Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

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  • American novelist & memoirist Danzy Senna to speak at University of Richmond English Department 2010-2011 Writers’ Series

    American novelist & memoirist Danzy Senna to speak at University of Richmond English Department 2010-2011 Writers’ Series

    University of Richmond
    Richmond, Virginia
    Brown-Alley Room, Weinstein Hall
    Wednesday, 2011-03-16 19:00 EST (Local Time)

    Danzy Senna is the author of two novels and a memoir that focus on issues of race, gender and cultural identity. Her debut novel, “Caucasia,” the story of two biracial sisters growing up in racially charged Boston during the 1970s, became an instant national bestseller. It won the Book-of-the-Month Club Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and an Alex Award from the American Library Association, was named Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and was a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Of mixed-race heritage, Senna writes extensively on the experience of being mistaken for white. Her latest work is a collection of short stories.

    For more information, click here.

  • Werner Sollors to speak at University of Richmond English Department 2010-2011 Writers’ Series

    Werner Sollors to speak at University of Richmond English Department 2010-2011 Writers’ Series

    University of Richmond
    Westhampton Living Room, Westhampton Center
    Richmond, Virginia
    2010-09-30 16:30 EDT (Local Time)

    Werner Sollors, Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Professor of English Literature and Afro American Studies; Director of the History of American Civilization Program
    Harvard University

    Werner Sollors is the Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Professor of English Literature and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. His major publications include “Beyond Ethnicity: Consent and Descent in American Literature and Culture;” “Neither Black Nor White Yet Both: Thematic Explorations of Interracial Literature;” and a book-length contribution on “Ethnic Modernism” in Sacvan Bercovitch’s “Cambridge History of American Literature.” With Greil Marcus he wrote “Ethnic Modernism and A New Literary History of America.”

    Sollors is the recipient of a 1981 Guggenheim Fellowship and the Constance Rourke award for the best essay in American Quarterly in 1990. In 2000 he was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and of the Bayerische Amerika-Akademie. His talk is entitled “The Rise of Ethnic Modernism in the US, 1910-1950.”

    For more information, click here.

  • The Race Construct and Public Opinion: Understanding Brazilian Beliefs about Racial Inequality and Their Determinants

    The Race Construct and Public Opinion: Understanding Brazilian Beliefs about Racial Inequality and Their Determinants

    The American Journal of Sociology
    Volume 108, Number 2 (September 2002)
    pages 406–39

    Stanley R. Bailey, Associate Professor of Sociology
    University of California, Irvine

    Researchers hold that the racial democracy ideology fosters a rejection of discrimination-based explanations for racial inequality, thereby affecting antiracist mobilization. This study finds that Brazilians understand the discriminatory basis of inequality and that an attitudinal dimension associated with racial democracy strongly increases the likelihood of that understanding. Negative stereotyping produces a smaller opposite effect, and “race” is not a significant predictor. Finally, Brazilian and American racial attitudes differ considerably in explaining black disadvantage. These findings question perceptions of Brazilian racial attitudes and the efficacy of
    dominant theories for their analysis, suggesting a context-driven approach to theorizing and for antidiscrimination strategizing.

    …BRAZILIAN RACIAL ATTITUDES AND THE MYTH OF RACIAL DEMOCRACY
    Historical Background

    Gilberto Freyre (1946) is credited with popularizing the notion of racial democracy in Brazil in the 1930s. Confronted with scientific racism beliefs in the superiority of a white race and that “mixed” blood created degeneracy, Freyre proposed instead that “cross-breeding” produced hybrid vigor in humans, thereby enabling a bright future for the otherwise condemned “dark” Brazilian nation. He emphasized an uncommon flexibility on the part of Portuguese colonizers that made possible extensive miscegenation, and he claimed that “mixed” Brazilians (of three races: Africans, Europeans, and Indigenous) gave birth to a new metarace, constituting a new world in the tropics (Freyre 1959).

    In this ideological construct, miscegenation became the motor behind Brazilian racial dynamics and racial democracy. Due to the extensive mixing, potential group boundaries blurred, rendering racism in the manner of U.S. segregation and polarization unintelligible. Unlike nations where ethnic and racial identities were stubbornly ascribed or asserted, in Brazil a universal national identity transcended particularist racial identification. What in other societies were considered incompatible social segments, and where group interests were national organizational principles, in Brazil they were united into Brazilianness. In sum, Brazilians viewed their society through “anti-racialism” lenses, as opposed to those of “racialism” in the United States (Guimarães 1999)…

    Read the entire article here.

  • Looking in the Cultural Mirror: How understanding race and culture helps us answer the question: “Who am I?”

    Looking in the Cultural Mirror: How understanding race and culture helps us answer the question: “Who am I?”

    Psychology Today
    2010-07-06

    Jefferson M. Fish, Ph.D.

