Mixed Race Studies

In/visible Sight: The Mixed-Descent Families of Southern New Zealand

Bridget Williams Books also Athabasca University Press
June 2009
220 pages
ISBN: 978-1-877242-43-4

Angela Wanhalla, Lecturer in History
University of Otago, New Zealand

Angela Wanhalla starts her story with the mixed-descent community at Maitapapa, Taieri, where her great-grandparents, John Brown and Mabel Smith, were born. As the book took shape, a community emerged from the records, re-casting history and identity in the present.

Drawing on the experiences of mixed-descent families, In/visible Sight examines the early history of cross-cultural encounter and colonisation in southern New Zealand. There Ngäi Tahu engaged with the European newcomers on a sustained scale from the 1820s, encountering systematic settlement from the 1840s and fighting land alienation from the 1850s. The evolving social world was one framed by marriage, kinship networks and cultural practices – a world in which inter-racial intimacy played a formative role.

In exploring this history through a particular group of family networks, In/visible Sight offers new insights into New Zealand’s colonial past. Marriage as a fundamental social institution in the nineteenth century takes on a different shape when seen through the lens of cross-cultural encounters. The book also outlines some of the contours and ambiguities involved in living as mixed descent in colonial New Zealand.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. It may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author is credited.

Download the entire book here (9.13 MB).

• Front Matter
• Table of Contents
• List of Maps and Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Maps of Key Locations
• Chapter 1. Intimate Histories
• Chapter 2. Pátahi’s Story
• Chapter 3. Interracial Families and Communities
• Chapter 4. Boundary Crossings
• Chapter 5. Fears and Anxieties
• Chapter 6. Racial Categories and Lived Identities
• Chapter 7. Migration Stories
• Chapter 8. In/visible Sight
• Endnotes
• Bibliography
• Index

Towards a Dialogic Understanding of Print Media Stories About Black/White Interracial Families

University of Georgia
2003
160 pages

Victor Kulkosky

A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS

This thesis examines print media news stories about Black/White interracial families from 1990-2003. Using the concept of dialogism, I conduct a textual analysis of selected newspaper and news magazine stories to examine the dialogic interaction between dominant and resistant discourses of racial identity. My findings suggest that a multiracial identity project can be seen emerging in print media stories about interracial families, but the degree to which this project is visible depends on each journalist’s placement of individual voices and discourses within the narrative of each story. I find some evidence of a move from placing interracial families within narratives of conflict toward a more optimistic view of such families’ position in society.

Multiracial People’s Quest for Voice

People in interracial/multiracial families are engaged in a struggle to find their voice. More accurately, they are trying to establish both an inner voice, to talk about themselves to themselves; and a public voice, to tell their stories to anyone who will listen. Dalmage (2000, p. 20) describes the search for the inner multiracial voice: “Because they do not quite fit into the historically created, officially named, and socially recognized categories, members of multiracial families are constantly fighting to identify themselves for themselves. A difficulty they face is the lack of language available to address their experiences.” This story is my story. I am White (Lithuanian, German, Irish, born in New Jersey, raised in New York City) and married to a Black woman (African, English, Cherokee, born and raised in Georgia). We have a son (born and raised in other parts of Georgia). My wife has a “white looking” half sister, who has seven nieces and nephews, some of whom add Dutch to the family tree. Finding answers to the question, “What are we?” is a family affair. Answering the question “What are you?” is a public matter…

Read the entire thesis here.

The Politics of Mothering in a “Mixed” Family: An Autoethnographic Exploration

Identities
Volume 12, Issue 4, 2005
pages 479-503
DOI: 10.1080/10702890500332642

Nora Lester Murad, Founder and Executive Director
Dalia Association

Interweaving excerpts from her personal journal with research and literature about mixed race, interfaith, and bicultural experience, Nora Lester Murad uses autoethnographic methods to explore the experience of mothering in an American–Jewish and Palestinian–Muslim family. She pushes theoretical discussion beyond the experiences of “mixed” people to consider how the identity of otherwise monoracial/ monocultural parents may be transformed through the experience of parenting across socially/politically significant differences, particularly, national origin, culture, and faith. She also extends theoretical discussion beyond the confines of identity to consider parenting as a political process with an impact within and beyond families.

