Mixed Race Studies

Comparing biracials and monoracials: Psychological well-being and attitudes toward multiracial people

The Ohio State University
2008
108 pages
Publication ID: AAT 3332205

Peter J. Adams

A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

The study of biracial individuals and their unique experience has been limited. As biracial individuals increase in number, understanding their experiences will become more important to psychologists and mental health professionals.

The purpose of the study was to compare biracial individuals and monoracial individuals on measures of psychological well being, ethnic identity, and attitudes towards biracial people. The present study examined one general research question and three hypotheses: General Research Question & Hypotheses . (1) Will scores on measures of ethnic identity, individual self-esteem, collective self-esteem, subjective well being, and attitudes toward biracial children significantly differ between biracial and monoracial groups? (2) Bracey, Bamara, and Umana-Taylor’s (2004) results on self-esteem and ethnic identity will be replicated in this study on adults. (3) When compared to monoracial individuals, biracial individuals will have significantly more positive attitudes towards biracials (4) A positive relationship exists between psychological well being and attitudes towards biracials for biracial individuals.

Participants completed a web-based survey from an undisclosed location of their choosing. Participants were solicited from various multicultural and professional psychology list serves and through Ohio State University’s Research Experience Program.

Results indicated that biracial adults appear to be as psychologically well adjusted as their monoracial counterparts. Results even suggested that biracial adults have more realized ethnic identities than their monoracial counterparts. Bracey et al.’s (2004) results were replicated in the present study (biracials were found to be as psychologically well adjusted as monoracials). Also, a positive relationship was found between biracial individuals’ psychological well being and their attitudes towards multiracial children. Support for the second hypothesis was not found – biracial individuals in the study did not have more positive attitudes toward biracials than their monoracial counterparts.

Implications of the findings along with the limitations of the study are discussed. Recommendations of future research are also given.

Purchase the dissertation here.

Color Struck: Essays on Race and Ethnicity in Global Perspective

University Press of America
April 2010
516 pages
Paper ISBN: 0-7618-5064-3 / 978-0-7618-5064-9
Electronic ISBN: 0-7618-5092-9 / 978-0-7618-5092-2

Edited by

Julius O. Adekunle, Professor of History
Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey

Hettie V. Williams, Lecturer, African American History
Department of History and Anthropology
Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey

Color Struck: Essays of Race and Ethnicity in Global Perspective is a compilation of expositions on race and ethnicity, written from multiple disciplinary approaches including history, sociology, women’s studies, and anthropology. This book is organized around a topical, chronological framework and is divided into three sections, beginning with the earliest times to the contemporary world. The term “race” has nearly become synonymous with the word “ethnicity,” given the most recent findings in the study of human genetics that have led to the mapping of human DNA. Color Struck attempts to answer questions and provide scholarly insight into issues related to race and ethnicity.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction

Part 1: The First Complex Societies to Modern Times

1. Race, Science, and Human Origins in Africa
Julius O. Adekunle

2. Race and the Rise of the Swahili Culture
Julius O. Adekunle

3. ‘Caste’-[ing] Gender: Caste and Patriarchy in Ancient Hindu Jurisprudence
Indira Jalli

4. Comparative Race and Slavery in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity: Texts, Practices, and Current Implications
Magid Shihade

5. The Dark Craven Jew: Race and Religion in Medieval Europe
James M. Thomas

6. Growth of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Racial Slavery in the New World
Kwaku Osei Tutu

7. The Yellow Lady: Mulatto Women in the Suriname Plantocracy
Hilde Neus

Part 2: Race and Mixed Race in the Americas

8. Critical Mixed Race Studies: New Approaches to Resistance and Social Justice
Andrew Jolivétte

9. Militant Multiraciality: Rejecting Race and Rejecting the Conveniences of Complicity
Rainier Spencer

10. Whiteness Reconstructed: Multiracial Identity as a Category of “New White”
Kerry Ann Rockquemore and David L. Brunsma

11. Conversations in Black and White: The Limitations of Binary Thinking About Race in America
Johanna E. Foster

12. The Necessity of a Multiracial Category in a Race-Conscious Society
Francis Wardle

13. Mixed Race Terminologies in the Americas: Globalizing the Creole in the Twenty First Century
DeMond S. Miller, Jason D. Rivera, and Joel C. Telin

