Mixed Race Studies

The Ordinary Conception of Race in the United States and Its Relation to Racial Attitudes: A New Approach

Journal of Cognition and Culture
Volume 9, Issue 1 (2009)
pages 15-38
DOI: 10.1163/156853709X414610

Joshua Glasgow, Lecturer of Philosophy
Sonoma State University
also Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington.

Julie L. Shulman, Assistant Professor of Pyschology
Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California

Enrique G. Covarrubias

Many hold that ordinary race-thinking in the USA is committed to the ‘one-drop rule‘, that race is ordinarily represented in terms of essences, and that race is ordinarily represented as a biological (phenotype- and/or ancestry-based, non-social) kind. This study investigated the extent to which ordinary race-thinking subscribes to these commitments. It also investigated the relationship between different conceptions of race and racial attitudes. Participants included 449 USA adults who completed an Internet survey. Unlike previous research, conceptions of race were assessed using concrete vignettes. Results indicate widespread rejection of the one-drop rule, as well as the use of a complex combination of ancestral, phenotypic, and social (and, therefore, non-essentialist) criteria for racial classification. No relationship was found between racial attitudes and essentialism, the one-drop rule, or social race-thinking; however, ancestry-based and phenotype-based classification criteria were associated with racial attitudes. These results suggest a complicated relationship between conceptions of race and racial attitudes.

Mahtani wins prestigious geography award

Inside UTSC
University of Toronto, Scarborough
2012-03-29

Minelle Mahtani won the Glenda Laws Award for geography, which is given to early and mid-career scholars for outstanding contributions to geographical research on social issues.
 
It is administered by the Association of American Geographers, and endorsed by the Institute of Australian Geographers, the Canadian Association of Geographers, and the Institute of British Geographers.
 
“Her contributions to geographic research on social issues build bridges between the academy and other centers of knowledge, like the policy, media and not-for-profit worlds. Her experience as a former national television news producer provides unique insights into critiques about media and minority representation as well as geographies of news consumption. She has also paid scholarly attention to geography’s expertise in an era of specialized knowledge economies, challenging the ivory tower to produce anti-racist geographies in the academy and challenging geographers to teach for inclusion,” the award presentation reads in part…

…Mahtani has also written about issues of race within the academy. She has written about the discrimination faced by women of colour geographers, and suggested that geography’s historical engagement with colonialism and imperialism works to ensure the domination of whiteness among faculty and students of geography.
 
Mahtani is especially interested in documenting the experiences of mixed-race Canadians, and has published a number of papers on mixed-race identities. She is an editor of the forthcoming book entitled Global Mixed Race to be published by New York University Press.
 
Mahtani brought her expertise on multiraciality to aid in the editing of Lawrence Hill’s memoir, Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada. In a recent visit to UTSC, Hill, author of the bestseller, Book of Negroes singled out Mahtani for encouraging him to consider the relationship between geography and identity.
 
Mahtani also designed the first course to be offered in geography and mixed race in Canada, entitled “Spaces of Multiraciality: Critical Mixed Race Theory”, taught in the department of Social Sciences here at UTSC.

Read the entire article here.

Dealing with Diversity: Media Course Study Guide

Kendall Hunt
2008
100 pages
Edition: 04
ISBN: 978-0-7575-4772-0

Author(s): Governors State University

This course was developed to help you recognize and appreciate the differences and the similarities among diverse groups and individuals in a multicultural society.

Living in the U.S.A. in the 21st century poses some of the most complex challenges this nation has ever faced. Our dependence on technology and fossil fuels, our addiction to 24/7 media, the changes in immigration, and the unparalleled quest to accumulate personal property have all created increased class stratification as well as segregation throughout our society. Global interdependence has brought the world closer together which means the impact of natural disasters, hunger, disease, and international conflicts now affects the whole planet.