    The Census and Race—Part I–Key Issues: What can science tell us about the census’s race questions? (2010-07-06)

    The 2010 Census is well on its way to completion. Its controversial questions about race have raised many issues that deserve to be explored in depth. This is the first post in a multi-part series dealing with the census’s race questions and what we can learn from them about science, politics, and American culture…

    The Census and Race—Part II—Slavery (1790-1860): How did the census deal with race during slavery? (2010-07-13)

    …The term “color”–not “race”– first appeared in the 1850 census, with three options: white, black, or mulatto; and these options were repeated in 1860. Whatever folk beliefs about “race” Americans may have held prior to the Civil War, they were of secondary importance. Instead, the census questions were organized around the institution of slavery, and were aimed at getting the information needed to apportion taxes and allocate congressional representation.

    The key to understanding these questions is political, not biological. The Three-Fifths Compromise, was the deal that made possible the formation of a national government consisting of both free states and slave states; and it did so by counting each slave as 3/5 of a person. (The constitution euphemistically avoided the words “slave” or “slavery” by referring to “other Persons.”) The interrelatedness of the three critical issues of congressional representation, the distribution of taxes, and the creation of the census is embodied in the way they are bound together in just two sentences. Here is the relevant part of Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution:..

    Read part II here.

    The Census and Race—Part III— Reconstruction to the Great Depression (1870-1940): How did the census deal with race during segregation? (2010-07-20)

    …The terms mulatto, quadroon, and octoroon reify the non-scientific American folk concept of blood. Blood is a biological entity, and many people inaccurately believe that it is the same as genes. The following explanation shows why they are wrong.

    Suppose that there are eight genes for race, so that a mulatto has four black genes and four white genes, a quadroon has two black genes and six white genes, and an octoroon has one black gene and seven white genes. Now suppose that a mulatto man and a mulatto woman have a lot of children. Each child would get half its genes from the father and half from the mother. One child might get all four white genes from each parent and be 100% white, another might get all four black genes from each parent and be 100% black, and other children might wind up with all the other possible combinations of white and black genes. However, American culture views mulattos as black (e.g., President Obama); and believes that two blacks cannot have a 100% white baby. This is why the folk concept of blood does not act like genes…

  • President Obama checks the “Black” box; Evidently it’s official: Barack Obama is the nation’s first black president.

    President Obama checks the “Black” box Evidently it’s official: Barack Obama is the nation’s first black president.

    Psychology Today
    2010-04-04

    Samantha Smithstein, Psy.D., Clinical and Forensic Psychologist and Co-Founder
    Pathways Institute for Impulse Control, San Francisco

    This week, the New York Times reported that “It is official: Barack Obama is the nation’s first black president.” Evidently, President Obama chose to check the “African-American” box when defining his race for the 2010 census

    …From the perspective of science and biological anthropology, race does not exist. In other words, there is not one gene, trait, or characteristic that distinguishes all members of one race from all members of another. In fact, eighty-five percent of all human variation can be found in any local population, and a full ninety-four percent can be found on any continent. In other words, there are no sub-species when it comes to humans; we are, in truth, one of the most genetically similar to each other species of all species on earth…

    Read the entire article here.

  • When the Options Are Open: Racial Identification of Part-American Indian Children in Census 2000

    When the Options Are Open: Racial Identification of Part-American Indian Children in Census 2000 

    Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
    Atlanta Hilton Hotel
    Atlanta, Georgia
    2003-08-16
    23 pages

    Carolyn A. Liebler, Assistant Professor of Sociology
    University of Minnesota

    I will use data on part-American Indian children in the 2000 Census 1 percent- PUMS data (expected March 2003) to assess my hypotheses that thick racial ties within the family constrain racial identification, and that structural aspects of the community (group size, inequality, and racial heterogeneity) affect racial identification when racial ties are thin within the family. I use the case of American Indians because their high levels of intermarriage and complex patterns of assimilation/identity retention for generations provide a varied group of people who could potentially identify their race as American Indian. Several hypotheses are supported by similar analyses using 1990 data, signifying that racial identification among people with mixed-heritage is affected by the social world beyond individual psychology and racial ties within the family. However, additional analyses using Census 2000 data are necessary because people of mixed heritage could mark multiple races (or a single race) in 2000. This freedom of choice in racial identification opens the door for new insights into patterns in and reasons behind racial identification among mixed-race people.

    Read the entire paper here.

  • “What are you?” Biracial Perceptions of Persistent Identity Questions when Bodily Appearances signify Race

    “What are you?” Biracial Perceptions of Persistent Identity Questions when Bodily Appearances signify Race

    Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association
    Sheraton New York
    New York, New York
    2005-05-26 through 2005-05-30
    23 pages

    Erica Butcher
    Ohio State University

    This qualitative study examines the perceptions of Biracial females persistently questioned about their identity when bodily appearance suggests race. The participants frequently approached by random strangers and questioned about their race, articulate how they interpret identity questions. The “What are you?” phenomenon that they routinely experience, is understudied in the fields of interpersonal communication, sociology and psychology. Social Legitimacy is considered in relation to acceptance of racial identities when bodily appearance is not consistent with expectations. The participants experiences suggest that many people still rely on appearance as a signifier of race despite the growing multiracial population in the U.S. This study raises questions for future research that should consider how changing demographics in the U.S. might influence perceptions of bodily appearance in conjuncture with the construct of race.