14. Examining the Regional and Multigenerational Context of Creole and American Indian Identity
Andrew Jolivétte

15. Race, Class, and Power: The Politics of Multiraciality in Brazil
G. Reginald Daniel and Gary L. Haddow

16. All Mixed Up: A New Racial Commonsense in Global Perspective
G. Reginald Daniel and Gary L. Haddow

Part 3: Race, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Contemporary Societies

17. Black No More: African Americans and the ‘New’ Race Science
Hettie V. Williams

18. Contesting Identities of Color: African Female Immigrants in the Americas
Philomina Okeke-Ihejirika

19. Burdened Intersections: Black Women and Race, Gender, and Class
Marsha J. Tyson Darling

20. Ethnic Conflicts in the Middle East: A Comparative Analysis of Communal Violence within the Matrix of the Colonial Legacy, Globalization, and Global Stability
Magid Shihade

21. Ethnic Identity in China: The Politics of Cultural Difference
Dru C. Gladney

22. Shangri-la has Forsaken Us: China’s Ethnic Minorities, Identity, and Government Repression
Reza Hasmath

23. The Russian/Chechen Conflict and It’s Consequences
Mariana Tepfenhart

Contributors
Index

Chameleon Changes: An Exploration of Racial Identity Themes of Multiracial People

Journal of Counseling Psychology
Volume 52, Number 4 (October 2005)
pages 507-516
DOI: 10.1037/0022-0167.52.4.507

Marie L. Miville
Teachers College, Columbia University

Madonna G. Constantine
Teachers College, Columbia University

Matthew F. Baysden
Oklahoma State University

Gloria So-Lloyd
Oklahoma State University

The current study explored essential themes of racial identity development among 10 self-identified multiracial adults from a variety of racial backgrounds. Participants were interviewed using a semistructured protocol, and the interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then coded for themes by research team members. Four primary themes were identified: encounters with racism, reference group orientation, the “chameleon” experience, and the importance of social context in identity development. A number of subthemes also were identified. Although several of the themes mirrored those associated with contemporary biracial and multiracial identity development models, new themes centering on the adoption of multiple self-labels reflecting both monoracial and multiracial backgrounds emerged as well. Implications of the findings for future research and practice are identified.

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Multiracial-heritage awareness and personal affiliation: Development and validation of a new measure to assess identity in people of mixed race descent

Fordham University
2003-03-05
222 pages
Publication ID: AAT 3098135

SooJean Choi-Misailidis

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Psychology at Fordham University

The Multiracial-Heritage Awareness and Personal Affiliation (M-HAPA) Theory was proposed to account for mixed race identity. M-HAPA Theory suggests that mixed race identity could be conceptualized by three identity types: Marginal Identity Status, in which the individual does not affiliate with any of the racial groups in their heritage; Singular Identity Status, in which an individual affiliates solely with one racial group in their heritage; and Integrated Identity Status, in which the mixed race individual integrates many racial groups into their identity.

A self-report measure (M-HAPAs), based on the M-HAPA Theory, was devised and administered to a diverse group of 364 multiracial individuals. Participants were recruited through three major universities in Hawaii. Psychometric properties of the measure were evaluated; the new instrument demonstrated good internal consistency reliability. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that though both 3- and 4-factor models were interpretable, the extraction of the 4-factor model was indicated. Further examination of the results of the exploratory factor analysis revealed that Integrated Identity Status was composed of two sub-types: the Combinatory Factor, in which the mixed race individual integrates their affiliations with all of the racial groups in their heritage into their identity; and the Universality Factor, in which the individual identifies with the commonalities among all racial groups.

Construct validity was evaluated by comparing the participants’ responses on the M-HAPAs to measures of ethnic identity, ego identity, self-esteem and social desirability. The findings were, in general, consistent with hypotheses drawn from the preponderance of literature that suggested relationships between these variables. The results of the current study lend support to the validity of the proposed Multiracial-Heritage Awareness and Personal Affiliation Theory.