Expected Student Outcomes

1. Recognize the societal implications of our nation’s changing demographics.
2. Explain the importance of understanding and respecting cultural differences.
3. Develop strategies to promote intercultural awareness between different groups and among individuals within these groups.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Class I: Introduction and Overview
Explores our own individual ethnic/racial, religious, and cultural backgrounds.

Class 2: Social Interaction Model
Discusses how to use a social interaction model (SIM) that maps how humans interact in culturally diverse settings.

Class 3: Negotiating Cultural Communication
Explores some of the varieties of communication styles that exist in the U. S. as well as in other cultures around the world. Video guests: Dr. Brad Allison, Superintendent of Schools for Albuquerque, New Mexico; Professor Gordon Barry, University of California at Los Angeles. Studio Guests: Dr. Gloria Delany-Barmann and Dr. Lourdes Kuthy, Professors in the Department of Educational and Interdisciplinary Studies at Western Illinois University; Dr.juliaYang, University Professor of Psychology and Counseling at Governors State University.

Class 4: The Changing Face of America and the World
Concentrates on the rapidly changing demographic trends in the United States and around the world. Video inserts and guests: Plaza De Los Angeles; Professor Alexander Astin, University of California at Los Angeles; Professor Gary Orfield, Harvard University; Justino Petrarca, attorney.

Class 5: Immigration, Social Policy, and Employment
The history of immigration laws in the U.S. Video guests: Marian Smith, Chief Librarian at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS); Dr. Suarez-Orozco; David Duke, author; Professor Carlos Munozjr, University of California at Berkeley; Dr. Samuel Betances, Professor Emeritus at Northeastern Illinois University; Professor Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, Harvard University.

Class 6: Race: The World’s Most Dangerous Myth
Explores one of our nation’s most complex and pressing problems, the concept of race. Video guests: Dr. Michael Omi, Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley; racialist Arthur Jones of the American First Committee; Dr. Jerry Hirsch, Distinguished Professor in Psychology and Genetics at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.

Class 7: Social Class Issues
The impact of social economics on the lives of families and individuals in the U.S; the plight of the homeless and what can be done about this growing problem. Video guests: Professor Lani Guinier of the Harvard Law School; Professor Peggy Macintosh,Wellesey University; Dr. Gary Orfield, Harvard University; Dr. Keri Kerber, Bridgewater State College, Connecticut. Studio guest: Dr. Mary Arnold, University Professor of Psychology and Counseling at Governors State University.

Class 8: Gender Issues
Examines the multifaceted issues surrounding gender in our society. Video inserts and guests: Video class discussion of Robert Bly’s book, Iron John; Professor Peggy Mclntosh.Wellesey College. Studio guest: Ms. Cindy Guerra from the National Organization ofWomen (NOW).

Class 9: Native Americans, Part I
Case study of Illinois’ Dickson Mounds Museum and the controversy surrounding it. In addition we hear from a variety of Native American students, professors, and administrators at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Video Inserts and guests: Dickson Mounds Museum in Lewiston, Illinois;John Wilmer, Barry Eagle and joe Martin, Professor Guy Senese, Professor Louise Lockard, Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff. Studio guests: PamAlfonzo, Menominee Cultural Center in Chicago, and Antonia Sheeny, California ManPower.

Class 11: Hispanic/Latino Americans, Part I
The variety of cultural groups that are classified under the Latino/Latina label. Population projections.Video guests: Dr. Samuel Betances, consultant and Professor Emeritus of Northeastern Illinois University; Professor Ronald Gallimore, University of California at Los Angeles; Professor Carlos Munoz Jr., University, of California at Berkeley; Professor Marcelo Suarez-Orozco of Harvard University. Studio guest: Dr. Estella Lopez of Northeastern Illinois University.

Class 12: Hispanic/Latino Americans, Part 2
Hostos Community College of the City University of New York and its unique programs serving a mainly Latino community in New York City. Video guests: Ethno-musician Jesus “CHUY” Negrette; students and faculty at Hostos Community College; New York City Councilman Guillermo Linares. Studio guest: Dr. Estella Lopez of Northeastern Illinois University.

