Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

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  • Scores of Gouldtown men quietly slipped away from their homes and joined the Union Army as white men.

    The Civil War afforded the community of free Negroes an opportunity to show their solidarity with their enslaved brothers in the South. Anti-Confederate feeling was so strong in Gouldtown [in New Jersey] that all the men offered to fight. The community officially informed President Lincoln that it could raise a regiment of colored men burning with a great zeal to help defeat the armies of the slaveholders. When that offer was rejected by the government, the entire community felt rebuffed. Scores of Gouldtown men quietly slipped away from their homes and joined the Union Army as white men.

    “America’s Oldest Negro Community,” Ebony, February 1952: 42-46.

  • Elizabeth Fenwick Adams – Did she or didn’t she? A family history mystery.

    Elizabeth Fenwick Adams – Did she or didn’t she? A family history mystery.

    Historic Places in South Jersey
    2011-03-07

    J. Wright

    Twice this past week on gloriously sunny days that smelled of spring, friends and I headed down the highway on the trail of the mystery of Elizabeth Fenwick Adams and her alleged connection with the family that founded Gouldtown, a unique and remarkable tri-racial community in South Jersey.

    Elizabeth Fenwick Adams and Gouldtown were not my only reasons for heading as far south as Greenwich, however. This year is the sesqui-centennial of the Civil War and I was also still on the hunt for the Underground Railroad and South Jersey’s fascinating AfroAmerican history including the Ambury Hill Cemetery.

    The first of the two days, a friend and I researched Othello and Springtown. Once we’d arrived at Greenwich, the only town in New Jersey that I could actually imagine myself moving to, we stopped in at the Cumberland County Historical Society Library. The people there are kind, generous and friendly. Armed with their directions, maps, and knowledge, we drove to the “head of Greenwich” on Ye Greate Street, and up on a lonesome bluff, we found Ambury Hill, home of some veterans of the Civil War and the “Colored” Regiment from Cumberland County…

    …Well, for Elizabeth’s story, we have to go back much further, to the arrival of the Fenwick family on the ship Griffin. This story stirs up a lot of debate over oral history and documentary history. The document that exists and gives the oral history some credibility is the will of John Fenwick, the original proprietor of the area. Written just before his death, in 1683. Variations on the quotation of the paragraph in the will exist in different web sites and books, but the gist of it as written in Rizzo’s book is:

    “Item: I do except against Elizabeth Adams of having any ye least part of my estate, unless the Lord open her eyes to see her abominable transgression against him, me and her good father, by giving her true repentance, and forsaking yt Black yt hath been ye ruin of her, and becoming penitent for her sins; upon yt condition only I do will and require my executors to settle five hundred acres of land upon her”

    Genealogical accounts have Elizabeth Fenwick Adams marrying an other colonist, Anthony Windsor, several days after grandfather’s will. Oral tradition of the Gouldtown residents has it that she and the original Gould had five children. No information remains on what happened to the three daughters, and one son died, which left Benjamin Gould, who married a Finnish woman and founded Gouldtown. It is said that their graves, Benjamin and his Finnish wife, are in the cemetery at Gouldtown. Information on the succeeding generations plus a really fine large group photo of the Goulds is available on-line in The Southern Workman, Vol 37, by the Hampton Institute via a google search…

    Read the entire article here.

  • Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black

    Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black

    Plume, an imprint of Penguin
    February 1996
    304 pages
    5.35 x 7.95in
    Paperback ISBN: 9780452275331
    ePub eBook ISBN: 9781440665813
    Adobe eBook ISBN: 9781440665813

    Gregory Howard Williams, President
    University of Cincinnati

    Awards

    • Los Angeles Times Book Prize
    • Friends of American Writers Award: Nominee
    • Melcher Book Award: Nominee

    A stunning journey to the heart of the racial dilemma in this country.