Perhaps there is a place I have not yet imagined where exiles and strangers gather, racial hybrids of consciousness which can run as thick as blood, who out of necessity make the effort to rename what it means to belong (Lazarre 1996: 51).

Family politics

My eldest daughter. Serene, met her grandparents on her father’s side for the first time in 1997, when she was one year old. It was her first trip outside of the United States to visit my husband Hani’s village in the Arab sector of Northern Israel. It was her first time being surrounded by Palestinian Muslims.

I vividly remember watching my little angel standing on the balcony off the sitting room. She was so focused, so grounded, so totally at home as she stared toward the olive-tree-covered mountain behind the house. I remember my own amazement—and fear—as I realized that this is…

Read or purchase the article here.

Experiences and Processes Affecting Racial Identity Development: Preliminary Results From the Biracial Sibling Project

Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology (formerly Cultural Diversity and Mental Health)
Volume 4, Issue 3, August 1998
Pages 237-247
DOI: 10.1037/1099-9809.4.3.237

Maria P. P. Root, Ph.D.

Examined what drives the process of racial identity development in general for persons of mixed racial heritage and what experiences account for some differential choices within the same family. 20 sibling pairs of mixed racial heritage (aged 18–40 yrs) completed packets including an extensive background questionnaire, a body image inventory, a racial resemblance inventory, a sibling racial resemblance inventory, a brief mental health inventory, a racial experiences inventory, and an identity questionnaire. Ss also participated in two 2-hr interviews. Four types of experiences surfaced that appear to influence the identity process: hazing, family dysfunction, other salient identities, and the impact of integration. These experiences were explored within the framework of the ecological model of racial identity development.

For centuries the United States has followed rules of hypodescent, or more colloquially, the “one-drop” rule for racial classification. This rule, implicitly embedded in racial identity theories, is challenged by changes in the contemporary population in which visible cohorts of persons of mixed heritage exist who do not strictly adhere to the one-drop rule.

Anecdotally, in the models of racial identity that have guided psychological understanding of racial awareness for two decades, persons assigned to the same racial grouping, whether they be siblings or strangers, use labels signifying their location within a single racial group. In contrast, anecdotal information on siblings of racially mixed heritage suggest they often racially or ethnically identify themselves differently from one another. At conferences dedicated to the theme of multiraciality, this difference is often the topic of discussion, with some individuals saying that each of three or four siblings identifies differently. Is this due to stage of racial identity development? Can gender explain these differences? Does phenotype explain the difference? Does birth order explain differences?

These questions offer a range of explanations and hypotheses about these differences, suggesting that this phenomenon of different racial identities among siblings in the same family would likely be complex. Studies of persons of mixed-race heritage already suggest some counterintuitive findings, and misunderstood findings. For example, phenotype does not determine how people identify themselves (Hall, 1980), though it may certainly predict some experiences one is more likely to have. Hall also found that gender alignment between a child and parent (i.e., mothers and daughters or fathers and sons) did not predict the identity label used by young Black Japanese adults in her study. Other researchers have found that identity can change over the lifetime in a way that does not necessarily reflect a stage process (Root, 1990). Racial identity can be very situational, not necessarily reflecting an ambivalence (Stephan, 1992). And the contemporary cohort of racially mixed young adults, more than at any other point in history, is asserting a racially mixed identity. This assertion, however, is generally misunderstood to reflect a racial hatred of self, a desire to be White, or a personality that is opportunistic. Rather than these explanations being derived from conventional lore, many of these individuals are subverting monoracial paradigms (Daniel, 1992), refusing to adhere to the irrational racial rules of this country (Spickard, 1992), or contextualizing racial identity. An identity choice is possible amid a growing number of mixed-race people in the post-civil rights era. Without most people’s ability to experience the insider perspective on being of mixed parentage, a monoracial framework is usually the guide for interpretation of behavior and process…

Read the entire article here.

