of Terms
  • Delimitations
  • Limitations
  • Conclusion
• Chapter 2 – Literature Review
  • Introduction
  • The Culture of Predominately White Institutions
  • The Student of Color Experience at Predominately White Institutions
  • Racial Identity Development Models
    • Helms’s People of Color and White Racial Identity Models
    • Cross’s Model of Black Identity Development
    • Ferdman and Gallegos’s Model of Latino Identity Development
    • Kim’s Asian American Identity Development Model
  • Theoretical Approaches Exploring the Multiracial Experience of Identity Development
    • The Problem Approach
    • The Equivalent Approach
    • The Variant Approach
  • Foundational Theories and Models of Multiracial Identity Development
    • Integrated Identity
    • Multiracial Identity
    • Positive Alterity
  • Summary of the Literature
  • Theoretical Framework
    • Student holds a monoracial identity
    • Student holds multiple monoracial identities, shifting according to situation
    • Student holds a multiracial identity
    • Student holds an extraracial identity by deconstructing race or opting out of identification by U.S. racial categories
    • Student holds a situational identity, identifying differently in different contexts
  • Looking Ahead
• Chapter 3 – Methodology
  • Introduction
  • Study Rationale
  • Research Questions
  • Methodology Rationale
  • Epistemology and Theoretical Perspective
  • Participants
  • Research Site
  • Data Collection
    • Interviews
    • Focus Group
  • Data Analysis
  • Validation Techniques
  • Researcher Bias and Assumptions
  • Limitations
  • Strengths
  • Conclusion
• Chapter 4 – Findings
  • Introduction
  • Introduction to the Participants
  • Overview of Emergent Themes and Sub-themes
    • Theme 1: Monoracial Identity
      • “I think diversity is important.”
      • “I am proud of my heritage.”
      • Ecological Analysis
    • Theme 2: Multiple Monoracial Identities, Shifting According to Situation
      • “I’ll switch back and forth between my identities.”
      • “Identifying with ‘x’ and ‘y’ – that’s key.”
      • Ecological Analysis
    • Theme 3: Multiracial Identity
      • “Why can’t you be both?”
      • “I classify for ease, but this is who I really am.”
      • Ecological Analysis
    • Theme 4: Extraracial Identity
      • “People like me only happen in America.”
      • “I’m racially ambiguous.”
      • Ecological Analysis
    • Theme 5: Situational Identity, Identifying Differently in Different Contexts
      • “Too Black to be White, too White to be Black.”
      • “The amount of non-White people is very low.”
      • Ecological Analysis
  • Conclusion
• Chapter 5 – Discussion
  • Introduction
  • Summary of Findings and Link to Theoretical Perspective
    • Research Sub-question 1
    • Research Sub-question 2
    • Research Sub-question 3
    • Overall Implications
  • Implications of the Current Study for Student Affairs Practitioners
  • Recommendations for Future Research
  • Conclusion
• References
• Appendices

List of Tables

• Table 1: Participant Demographic Information
• Table 2: Qualitative Research Validation Techniques
• Table 3: Research Themes and Sub-themes

List of Appendices

• Appendix A: Informed Consent Form
• Appendix B: Recruitment E-mail to Potential Participants
• Appendix C: Reminder E-mail to Participants
• Appendix D: Participant Demographic Sheet
• Appendix E: Semi-Structured Interview Protocol
• Appendix F: Un-Structured Focus Group Protocol
• Appendix G: Transcriptionist Confidentiality Agreement
• Appendix H: Example of Coded Participant Transcript

Read the entire thesis here.

Mixed Race on Campus: Multiracial Student Identities and Issues in Higher Education

NCORE 2011
24 Annual National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education
San Francisco, California
2011-05-31 through 2011-06-04

Thursday, 2011-06-02, 13:15–16:15 PDT (Local Time)

Eric Hamako, Doctoral Candidate
Social Justice Education Program
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Multiracial and Mixed‑Race students are a growing, yet under‑recognized, population at U.S. colleges and universities.  How well does your campus serve Multiracial students’ needs and Multiracial student organizations?  And how can you support improvements? 

In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore challenges facing Multiracial students and Multiracial student organizations—as well as possible solutions to those challenges.  Participants will also learn basic Multiracial terms, demography, and identity theories, as well as gain resources for learning more in the future. Participants will have the opportunity to develop personal and collaborative action plans to implement what they’ve learned. This session should particularly benefit participants interested in the success of Multiracial students and student organizations, students interested in organizing Multiracial groups, and Student Affairs professionals who are interested in policy changes to support Multiracial students.

For more information, click here.

Diversity Dialogues lecture opens forum on ethnic identity

Spartan Daily
News@SJSU
San José State University
2011-03-06

Francisco Rendon

So … what are you?”

Although a common question facing persons of mixed ethnic heritage, it often characterizes society’s attempt to label them, and these persons‘ struggle to fit into one culture.

This question, as well as other issues concerning mixed heritage persons, such as ethnicity boxes on tests, were discussed and analyzed in discussion groups Thursday in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library.

The event was part of SJSU’s Diversity Dialogue Series, sponsored by the Office of Equal Opportunity, said Program Developer Marina Corrales.

“(These events) are about sharing our experiences and background,” Corrales said. “We use diversity as an educational tool for faculty, students and staff.”

Corrales said she was satisfied with the attendance, which held about 60 people…

…The event began with an introduction from Spano, who defined “mixed-heritage” as “people who self-identify as belonging to two or more races.

Participants then viewed a brief video featuring interviews and a speech from Kip Fulbeck, an art professor at UC Santa Barbara.

The video included a feature on Fulbeck’s book depicting persons of mixed Asian-American descent, and a discussion of the phrase “Hapa,” a term used for persons mixed with Asian or Pacific Islander heritage…

Understanding what it means to be mixed

Excalibur
York University’s Community Newspaper
2011-03-30

Victoria Alarcon, Sports & Health Editor

People have always seen me as different. It doesn’t matter where I went, when it happened or who it was; I’ve too often come face-to-face with puzzled looks and people examining me, trying to dissect what I was. That curious look prefaced the inevitable question: “Where are you from?”

“This question of ‘where do you come from?’ has become normalized. For people that is a normal way of trying to figure something out about someone,” said Arun Chaudhuri, an anthropology professor at York University.

“It’s a very profound expectation of how you’re supposed to understand someone in terms of talking about where they came from and their origin.”

I’ve been called Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and a few other names that weren’t even close. But what people don’t know is that I’m mixed race.

Growing up I had a father whose ancestors came from China and a mother who was very much from a traditional Spanish family. They got married, and just like that, I was born into a mixed family. From my Asian eyes to my beige skin, I was neither Chinese nor Spanish, but both. The hardest part was constantly being surrounded by scrutinizing eyes and getting past their judgments to accept what I was…

Read the entire article here.

Mixed Race Week begins with Loving Day awareness dinner

Today@Colorado State
Colorado State University
2011-03-30

This Friday, Apr. 1, marks the beginning of the 3rd-annual Mixed Race Week, a series of presentations and activities celebrating the multiracial and interracial community at Colorado State University. The yearly event is put on by Shades of CSU, an organization dedicated to multiracial students…one of a few of its kind in the country…

• Friday, April 1: Loving Day Awareness Dinner
• Monday, April 4th: Multiracial Faculty Meet and Greet
• Tuesday, April 5: Monsters, Messiahs, or Something Else?: Mixed-Race in Science Fiction Movies presented by Eric Hamako
• Wednesday, April 6: Interracial Relationships; Hair and Beauty within the Multiracial population

For more information, click here.