Mixed Race Studies

“… But … But I am Brown.” The Ascribed Categories of Identity: Children and Young People of Mixed Parentage

Child Care in Practice
Volume 13, Issue 2 (April 2007)
pages 83 – 94
DOI: 10.1080/13575270701201169

Annabel Goodyer, Principal Lecturer in Social Work
London South Bank University

Toyin Okitikpi

This paper explores the concept of the categorisation of social groups by looking at the issue of ascribed categories of identity for children and young people of mixed parentage. Our exploration of the knowledge-base in this area reveals that children and young people have clearly expressed views about their racial identity and that these views are broadly consistent across research studies. In essence, children and young people’s expressed views are that they are not mixed-race, black or white, but are in fact brown. The emerging sociology of childhood and the government’s current child participation agenda emphasise the centrality of children and young peoples’ perspectives on the provision of services that seek to support them. Through this perception, which places children and young people’s own understandings of their racial identity at the forefront of the analysis, we added fresh understandings to the existing data concerning ascribed categories of identity for children and young people of mixed parentage.

Read or purchase the article here.

Who Counts & Who’s Counting? 38th Annual Conference National Association for Ethnic Studies Conference

National Association for Ethnic Studies, Inc.
2010-04-08 through 2010-04-10
L’Enfant Plaza Hotel
Washington, D.C.

Dr. Larry Shinagawa, NAES 2010 Conference Chair

Our theme of “Who Counts and Who’s Counting” signals the importance of Washington, D.C. as a physical, cultural, and social nexus for policy decisions that will shape the 21st Century. With the 2010 Census signaling the dramatic changes that are affecting all ethnic and racial communities in the United States, who is doing the counting and how we construct the discourse and policies of who counts will be central to the future of all residents of the United States and will shape global relations around the world. We hope you will participate in this important dialogue; welcome to NAES 2010 in Washington, D.C.!

A paritial tenative program is below (All times are local EDT):

Session II – Thursday 10:30 – 10:45
Whiteness studies
Heidi Cooper, Emily Drew, Zaid Mahir

Racial classifications and stereotypes
Jamelia Bastien, Bonazzo Claude, Jacco van Sterkenburg

Session III – Thursday 13:30 – 14:45
Black identities
Janet Awokoya, Anne Brubaker, Yanyi Djamba, Mizaba Abedi

Defining Race
Tiffany King, Arturo Nunez, Maisha Wester

Session IV – Thursday 15:00 – 16:15
Beyond the binary of race
Kaysha Corinealdi, José Luis Morín, Jodie Roure

Session IX – Saturday 09:00 – 10:15
European Identities
Daniel Carawan, Jon Keljik, Elizabeth Onasch, Samantha Pockele

The race in “mixed” race? Reiterations of power and identity
Sue-Je Gage, Rainier Spencer, Nicole Truesdell

3 Questions: Melissa Nobles on the U.S. Census

MIT News
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2010-04-01

Melissa Nobles, Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

As America’s decennial headcount gets under way, an MIT political scientist discusses the history of race and ethnicity in the U.S. Census

April 1 marks National Census Day, the official date of this year’s U.S. Census. To help put the census in context, MIT News spoke with Associate Professor of Political Science Melissa Nobles, whose teaching and research interests span the comparative study of racial and ethnic politics, and issues of retrospective justice. Her book, “Shades of Citizenship: Race and the Census in Modern Politics” (Stanford University Press, 2000), examined the political origins and consequences of racial categorization in demographic censuses in the United States and Brazil.

Q. You’ve noted in your book that the initial impetus for census-taking was political, and yet the earliest censuses also included racial categories. Why are race and ethnicity included in the U.S. Census?

A. Census-taking in the U.S. is as old as the Republic. The U.S. Constitution mandates that an “actual enumeration” be conducted every 10 years to allow for representational apportionment. The initial impetus for census taking was political. Yet the earliest censuses also included racial categories. The inclusion of these categories offers important insights into the centrality of racial and ethnic identifications in American political, economic and social life. This centrality continues to this day…

…The 1850 census first introduced the category “mulatto,” at the behest of a southern physician, in order to gather data about the presumed deleterious effects of “racial mixture.” Post-Civil War censuses, which continued to include the “mulatto” category, reflected the enduring preoccupation with “racial mixing.”..

Read the entire article here.

Biracial Identity Development and Recommendations in Therapy

Psychiatry (Edgemont)
Volume 5, Number 11 (November 2008)
pages 37-44

Raushanah Hud-Aleem, DO
Department of Psychiatry
Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio

Jacqueline Countryman, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Department of Psychiatry
Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio

Identity development is an important area with which therapists who work with children should be familiar. The number of biracial children in the United States is increasing, and although this may not be the reason that a child presents for therapy, it is an area that often should be explored. This article will review the similarities and differences between Black and White racial identity development in the United States and address special challenges for the biracial child. Recommendations for treatment in therapy are reviewed.

Read the entire article here.

Biracial residents boxed in on U.S. census

MSNBC
2010-03-31

Mara Schiavocampo, Digital Correspondent
NBC Nightly News

We’ve asked viewers to tell us how their community has changed since the last census. One viewer from outside Olympia, Washingtonwrote in to tell the story of how diverse her community has become. NBC’s Mara Schiavocampo reports.

Racial Identity and Academic Performance: An Examination of Biracial Asian and African American Youth

Journal of Asian American Studies
Volume 2, Number 3 (October 1999)
pages 223-249
E-ISSN: 1096-8598 Print ISSN: 1097-2129
DOI: 10.1353/jaas.1999.0023

Grace Kao, Professor of Sociology, Education, and Asian American Studies
University of Pennsylvania

In the last three decades since the last anti-miscegenation laws were repealed, the United States has witnessed an increase in the number of multiracial persons, prompting a growing awareness of multiracial families.  The U.S. Census recently considered whether to add a multiracial category to the 2000 Census. Despite growing interest in the biracial population, there is little research on their psychological and socioeconomic outcomes. Does biracial status confer a relative disadvantage in psychological adaptation as early theorists warned? In turn, do biracials benefit in their socioeconomic outcomes relative to their ethnic counterparts? Using a nationally representative data set of youth (the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988), this article examines whether biracial youths encounter greater psychological difficulties as previous theorists suggest. I also examine whether the school outcomes of biracials more closely resemble that of their minority or white counterparts.

Read the entire article here.