    Table of Contents

    1. Acknowledgments
    2. The Open House Cafe
    3. The Midas Touch
    4. “Captain of My Soul”
    5. Rooster
    6. Learning How to Be Niggers
    7. Bob and Weave
    8. “Saved”
    9. Hustling
    10. Politics and Race
    11. The Color Line
    12. Accept the Things I Cannot Change
    13. Choices
    14. Go for It!
    15. Big Shoulders
    16. Persistence
    17. Teammates
    18. “Born in the Wilderness and Suckled by a Boar”
    19. State of Indiana v. Gregory H. Williams
    20. Mike: Like a Moth to Flames
    21. Tottering Kingdoms and Crumbling Empires
    22. Your Truly Mother

  • University of Cincinnati president has a unique perspective on his life as a black man

    University of Cincinnati president has a unique perspective on his life as a black man

    Cleveland Plain Dealer
    2011-09-11

    Karen Farkas

    CLEVELAND, Ohio—Gregory Williams says that in the five decades since he learned he was black and moved into a tarpaper shack with his black grandmother instead of a middle-class home with his white grandmother, the nation has made great progress in inclusion and diversity.

    But much still needs to be done, the University of Cincinnati president told the audience at the City Club of Cleveland on Friday.

    “Certainly there is less rigidity in America’s color line today than there was in the 1960s,” he said. “We live in a time, thankfully, where the ‘multiracial’ population is growing and barely raises an eyebrow these days. Yet all of us can be yanked back across the line by a look, a so-called ‘joke’ or a tense reception in the so-called ‘wrong’ neighborhood.”

    Williams, who has been at UC for two years, spoke of his life as a black man who looks white and his views on race and several times asked “Why is it taking so long?” to speed racial healing in the nation…

    …Williams, who said he came to view himself as African-American, eventually wrote an award-winning and best-selling memoir, “Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black.” He also earned numerous degrees, leading to a career in academia…

    …Following his speech, a man in the audience asked why Williams didn’t try to live as a white man after he got older.

    “In Indiana I was ostracized for being black, and if I abandoned those who were willing to stand by me, I’d have no principles at all,” Williams responded…

    Read the entire article here.

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

    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.

  • The Mixed-Race Experience: Treatment of Racially Miscategorized Individuals under Title VII

    The Mixed-Race Experience: Treatment of Racially Miscategorized Individuals under Title VII

    Asian American Law Review
    University of California
    Volume 12 (2005)

    Ken Nakasu Davison

    This article argues that the static legal construction of race has the dangerous potential to permit cases of racially-based discrimination, thus circumventing its prohibition in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The author challenges the classification of race as an “immutable characteristic,” demonstrating how some physical characteristic by which employers are legally allowed to discriminate are actually grounded in individuals’ racial backgrounds. Lastly, the author uses the miscategorization of mixed-race individuals as a case study of the dangers and limitations of race as an immutable characteristic, instead arguing for a comprehensive understanding of race as a social construct.

    I. Introduction
     
     One observer writes, “Race may be America’s single most confounding problem, but the confounding problem about race is that few people seem to know what race is.”  This remark poignantly captures the irony of race – that is, race still remains an enigma even though we live in a society in which race determines so much of our lives. Indeed, notions of race, to a large extent, govern our public and private identities by associating certain characteristics with socially constructed racial classes. Some characteristics that identify and associate a person with a racial group are susceptible to change and are viewed by the law as the result of mutable social forces. Under Title VII, some courts have adopted a mutability requirement under which employers may permissibly discriminate based upon “socially-driven” characteristics, even if they are a part of a person’s racial, sexual or ethnic identity. Social characteristics such as one’s language, manner of speech, style of hair, attire and choice of friends are all factors that are commonly viewed as indicators of a person’s racial ancestry, but remain unprotected under a mutability analysis.

    Foremost amongst indicators of race is phenotype, which is defined as the interaction of an individual’s gene structure with his or her surroundings to create physical appearance.  Phenotype indicators, such as hair texture, facial features, and skin color, are assumed to be based on biology and to provide an accurate indication of a person’s racial ancestry…

    Read or purchase the article here.

  • Developing critical race theory to study race and racism in China’s media: a case study of the chocolate girl’s bittersweet stardom on Go Oriental Angel

    Developing critical race theory to study race and racism in China’s media: a case study of the chocolate girl’s bittersweet stardom on Go Oriental Angel

    California State University, Sacramento
    Summer 2011
    105 pages

    Siok Kwan Teoh

    Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in COMMUNICATION STUDIES

    This study discusses the history, tenets, and evolution of Critical Race Theory (CRT), and how the theory can be developed for use in a mediated context and a Chinese context. This paper employs Lou Jing’s (a mixed-race reality show contestant in China) story as a case study while reflecting upon the role that China’s history, socio-economic influences, and politics have played in shaping the country’s contemporary outlook on racial identities and racism. The analysis shows that most CRT tenets have a multitude of uses in exploring race, racism, classism, and European and U.S. influence in Chinese society, and how power is manipulated by the government in China’s media outlets.