Lone mothers of mixed racial and ethnic children in Britain: Comparing experiences of social attitudes and support in the 1960s and 2000s

Women’s Studies International Forum
Volume 34, Issue 6, November-December 2011
Pages 530-538
DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2011.06.007

Rosalind Edwards, Professor of Sociology
University of Southampton

Chamion Cabellero, Senior Research Fellow
Social Capital Research Group
London South Bank University

This article places side-by-side the views from lone mothers bringing up children from mixed racial and ethnic backgrounds in mid-1960s and early 2000s Britain, to consider whether the sorts of social attitudes and support these mothers experienced have changed or persisted over the past half century. The analysis compares and contrasts the general social and official attitudes that lone mothers of mixed children feel that they encounter, the support they receive from the fathers of their children, and their relationships with their own and the father’s wider family, the neighbourhood and friendship networks they draw on, and the formal supports available to them across time. The article concludes by considering some indicative trajectories of change and constancy that looking at these social attitudes and supports reveals, around negative assessments and their social expression, expectations of fathers, the availability of wider family, and the importance of informal daily support from other mothers in the same situation.

Read or purchase the article here.

Child Poverty at a Racial Cross Roads: Assessing Child Poverty for Children in Mono- and Multiracial Families

Colloquium Series
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Hamilton Hall 271
2011-09-21, 12:00-13:00 EDT (Local Time)

Jenifer L. Bratter, Associate Professor of Sociology
Rice University

Jenifer L. Bratter (PhD 2001, University of Texas at Austin) is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Rice University. Her research explores the implications of race and racial mixing (i.e. interracial families, multiracial identity) in the areas of family, identity, and social inequality.  Current projects focus on indicators of social well-being such as poverty, residential segregation, and health and the new ways that race is linked to these phenomena. She had been awarded the 2009 Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation for Career Enhancement to study patterns of residential segregation for mixed-race families. Dr. Bratter has recently published works appearing in Demography, Social Forces, Family Relations, Population Research and Policy Review, and several upcoming book chapters.

For more information, click here.

Racial Socialization, Identity, and Adjustment in Black and Biracial Youth

National Council on Family Relations
73rd NCFR Annual Conference (“Families and the Shifting Economy”)
Rosen Centre Hotel, Orlando, Florida
2011-11-16 through 2011-11-19

Session ID# 330
2011-11-08, 15:30-17:30 EST (Local Time)

Chair: Annamaria Csizmadia, Assistant Professor, Human Development & Family Studies
University of Connecticut, Stamford

Ethnic Identity Development and its Association With Behavioral Functioning During Early Childhood

Catherine Anicama
Departments of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Inst for Prevension Sci)
Langone Medical Center
New York University

Esther J. Calzada, Assistant Professor
Departments of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Inst for Prevension Sci) and Psychiatry
Langone Medical Center
New York University

An Examination of Biracial Identity Development Using a Qualitative Research Design

Shannon Bert, Professor of Human Relations
University of Oklahoma

Racial Socialization, Identification, and Black-White Biracial Children’s Behavior Trajectories

Annamaria Csizmadia

This symposium examines ethnic identity, socialization, and adjustment among Black and part-Black youth. The first paper investigates ethnic identity, socialization, and behavior problems among Black and Afro-Caribbean elementary-age children. Using a cross-sectional qualitative design, the second paper investigates personal and contextual predictors of Black-White biracial youth’s biracial identity development. The third paper uses growth modeling to study racial identification, cultural socialization, racial discussions, and Black-White children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior trajectories K through 5th grade. Together these papers highlight the dynamic interplay between ethno-racial identity, socialization practices, and adjustment in mono-and multiracial Black youth between the elementary and adult years.