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Relation of multiracial identity statuses to psychosocial functioning and life satisfaction

State University of New York, Albany
2007
129 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3272360
ISBN: 9780549120537

Krista Marguerite Damann

The current “multiracial baby boom” (i.e., the steady increase in this population as well as in the ability to identify them from census data) underscores the need for research on normative experiences of mixed race individuals. The current study, which tested the relation of multiracial identity statuses to psychosocial functioning, was based on the Multiracial-Heritage Awareness and Personal Affiliation (M-HAPA) theory of multiracial identity, developed by Choi-Misailidis (2004). This identity model consists of four multiracial identity statuses: (a) marginal, or lack of affiliation with any racial group, (b) singular, or the affiliation with one racial group to the exclusion of others, (c)  integrated-combinatory, or an identification that combines the racial heritages of both parents, and (d) integrated-universality, or a sense of connection with members of other racial groups. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to explore the degree to which the four multiracial identity statuses as defined in the M-HAPA theory differentially predicted self-reported self-esteem, depression, life satisfaction, and social functioning in a national sample of nonclinical multiracial adults.

Results indicated that as a group, the four M-HAPA statuses significantly predicted substantial, unique proportions of variance in participants’ reported self-esteem, depression, life satisfaction, and social functioning, over and above various demographic factors (i.e., age, annual income, education level, marital status, and current mental health treatment). However, only two of the four identity statuses, marginal and integrated-combinatory, were uniquely associated with the criterion variables. As predicted, the marginal status was associated with relatively poorer psychosocial functioning, whereas the integrated-combinatory was associated with relatively better psychosocial functioning. Moreover, as predicted, no unique relationship was found between singular and levels of depression. As a group, the multiracial identity statuses accounted for the greatest variance in social functioning (21%).

All results are tempered by the mediocre fit of the data to the M-HAPA model, as indicated by a confirmatory factor analysis and by the small proportion of the sample endorsing “some agreement” with the marginal and singular identity statuses.

The results are discussed with respect to theory, research, and practice. Suggestions for further study of this understudied population are provided.

Purchase the dissertation here.

Multiracial Identity Week at Brown University

Multiracial Identity Week
Brown Univeristy
2010-10-24 through 2010-10-31

Featured Event: Convocation with Rebecca Walker

Rebecca Walker, one of Time magazine’s 50 most influential leaders of her generation, will give the opening address for the Third World Center’s Multiracial Identity Week. The author of three anthologies and two memoirs, including Black, White, and Jewish: An Autobiography of a Shifting Self, Walker’s work offers new approaches to ideas about race, class, culture, and the evolution of the human family. Following the address, Walker will sign copies of her books. This event takes place at 7 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Learning, De Ciccio Family Auditorium.

For more information, click here.

Letter to the Editor: Multi-ethnic clubs benefit community

Daily Bruin
University of California, Los Angeles
2010-10-18

Thomas Lopez, Alumnus
University of California, Berkeley

What’s in a name?

Answering that question can be difficult for some multiracial students. So often throughout history, names have been given for us, many of them pejorative, that it becomes difficult for multiracial people to pick just one. I suppose it’s no wonder, then, that when we choose to name ourselves, or the organizations we form, that someone will take an affront to it.

Salim Zymet, in his article “UCLA needs more than just one multiethnic club” (Oct. 12), seems to be simultaneously lamenting the dearth of multiethnic/multiracial organizations as well as the proliferation of others. It is unclear what organizations he may be a member of, if any, although he does make it clear that he “would never fathom joining the Hapa Club because of the word’s association to Asian heritage.”

I have been active in the multiracial community for almost 20 years in various organizations. This community includes multiracial and multiethnic people, interracial couples and trans-racially adoptive families. I believe that the more awareness we raise about the multiracial community, the better society may become.

I may not have the solution to Mr. Zymet’s dilemma, but I can offer up this story. During the early ’90s I was an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley. I joined a student group there called the Multicultural Interracial Students Coalition (MISC) or “miscellaneous” for short. A little tongue-in-cheek, I know, but better than the original name Students of Interracial Descent…

Read the entire letter here.