Class 13: African Americans, Part I
Examines the changing demographic and socioeconomic data of this group and how these data compare to those of other groups in our society. Video inserts and guests: Birmingham Civil Rights Museum; Tamarjacoby, author. Studio guest: Gary Flowers, National Field Director for Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

Class 14: African Americans, Part 2
Issues of social justice, ethnocentrism, education. Video inserts and guests: Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chair, Department of Black Studies, California State University, Long Beach; Dr. Lisa Deipit, Professor of Education at Georgia State University; the rebuilding of the Amistad at Mystic, Connecticut. Studio guest: Gary Flowers, National Field Director for Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

Class 15: Asian Americans
The many cultures that fall under the label of Asian Americans; dynamics of current immigration policy; case study of Koreans in the Chicago, Illinois area. Video inserts and guests: Dr. Michael Omi, Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley; Korean American community in Chicago; Professors Kwang Chung Kim of Western Illinois University and Shin Kim of the University of Chicago. Studio guests: Gloria Chu, an immigrant from China; Dr. Jagan Lingamneni, an immigrant from India; and Peter Pham, an immigrant from Vietnam.

Class 16: Arab Americans
Arab Americans as the new ethnic villains in our media and folk knowledge; ignorance of most Americans about the actual contributions and history of the varied groups making up this category. Video guest: Dr. Jack Shaheen, consultant on the media images/portrayals of Arabs. Studio guest: Rafeeqjaber, President of the Islamic Association for Palestine.

Class 17: European Americans
The impact of language and religion nationally as well as globally. Video guests: Carol & Isadore Ryzak, Polish Americans. Studio guest: Dominic Candeloro, Italian American.

Class 18: Creole and Mixed Ethnic Americans
What happens to individuals when they mix with others of different ethnic groups. Video guests: Dr. Joseph Logsdon, University of New Orleans an authority on Creole culture;”Mixed race” couple Reggie and Diane Alsbrook, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Studio guests: “Mixed race” couple Jane Hu (Chinese) and Eric Skotmyr (Norwegian American).

‘Perpetual others’: The role of culture, race, and nation in the formation of a mixed-race identity

University of Minnesota
June 2004
275 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3149283
ISBN: 9780496086603

Jacquetta Elizabeth Amdahl

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

The insistence upon a racial identity for multiracial blacks that is not singularly African American has been problematic throughout American history. The link between a racial identity that publicly acknowledges one’s ties to the African American community and the private ownership of one’s complete ancestry has been one that has been consistently tenuous for blacks of multiracial heritage. However, the first generation of openly multiracial African American artists have utilized their visibility in popular culture, as well as work they do within it, as spaces in which to forcefully assert this link. By consciously embracing and cultivating both public and private racial identities, they have distinguished themselves from the postracialist and even anti-black sentiments espoused by leaders and scholars within the Multiracial Category Movement (MCM).

This project explores the links between cultural expression, racial formation, and political agency through the investigation of the public lives and artistic expression of multiracial artists born between 1964 and 1970. These individuals were chosen because of their proximity to the Loving v. Virginia decision that overturned anti-miscegenation statutes. They are the first generation of officially recognized multiracial African Americans.

The project further examines the links between gender and race in representations of multiracial African Americans, as well as the history of the mixed race black population, and finally, the rise of the Multiracial Category Movement, and multiracial studies. Through these explorations, the inherently political nature of race is uncovered, and the public nature of racial identity is revealed. Finally, it concludes that the need for a fluid and expanded notion of African American identity, rather than the broadening of the definitions of whiteness, is the necessary answer to questions surrounding multiracial African American identities.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction: From African American to Multiracial? Racial Identity and Public Discourse
• Chapter 1: Reports from the ‘Third Space’: The Music and Visual Presence of Mixed Race Artists in Popular Culture
  • The Hughes Brothers
  • Lenny Kravitz
  • Vin Diesel
• Chapter 2:From Tragic Mulatto to Erotically Autonomous Black Woman: Halle Berry’s Journey to Monster’s Ball
• Chapter 3: From Blue Vein Societies to Black Power: The ‘Mulatto Elite’ and the Black/White Binary
  • The Beginnings of Separate but Equal
  • The New Negro
  • The Quest to Solve the ‘American Dilemma’
• Chapter 4: Beyond the Private Realm: The Multiracialist Struggle with Public Racial Identities
  • The Multiracial Category Movement (MCM)
  • Multiracial Studies
  • Postracialists
  • Critical Scholarship lhat Explores Multiracial Issues
• Epilogue: Still ‘A Family Affair’: Implications of a Multiracial African American Identity