For more information, click here.

“Best of both worlds” arguments are also problematic because at times they border on claiming a biracial identity is superior. While some biracial children may have exposure to diverse environments that gives them broad knowledge, it is unfair to assume that monoracial children cannot have this exposure or that biracial children do have this exposure… …Moreover, it is not safe to assume that a racially diverse set off experiences can translate into success.

Another problem with this argument is that it accepts the notion that the parents really are from “two different worlds” and necessarily have two different set of experiences that they share with their children. Parents of biracial children could have similar views about racial issues and similar socialization experiences. Moreover, they could both take the race blind approach to racial socialization, in which the differences of parents are denied of minimized. While very few couples in this study appeared to be raising their children in race blind manner, this is clearly a possibility.

Sullivan, Rachel. “Revisioning Black/White Multiracial Families: The Single-Parent Experience,” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Atlanta Hilton Hotel, Atlanta, GA, Aug 16, 2003.

Black-White interracial parenting in the Midwest: Naturalistic inquiry into race-related experiences, race identity choices, and education realities

University of South Dakota
May 2009
133 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3367641
ISBN: 9781109276206

Anita A. Manning

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education

On November 4, 2008, the United States of America elected the first biracial president, Barack Hussein Obama, a Black man of Black and White heritage. President Obama’s self-claimed identity reinforced this image. Many of the laws and ways of classifying people changed since President Obama’s generation and with these changes arose a growing population of people with one White parent and one Black parent. This group claimed neither a Black nor White identity, but rather a biracial identity. “Biracial is not currently a recognized racial category within the American cultural landscape” (Rockquemore & Brunsma, 2002, p. 336).

According to Root (1996), “The US Census (1992) reported that while the number of monoracial white babies was 15%, the number of Black/White biracial babies has grown almost 500%” (p. xv). For the first time in history, the number of biracial babies is increasing at a faster rate than the number of monoracial babies (p. xiv). Root (1996) referred to this phenomenon as the biracial baby boom (Root, 1996, p. xv).

This qualitative naturalistic inquiry study described the experiences of six interracial couples raising biracial children. The interracial couples consisted of Black men married to White women. The source of information for this study came from individual audio-recorded face-to-face interviews from the 12 participants. The interviews were transcribed, verified by the participants, and analyzed by the researcher and a peer debriefer for themes. Themes of the six interracial couple’s experiences emerged.

The overall consensus of the respondents was that society has not changed significantly during the past 10 years. The participants are still experiencing discrimination, racism, negative classification, social rejection, marginalization, negative stereotypes, exclusion, and ignorance from the members and practices of society.

Most of the participants’ experienced their children being excluded, marginalized, and forgotten at school, and shared situations of condemnation, name calling, and racist remarks. At parent conferences, practices of not having eye contact with the Black father and directing communication toward the White mother were reported.

The participants in this study voiced concern about teachers, principals, and administrators lacking knowledge in regard to the teaching of biracial students. Respondents stated that teachers had low expectations of biracial students and used low-level curriculum.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
  • Statement of Problem
  • Purpose of the Study
  • Research Questions
  • Significance of the Study
  • Definition of Terms
  • Delimitations
  • Assumptions
  • Organization of the Study
• 2. Review of Selected Literature
  • Historical Classification of People
  • Laws and Customs
  • Marriage
  • Parenting
  • Family Dynamics
  • Extended Families
  • Societal Issues
  • Identity Development
  • Racial/Ethnic Identity Development
  • Biracial Identity Development
  • Models of Biracial Identity Development
  • School Environment
  • School Practices
  • School Achievement
  • Teachers/Staff
  • Summary
• 3. Methodology
  • Purpose of the Study
  • Research Questions
  • Researcher’s Perspective
  • Participants
  • Data Collection
  • Data Analysis
  • Verification
  • Ethical Considerations
  • Dissemination of Results
• 4. Findings
  • Statement of the Problem
  • Purpose of the Study
  • Research Questions
  • Participants
  • Findings
  • Experiences Raising Biracial Children
    • Biracial Parenting
    • Identification/Classification
    • Family
    • President Obama
    • Society
  • Child Development
    • School Environment
    • School Practices/Achievement
    • Teachers
  • Recommendations for Respondents about Making Improvements
    • Society
    • Schools
  • Summary
• 5. Summary Conclusion, Discussion, and Recommendations
  • Summary
    • Purpose of the Study
    • Research Questions
    • Literature Review Summary
    • Methodology
    • Findings
  • Conclusions
  • Discussion
  • Recommendations
    • Recommendations for Practice
  • Recommendations for Further Study
• References
• Appendixes
  • A. Interview Protocol Questions
  • B. Invitation to Participate
  • C. Informed Consent
  • D. Audit Trail