Nella Larsen and the Veil of Race

American Literary History
Volume 9, Number 2 (Summer, 1997)
pages 329-349

George Hutchinson

People see what they want to see, and then they’ll claim you.  Not claim you, but label you. Because it’s not really about claiming you.  The white people don’t want you around.  You’re not really white… And for Blacks—and it’s not for all Blacks—there’s sort of this feeling that, yeah, she is black and yes, we’ll call her black, but she’s not black like we are… I was recognized by the black community as an outstanding black student, of course.  That used to upset me, that they would claim me because I did well academically, but I wasn’t a part of their world.

Heidi Durrow, daughter of Danish mother and African-American father, quoted in Lise Funderburg, Black, White, Other

White studies of cultural syncretism, transnationalism, and “hybridity” have lately become all the rage, there is one area in which claims of racially “hybrid” identity are still subtly resisted, quietly repressed, or openly mocked.  The child of both black and white parents encounters various forms of incomprehension in a society for which “blackness” and “whiteness” seems to constitute two mutually exclusive and antagonistic forms of identity.  Moreover, the shift to terms presumably marking ethnic or cultural descent—“European” and “African”—has done little to clarify the situation of those “black” subjects who are at the same time, say, German, or, as in the case of the young woman quoted above, Danish-American.

For more than a decade, the strongest Nella Larsen scholarship has been motivated by a reaction against earlier approaches to her fiction that stressed the importance of biracial subjectivity, connected to fiction of the “tragic mulatto.”  The best recent criticism tends to focus on other issues, particularly feminist themes.  Often the difficulties of Larsen’s mulatto characters are treated as metaphors for supposedly more important issues such as black and/or female identity generally…

Read or purchase the article here.

The Influence of Bob Marley’s Absent, White Father

The Dread Library
Essays from the University of Vermont Class, Rhetoric of Reggae Music
2002-04-30

Scott Gurtman

My fadda was a guy yunno, from England here, yunno?  Him was like…like you can read it yunno, it’s one o’dem slave stories: white guy get the black woman and breed her.  He’s a English guy…I t’ink.  Cos me see him one time yunno.  My mother?  My Mother African.”   (Bob Marley, 1978)

The psychological aftermath of being an abandoned child of a biracial marriage was something that heavily influenced reggae superstar Bob Marley for his entire career.  Many of Marley’s most loyal fans and the vast majority of reggae enthusiasts are unaware that he was, indeed, born to a white father, Captain Norval Marley, and a black mother, Cedella Booker.  Bob Marley grew up angry with his father who he felt had mistreated him and his mother. Marley was also partially ashamed of his white heritage.  This childhood mentality of resentment and embarrassment sculpted Marley’s youth and eventually influenced the ideals and work of his musical genius for his entire career.  The sentiment of abandonment and the lack of a father figure forced Bob Marley to look to other means, like the ideals of Rastafarianism, for direction, comfort, and a sense of belonging.  The strong allegiance to black culture that resulted from the absence of his white father also partially attributed to Marley’s unwaveringly sense of Pan-Africanism.  The imperfections and almost total absence of Bob Marley’s Caucasian father, Captain Norval Marley, had a profound psychological influence on the great reggae icon…

Read the entire article here.

On Racial Frontiers: The New Culture of Frederick Douglass, Ralph Ellison, and Bob Marley

Cambridge University Press
June 1999
342 pages
8 b/w illus.
Size: 228 x 152 mm
Paperback ISBN-13: 9780521643931; ISBN-10: 0521643937

Gregory Stephens

Douglass, Ellison and Marley lived on racial frontiers. Their interactions with mixed audiences made them key figures in an interracial consciousness and culture, integrative ancestors who can be claimed by more than one group. An abolitionist who criticized black racialism; the author of Invisible Man, a landmark of modernity and black literature; a musician whose allegiance was to “God’s side, who cause me to come from black and white.” The lives of these three men illustrate how our notions of “race” have been constructed out of a repression of the interracial.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• 1. Interraciality in historical context
• 2. Frederick Douglass as integrative ancestor: the consequences of interracial co-creation
• 3. Invisible community: Ralph Ellison’s vision of a multiracial ideal democracy
• 4. Bob Marley’s Zion: a trans-racial ‘blackman redemption’