Purchase the dissertation here.

Feminist Race Theorist and Sociologist to Lecture

Hamilton College, Clinton New York
College News
2012-04-07

France Winddance Twine, professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will present a lecture on Tuesday, April 10, at 4:15 p.m., in Dwight Lounge, Bristol Campus Center. Twine will discuss “The Future of Anti-Racism & Racial Literacy After The Trayvon Martin Murder.” The lecture is free and open to the public.
 
In addition to editing several collections on race, class and gender, she has authored Outsourcing the Womb: Race, Class and Gestational Surrogacy in a Global Market and Racism in a Racial Democracy: The Maintenance of White Supremacy in Brazil, as well as A White Side of Black Britain…

For more information, click here.

I Do Choose To Run: Personal boxes and the ethics of race

The Stanford Daily
2012-04-09

Miles Unterreiner

In an eloquently argued New York Times Sunday Review article on March 16th, entitled “As Black as We Wish to Be,” author Thomas Chatterton Williams advances a provocative and thought-provoking argument: “mixed-race blacks have an ethical obligation to identify as black — and interracial couples share a similar moral imperative to inculcate certain ideas of black heritage and racial identity in their mixed-race children, regardless of how they look.”
 
Is this a good argument? Do mixed-race individuals have an ethical obligation to identify as members of one race, rather than many or none? And is there a special obligation in the case of mixed-race African-Americans, given this country’s long history of racial discrimination?
 
I must respectfully disagree with Mr. Williams and answer all three with “no.”…

Read the entire opinion piece here.

Historical trauma: The impact of colonial racism on contemporary relations between African Americans and Mexican immigrants

Colorado State University
Spring 2011
114 pages
Publication Number: AAT 1492454
ISBN: 9781124645148

Noah M. Wright

Submitted by Noah M. Wright Department of Ethnic Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado

The purpose of this project is to examine tensions in present day United States between African Americans and Mexican immigrants. Hyper-violent incidents of interracial gang violence between these two communities are presented by mainstream media as signifiers of the existence of the tension. Latinos, as a whole, and African Americans, whether in gangs or civilians, are often portrayed to be in competition due to three conventional explanations. While scholars and media sources have validity in pointing out the significance of socioeconomic competition, struggles for political power and the problems that the language barrier create, these explanations are not complete. El sistema de castas or the caste system, a racial hierarchy created by the Spaniards in Latin America during their colonial efforts, established how people of African descent, both free and slave, were treated in New Spain. The caste system’s continued influence can be seen with the denial of African heritage and the marginalized position of Afro-Mexicans in present day Mexico. Furthermore, these prejudices remain intact when Mexican immigrants enter the U.S. It is understood that Mexico’s national identity is mestizaje, a racially mixed nation; however, racism existed and is also present today in Mexico. By combining a historical perspective with the three primary reasons, mentioned above, it is hoped that the complete picture will help resolve tensions. This thesis argues that colonization, influenced heavily by a racial hierarchy, has caused Mexican immigrants to carry with them prejudices towards African Americans that were learned in Mexico, showing that the issue is deeper than competition over resources in present times. In response to an influx of Latino immigrants, African American responses show parallels with historical nativist responses to immigrants. By combining the impacts of historical racism with conventional explanations for the existence of the tension it is hoped an understanding may develop that will help reduce conflict.