    Read the entire paper here.

  • Black Is, Black Ain’t: Biracials, Middle-Class Blacks, and the Meaning of “The Black Community”

    Black Is, Black Ain’t: Biracials, Middle-Class Blacks, and the Meaning of “The Black Community”

    Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting
    Hilton San Francisco
    San Francisco, California
    2009-08-09
    46 pages

    Cherise A. Harris, Assistant Professor of Sociology
    Connecticut College

    Nikki Khanna Sherwin, Assistant Professor of Sociology
    University of Vermont

    Various scholars have claimed that forging a sense of group cohesion amongst Black Americans is a necessary step toward Black liberation. Our research questions the extent to which group cohesion is possible given the increasing diversity of Black America, particularly its socioeconomic and cultural diversity. In in-depth interviews with 33 middle-class Blacks and 40 Black-White biracials, we explore the variation in the Black experience and the challenges this presents for group cohesion. Specifically, we examine: 1) the similarities and differences in the experiences of both groups, 2) their experiences with rejection and marginality by other Blacks, 3) how they negotiate this rejection, and 4) the extent to which all of the above are shaped by culturally constructed ideas of Blackness. As is consistent with other studies, we find that ideas about “authentic” Blackness have lead to a splintering of the Black community along class and racial-cultural lines. However, we also find evidence of greater tolerance for the community’s racial diversity than its class diversity. Nevertheless, the data presented here suggest that the increasing heterogeneity of Black America poses significant challenges to group cohesion and thus the ability to mobilize for the sake of racial advancement.

    …For Black-White biracials and middle-class Blacks, living between the prescribed cultural and class lines of Black America yield life experiences that differ significantly from what is considered the norm. As a result of their class status, Black middle-class Americans must often negotiate life in both Black and White spaces and frequently experience both spatial and philosophical differences from their Black working- and lower-class counterparts. Similarly, Black-White biracials must negotiate both of their racial heritages and manage their identities in both public and private ways. The experiences of these individuals indicate that living between the lines of socially constructed notions of Blackness carries a number of social and psychological implications. These realities raise questions about the degree to which both groups feel attached to other Blacks as well as the degree to which other Blacks feel attached to them, and thus the degree to which they perceive themselves and other Blacks as part of the fictive Black family, as Stubblefield proposes…

    Read the entire paper here.

  • Social Comparisons, Social Networks, and Racial Identity: The Case of Black-White Biracial Americans

    Social Comparisons, Social Networks, and Racial Identity: The Case of Black-White Biracial Americans

    Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting
    Hilton San Francisco
    San Francisco, California
    2009-08-08
    47 pages

    Nikki Khanna Sherwin, Assistant Professor of Sociology
    University of Vermont

    Cathryn Johnson, Professor of Sociology and Director of Graduate Studies
    Emory University

    A growing body of work examining biracial identity points to the importance of social networks in shaping racial identity, yet few studies explore how social networks shape identity. Adding to previous work, we discover a key process mediating between social networks and racial identity – social comparisons (Festinger 1954). Drawing on interview data with 40 black-white biracial Americans, we find that they compare themselves to others on several dimensions to shape their racial identities, and that they invoke both “realistic” comparisons (comparisons with real others) and “constructive” comparisons (comparisons with imagined others). We argue that the types of comparisons they use (whether “realistic” or “constructive”) are largely influenced by the racial composition of their networks and have implications for their racial identities. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical implications of these findings and offer two propositions regarding the relationships between social networks, social comparisons, and identity more generally.

    Read the entire paper here.

  • Biracial Identity Theory and Research Juxtaposed with Narrative Accounts of a Biracial Individual

    Biracial Identity Theory and Research Juxtaposed with Narrative Accounts of a Biracial Individual

    Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal
    Volume 27, Number 5 (October 2010)
    pages 355-364
    DOI: 10.1007/s10560-010-0209-6

    Simon Nuttgens, Professor of Psychology
    Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada

    With the increase in mixed-racial parentage in North America comes increased scholarly activity intended to bring greater understanding to the biracial experience. Such efforts, while undoubtedly informative and helpful, fall short when set aside the actual narrative accounts of a biracial individual’s life experience. In this paper I first explore the typical, negative, portrayal of the biracial experience found within social scientific literature, and then compare this with the narrative accounts of a biracial individual. Through this exercise it is shown that factors such as the specific racial parentage and socio-cultural context can have a positive effect on what usually is viewed as a problematic psychosocial experience.

    Read or purchase the article here.