    Table of Contents

    • 1. INTRODUCTION
    • 2. BACKGROUND OF CRITICAL RACE THEORY
      • The History of Race
      • The History of Critical Race Theory
      • The Basic Tenets of Critical Race Theory
      • Criticisms of Critical Race Theory
      • The Evolving Nature of Critical Race Theory
      • Applications of Critical Race Theory
    • 3. BACKGROUND OF CHINA
      • The Racial Homogeneity Myth
      • Late Nineteenth Century and Racial Nationalism
      • Twentieth Century and the Myth of the Yellow Emperor
      • Contemporary China’s Racial Identities
      • Contemporary China and its Media Environment
      • Reality Television in China
    • 4. METHOD
      • Data Collection
      • The Chocolate Girl Case Study
    • 5. ANALYSIS
      • Racism is Ordinary
      • Intersectionality and Anti-Essentialism
      • The Social Construction of Race
      • Interest Convergence
      • The Use of Storytelling and Counter-Narratives
      • Whiteness
    • 6. CONCLUSION
      • Future Studies
    • References

    Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

    China has been continually evolving over the centuries to meet a variety of challenges that shaped the nation and led it from imperial rule to communism, and to its subsequent economic development that opened its doors to the rest of the world. In the twenty-first century, more foreigners are making China their home, resulting in Chinese people marrying foreigners and giving birth to mixed race children. The data from the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau show that, from 1994 to 2008, there was an average of 3,000 mixed race marriages a year in Shanghai. Even with the increasing mixed race marriage rate, China still likes to think of itself as monocultural instead of a multicultural nation (Elegant & Jiang, 2009). A popular televised singing competition in China called Go Oriental Angel featured a mixed race African American and Chinese contestant in the 2009 season. Lou Jing was born and raised in Shanghai by her Chinese mother, and essentially identifies as Chinese. However, her appearance on a nationally televised show caused a major uproar in China and brought about international attention to China’s issues of racism and the Chinese identity. If a reality-based television star had been criticized for her/his race by audience members in the United States, scholars from different fields including communication, sociology, and ethnic studies would have studied the phenomenon. Some of those scholars might have chosen a theory that could clarify why and how the United States’ history with race could lead to the audience reacting so negatively to the reality star’s race.

    Although a relatively new theory, academics and activists across the United States have employed Critical Race Theory (CRT) in legal, healthcare, education, criminal justice, and sports to examine the relationship between race, racism, and power. CRT is a specifically American theory based upon the socio-political history of the United States and mainly applied to study and change the policies that affect unequal treatments based upon race, especially in education and criminal justice issues. This thesis is a theoretical discussion on CRT, its history, implications, and the evolution of its scholarship; this theory also raises two questions about CRT: how can CRT be developed for use in a mediated context and how can it be developed for use in a Chinese context? This thesis employs the reality television program Go Oriental Angel and the story of Lou Jing as a case study to answer the two questions.

    First, this thesis will briefly investigate the socio-political racial history in Europe and in the United States to explain how race was created and used to justify slavery and segregation, and the relationship between race and the global capitalistic system. It will then introduce CRT and delve into its history, concepts, and tenets, as well as the critiques, applications, and evolution of the theory. To better understand how China perceives race and what it means to be Chinese, this thesis will investigate the myth of the Yellow Emperor that helped China develop and proliferate the notion of the monocultural Han Chinese identity, and it will then briefly discuss the issues in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries that shaped China’s Chinese identity. It also will examine contemporary China’s economic growth and how that growth has impacted the social and media environment of China particularly in the area of reality-based television programming. The show Go Oriental Angel and the treatment of its mixed-race contestant, Lou Jing by the show’s hosts and the Internet audience will be discussed. Based upon the literature review of CRT, China’s history, contemporary issues, and media environment, and utilizing Go Oriental Angel as a case study, this thesis will answer the questions of how CRT can be developed for use in a mediated context and how it can be developed for use in a Chinese context. Finally, this thesis will explore possible future studies of CRT that would accommodate a global perspective and a communication focus…

    Read the entire dissertation here.

