The Mulatto Advantage: The Biological Consequences of Complexion in Rural Antebellum Virginia

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

A separate category for mixed race is necessary to redress the unique harms targeting mixed-race persons. In order to be most effective any scheme proposing such a category must address many pitfalls and complexities in Title VII doctrine. Any categorization must be flexible, just as race can be fluid and contextual. The general argument against a separate category for mixed race ignores the fact that courts are in the midst of selectively choosing where to embrace it and that society already constructs such a category for some individuals. Instead, we must examine the treatment of individuals based on belonging to this category, not the harm of merely being categorized. Many participants of the contemporary discourse argue for why the category is beneficial as a general matter, and these arguments demonstrate possible benefits to adopting such a category in Title VII.

Scot Rives, “Multiracial Work: Handing Over the Discretionary Judicial Tool of Multiracialism,” UCLA Law Review, Volume 58, Number 5 (2011): 1334-1335.

The Mulatto Advantage: The Biological Consequences of Complexion in Rural Antebellum Virginia

The Mulatto Advantage: The Biological Consequences of Complexion in Rural Antebellum Virginia

Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Volume 33, Number 1 (Summer 2002)
pp. 21-46
E-ISSN: 1530-9169; Print ISSN: 0022-1953
DOI: 10.1162/00221950260029002

Howard Bodenhorn, Professor of Economics
Clemson University

Although historians have long noted that African-Americans of mixed-race in the antebellum Lower South were given economic and social preference over those with darker skin, they have denied that people of mixed race received special treatment in the antebellum Upper South as well. Examination of data on the registrations of free African-Americans in antebellum Virginia, however, reveals that adolescents and adults with lighter complexions tended to have a height advantage, which suggests that they enjoyed better nutrition.

Tags: Howard Bodenhorn, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Virginia

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Mixed Race Studies

The Mulatto Advantage: The Biological Consequences of Complexion in Rural Antebellum Virginia

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