Statement of the Problem

What did parents in this study believe their children experienced in the Midwest in the largest urban environment in South Dakota? This study was designed to explore through a naturalistic research model how a selected small group of these parents experienced the social and educational environment of the community of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a city of increasing diversity. Additionally, this study was designed by a researcher who herself is a White mother with a Black husband and has raised their son in this environment. The study asked a group of interracial parents what they perceived their biracial children experienced and what meaning the parents ascribed to these experiences that affected the maturation of the children.

There are few research studies that explore interracial parental perceptions of the experiences and meanings that these parents believe their children experience. While literature on self-identity is extensive, little is written to identify what an increasing number of interracial parents in an urban center in the Midwest (Sioux Falls, South Dakota) have seen as the experiences of their children. The problem of this study was to identify and explore parental perceptions regarding the matters of their children’s racial identity, personal efficacy, and self-worth that might influence social acceptance and educational achievement.

Purchase the dissertation here.

Cultural education of mixed heritage children by single mothers: A narrative inquiry of ethnic identity development

University of Wyoming, Laramie
May 2011
150 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3453892
ISBN: 9781124624242

Lay-nah Blue Morris

A Dissertation submitted to the Counselor Education and Supervision Department and the University of Wyoming in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in COUNSELOR EDUCATION AND SUPERVISION

The purpose of this study was to discover how single mothers of mixed heritage children educated their children on their culture and ethnicity. Through the process of narrative inquiry, the impact this education had on the development of the cultural and ethnic identity of these children, who are now adults, was also explored. This study contributes to understanding the identity formation of mixed heritage individuals and the implications for multicultural counseling.

Table of Contents

• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Acknowledgements
• Table of Contents
• CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
  • Statement of Problem
  • Purpose of Study
  • Research Questions
  • Discussion of Terms
• CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
  • The Nature of Identity
  • Ethnic Identity Development Models
  • Influential Factors Contributing to Ethnic Identity Development
  • Recognizing Racial Difference
  • Formation of Family Identity
  • Myths of Multiracial People
  • Transmission of Culture
  • How Families Transmit Culture and How This Impacts Ethnic Identity
  • Summary
• CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY
  • Conceptual Framework
  • Nature of Narrative Inquiry
  • Role of the Researcher
  • Research Questions
  • Participants
  • Data Sources
  • Interview Guide
  • Data Collection
  • Data Analysis
  • Research Ethics
  • Trustworthiness
  • Conclusion
• CHAPTER IV: PARTICIPANT NARRATIVES
  • Robert
  • Janet
  • Interlude
  • Ama
  • Neesa
  • Interlude
  • Michael
  • Gwen
  • Interlude
  • Summary
• CHAPTER V: CODA
  • Connection to Prior Research
  • Implications for Best Practices of Counselors
  • Implications for Counselor Education
  • Implications for Social Justice
  • Limitations
  • Future Research
• REFERENCES
• APPENDICES
  • IRBProposal
  • Informed Consent
  • Investigator Statement
  • Email to Participants

Purchase the dissertation here.