  • Choosing to be Multiracial in America: The Sociopolitical Implications of the “Check All That Apply” Approach to Race in the 2000 U.S. Census

    Choosing to be Multiracial in America: The Sociopolitical Implications of the “Check All That Apply” Approach to Race in the 2000 U.S. Census

    Berkeley La Raza Law Journal
    Volume 21 (2011)

    Alaina R. Walker

    I. INTRODUCTION

    Race in America has long been a contentious subject, especially when the government has been involved. Race can mean something different to everyone, and yet, it is widely understood as having real implications and consequences. Many scholars understand that race is “a social construct[:] a social artifact, which results from a process through which social significance is attributed to some contingent attributes like skin color, and whose emergence, salience and influence can be studied and analyzed.” The government’s use of race has ranged from the horrific to the admirable, but has always been controversial. Analyzing the U.S. Census provides an interesting opportunity to discuss some of the significant roles race has played and continues to play in America. Racial data collected from the U.S. Census is currently used for the controversial purpose of furthering civil rights objectives, but some people worry that these objectives are now in danger. Due to the implementation of the “check all that apply” approach to the U.S. Census (the ability to select all races with which one identifies), critics are concerned that racial data will become convoluted and that civil rights objectives will be hindered. What is lacking from the conversation and arguably the civil rights agenda is the importance of the official recognition of multiracial identity, which the “check all that apply” approach acknowledges.

    Although multiracial identity should be recognized on the U.S. Census, it is necessary to analyze how its recognition in the form of the “check all that apply”…

    Read the entire article here.

  • Phil Wilkes Fixico to be featured guest on Mixed Chicks Chat

    Phil Wilkes Fixico to be Featured Guest on Mixed Chicks Chat

    Mixed Chicks Chat (The only live weekly show about being racially and culturally mixed. Also, founders of the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival) Hosted by Fanshen Cox, Heidi Durrow and Jennifer Frappier
    Website: TalkShoe™ (Keywords: Mixed Chicks)
    Episode: #225-Phil Wilkes Fixico
    When: Wednesday, 2011-09-14, 21:00Z (17:00 EDT, 16:00 CDT, 14:00 PDT)

    Phil Wilkes Fixico, Seminole Maroon Descendant, Creek and Cherokee Freedmen Descendant


    From “Mixed Race in the Seminole Nation,” in Ethnohistory, Volume 58, Number 1 (Winter 2011):

    This is a story of two hidden identities. It focuses on the family history of Phil Wilkes Fixico (aka Philip Vincent Wilkes and Pompey Bruner Fixico), a contemporary Seminole maroon descendant of mixed race who lives in Los Angeles. Phil is one-eighth Seminole Indian, one-quarter Seminole freedman, one-eighth Creek freedman, one-quarter Cherokee-freedman, and one-quarter African-American-white. His family history records that his paternal grandfather was the offspring of a Seminole Indian woman and a Seminole freedman, but that this “intermarriage” was kept secret from the Dawes Commission and the boy was enrolled as a “fullblood” Indian. This one union and the subsequent history of the family tell us a great deal about relations between Seminoles and freedmen in the Indian Territory and Oklahoma and about status and identity issues among individuals of mixed race within American society. With tragic irony, Phil’s parents also hid the identity of his biological father, echoing the story of his grandfather. Sensing family secrets and lies, young Phil experienced an identity crisis. Eventually discovering his father’s identity and his family history, Phil turned his life around. He has embraced his mixed-race heritage, connected with the Seminole maroon communities in Oklahoma, Texas, and Mexico, and become a creative and energetic tribal historian.

    Selected Articles about Phil Wilkes Fixico

    Listen to the episode here. Download the episode here.

  • He’s White, Unfortunately

    Obama’s ascent to the (still) White House is part and parcel of forty years of transition from the Jim Crow order to a new racial regime. Obama represents the sedimentation of a higher stage of the “new racism,” one described by Dylan E. Rodríguez as a “multiracial white supremacy.” In the new phase of racial regulation, the old sins—imperialism, neoliberal capitalism, and the racial order—work best in blackface.

    Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, “Chats: Is Obama Black, Bi-racial, or Post-racial?” Zócalo Public Square, September 7, 2011. http://zocalopublicsquare.org/thepublicsquare/2011/09/07/is-obama-black-bi-racial-or-post-racial/read/chats/