Purchase the disseration here.

University of North Florida Presents James Weldon Johnson Symposium

University of North Florida
Press Release
2012-03-29

Joanna Norris, Associate Director of Public Relations

he University of North Florida presents the James Weldon Johnson Symposium from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday, April 5, and from noon to 5 p.m. Friday, April 6, in the UNF Student Union Auditorium, Building 58W, Room 2704, in celebration of the centennial anniversary of the publication of James Weldon Johnson’s “Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.”

The symposium will feature student and faculty performances, poetry readings as well as music and dance performances. The keynote speaker will be Dr. JeffriAnne Wilder, assistant professor in the UNF Department of Sociology and Anthropology. She will discuss “Black Americans and Colorism in the 21st Century,” while UNF student Erin Mulkey will perform “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” a song written by Johnson and is considered to be the Negro national anthem.

Additionally, there will be faculty and student presentations addressing the life of Johnson as well as his Jacksonville origins and connections. The event will conclude at 4 p.m. Friday, April 6, with a performance by the renowned McIntosh County Shouters, a group that performs the “Southeastern Ring Shout,” which is among the oldest surviving African-American performance traditions on the North American continent.

For more information, click here.

Growing Diversity Among America’s Children and Youth: Spatial and Temporal Dimensions

Population and Development Review
Volume 36, Issue 1, March 2010
pages 151–176
DOI: 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2010.00322.x

Kenneth M. Johnson, Professor of Sociology and Senior Demographer
Department of Sociology and Carsey Institute
University of New Hampshire, Durham

Daniel T. Lichter, Professor of Policy Analysis and Management and Sociology
Cornell University

This study documents the changing racial and ethnic mix of America’s children. Specifically, we focus on the unusually rapid shifts in the composition and changing spatial distribution of America’s young people between 2000 and 2008. Minorities grew to 43 percent of all children and youth, up from 38.5 percent only eight years earlier. In 1990, this figure stood at 33 percent. Among 0–4-year-olds, 47 percent of all children were minority in 2008. Changes in racial and ethnic composition are driven by two powerful demographic forces. The first is the rapid increase since 2000 in the number of minority children—with Hispanics accounting for 80 percent of the growth. The second is the absolute decline in the number of non-Hispanic white children and youth. The growth of minority children and racial diversity is distributed unevenly over geographical space. Over 500 (or roughly 1 in 6) counties now have majority-minority youth populations. Broad geographic areas of America nevertheless remain mono-racial, where only small shares of minorities live.

AMERICA’S RAPIDLY CHANGING racial and ethnic composition will undoubtedly reshape ethnic identities, electoral politics, and inter-group relations in the foreseeable future. A recent report by the United States Census Bureau projected that racial and ethnic minorities—everyone but non-Hispanic single race whites—will become the majority population in 2042 (US Census Bureau 2008a). The size of the minority population is projected to grow to 235.7 million or 54 percent of the total US population by 2050. Of course, demographers understand that population projections are often not borne out; they rest on demographic assumptions that sometimes prove to be seriously flawed.

We do not need to rely on Census projections or wait until 2042 to observe the putative demographic implications of growing racial and ethnic diversity in American society.2 Our research documents the demographic forces that have placed today’s young people in the vanguard of America’s new racial and ethnic diversity. The seeds of diversity are being sown today by immigration and high fertility, which are revealed in growing racial and ethnic diversity among America’s children and youth. In many parts of the United States, the future is now.

