I prefer mixed race over multiracial, to distance myself from those who wanted to create a new category for racially mixed people. |
Continuing this discussion of terminology, I prefer mixed race over multiracial, to distance myself from those who wanted to create a new category for racially mixed people. Coverage of the 2000 census gave the impression that all within the Multiracial Movement wanted this. In reality, most wanted some useful identifier of mixed heritage, and the decision to implement multiple checking was satisfactory to them. The faction that did want a new category tended to believe that there was a true, singular, multiracial consciousness that united racially mixed people across race, class, gender, and geography. Because mixed-race experiences are so varied, I reject this notion. Similarly, I avoid labels that connote specific configurations of mixing, for example, hapa or biracial. The former hails from the native Hawaiian term hapa haole and often refers to mixed Asian and white individuals. It is a term popular with racially mixed Asian Americans to express pride in their mixture. At the hands of scholars of mixed race, Multiracial Movement activists, and journalists, the latter term often refers to mixed black and white individuals. Although the word is indeterminate, its use reinforces the notion that race in the United States is only about blacks and whites.
Greg Carter, The United States of the United Races: A Utopian History of Racial Mixing, (New York: New York University Press, 2013), 9.
Tags: Greg Carter, New York University Press