This article has several goals. First, we use up-to-date census population estimates to document recent increases in the racial and ethnic mix of America’s youth, especially its youngest children (i.e., those aged 0–4 years). Predictably, growing racial diversity has been caused by rapid growth of minority children, especially Hispanic children, but perhaps less predictably by absolute numerical declines of non-Hispanic white children. Second, we show how national patterns have manifested themselves unevenly over geographic space. More than 500 US counties in 2008 had “majority-minority” populations of children, a number considerably higher than for the US population overall. Third, we document children’s growing exposure to racial diversity in the areas where they live. We provide new estimates based on the so-called diversity index (Rushton 2008). The frequent claim that we live in an increasingly multiracial or multicultural society—a fact that is both celebrated and feared—does not necessarily mean that national patterns are visible at the local or regional level…

…The uneven geography of racial diversity

How children fare today is a leading demographic indicator of America’s future: its racial composition, health, and social and economic well-being. But an exclusive focus on the national picture also can be misleading. For minority populations, racial and ethnic identities are socially constructed through daily interactions in the places where they live and work (Omi and Winant 1994). The demographic impacts of changing patterns of immigration, fertility, and natural increase are therefore experienced unevenly across the geographical United States (Massey 2008). The so-called Americanization process—the putative weakening of racial and ancestral identities—is shaped by cultural and economic incorporation, patterns of intermarriage, and the growth of immigrant and mixed-race populations, all of which both reflect and reinforce racially divergent residence patterns and inter-group exposure and social interaction (Waters and Jiménez 2005; Lee and Bean 2007)…

…Discussion and conclusion

With the election of Barack Obama as US President, issues of race and racial inclusion have acquired new saliency in the public discourse in America. The influx of roughly 1 million legal immigrants annually—mostly from Latin America and Asia—has further prompted debates about multiculturalism and social, economic, and cultural fragmentation: for example, English-language use, rising intermarriage, growing mixed-race populations, and political and economic power. The Census Bureau’s recent projection of a majority-minority US population in 2042 has sometimes been the source of alarmist rhetoric about America’s future and its essential character. We argue here that the seeds of racial and ethnic multiculturalism are also being sown by recent patterns of fertility, revealed in growing racial and ethnic diversity among America’s children and youth…

Read the entire article here.

Association for Asian American Studies 2012 Annual Conference

Capitol Hilton Hotel
1001 16th Street, NW
Washington, D.C.
2012-04-11 through 2012-04-14

Selected Sessions from Tentative Schedule

Thursday, April 12: 13:15-14:45 (South American A) Exposing Truths: Re-Centering Filipina/o American Subjectivities
Chair: Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, San Francisco State University

“Passing It On: Mixed Filipina/o American PEP Teachers Facilitating Growth in Students and Self”
Teresa Hodges, San Francisco State University

Friday, April 13: 15:00 – 16:30 EDT  (Statler B) Multiracial Asian/Americans: War and the Mixed Race Experience
Chair: Sue-Je Gage, Ithaca College

“Different Kinds of Occupation: Mixed Race People in Occupied Post-War Japan and Okinawa”
Lily Anne Yumi Welty, University of California, Santa Barbara

“When Half is Whole”
Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, Stanford University

“Kiku and Isamu: Japanese Representations of Biracial Children in Post-war Japan”
Zelideth M. Rivas, Grinnell College

“Politics and Policing of Difference: Asian America and ‘Amerasians’”
Sue-Je Gage, Ithaca College

 
Friday, April 13: 15:00-16:30 EDT (California) Performing History, Expanding Race: Afro-Asian and Arab-Asian Hip Hop, Film and Spoken Word
Chair: Vanita Reddy, Texas A&M
Discussant: Junaid Rana, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

“Afro-Asian Diasporic Intimacies: Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala and Shailja Patel’s Migritude”
Vanita Reddy, Texas A&M

“Performing the Political: Kundiman’s 9/11 Poetry Project”
Anantha Sudhakar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

“Afro-Asian Aesthetics in Early Hip Hop Culture and Performance: Martin Wong’s Graffiti and Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon”
Shante Paradigm Smalls, Davidson College

Saturday, April 14: 14:45-16:15 EDT (Statler B) Theorizing Asian Americans: Race, Ethnicity, and Nation
Chair: Lisa Mar, University of Maryland

“Genetic Citizens: Multiracial Asian Americans and the Limits of Nation”
LeiLani Nishime, University of Washington

For more information, click here.