Mixed Race Studies

Educational Policy, Politics, and Mixed Heritage Students in the United States

Journal of Social Issues
Volume 65, Number 1 (March 2009)
pages 165-183
DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.01593.x

Kristen A. Renn, Professor of Higher, Adult, & Lifelong Education
Michigan State University

This article describes local, state, and federal policies related to collecting, aggregating, and reporting data on student race and ethnicity in U.S. K-12 and postsecondary education. It traces data policy from the 1997 decision by the Office of Management and Budget to change from single-race reporting to a format that permits respondents to choose more than one race, to the October 2007 issuance of final guidance from the Department of Education. Taking a K-20 perspective, I consider how policies for data collection and reporting may affect educational and developmental outcomes for students, as well as local, state, and national education policy environments.

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Volume 65, Number 1 issue of Journal of Social Issues, (published by The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues) is entirely focused on mixed-race issues.

Journal of Social Issues
Volume 65, Number 1
pages 1-245
2009-03

You can read this issue online for free here or click on the individual articles below.

OVERVIEW AND INTRODUCTION

• When Race Becomes Even More Complex: Toward Understanding the Landscape of Multiracial Identity and Experiences (p 1-11); Margaret Shih, Diana T. Sanchez

MULTIRACIAL IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION

• Racing to Theory or Retheorizing Race? Understanding the Struggle to Build a Multiracial Identity Theory (p 13-34); Kerry Ann Rockquemore, David L. Brunsma, Daniel J. Delgado
• The Interpretation of Multiracial Status and Its Relation to Social Engagement and Psychological Well-Being (p 35-49); Kevin R. Binning, Miguel M. Unzueta, Yuen J. Huo, Ludwin E. Molina
• Multiracial Identity Integration: Perceptions of Conflict and Distance among Multiracial Individuals (p 51-68); Chi-Ying Cheng, Fiona Lee

MULTIRACIAL PEOPLE’S VIEWS OF RACE

• Multiracial Faces: How Categorization Affects Memory at the Boundaries of Race (p 69-86); Kristin Pauker, Nalini Ambady
• Exploring Multiracial Individuals’ Comfort with Intimate Interracial Relationships (p 87-103); Courtney M. Bonam, Margaret Shih

PERCEPTIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS OF MULTIRACIAL PEOPLE

• Policing the Borderlands: White- and Black-American Newspaper Perceptions of Multiracial Heritage and the Idea of Race, 1996–2006 (p 105-127); Michael C. Thornton
• To Disclose or Not to Disclose Biracial Identity: The Effect of Biracial Disclosure on Perceiver Evaluations and Target Responses (p 129-149); Diana T. Sanchez, Courtney M. Bonam

PUBLIC POLICIES AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES FOR MULTIRACIAL PEOPLE

• Is Valuing Equality Enough? Equality Values, Allophilia, and Social Policy Support for Multiracial Individuals (p 151-163); Todd L. Pittinsky, R. Matthew Montoya
• Educational Policy, Politics, and Mixed Heritage Students in the United States (p 165-183); Kristen A. Renn
• My Choice, Your Categories: The Denial of Multiracial Identities (p 185-204); Sarah S. M. Townsend, Hazel R. Markus, Hilary B. Bergsieker

COMMENTARY

• Plus ça Change? Multiraciality and the Dynamics of Race Relations in the United States (p 205-219); Frank D. Bean, Jennifer Lee

Policing the Borderlands: White- and Black-American Newspaper Perceptions of Multiracial Heritage and the Idea of Race, 1996–2006

Journal of Social Issues
Volume 65, Number 1 (March 2009)
pages 105-127
DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.01590.x

Michael C. Thornton
University of Wisconsin-Madison

By employing a new policy of “check all that apply,” the Census Bureau accommodated a mushrooming multiracial lobby demanding that its members be allowed a right to self-identification. With its implied shifting meaning of race, newspapers portrayed the reaction to this change as a firestorm of debate along racial fault lines, highlighted by Black-American inferences that this was a perilous decision. Using textual analysis, I examine from 1996 to 2006 how five Black-American and three White-American newspapers characterized multiracial people. White-American papers framed the discussion in two ways: (a) multiracial people epitomize a new era in which race has lost its bite, and (b) Black America stands in the way of their gaining their civil rights.  There were also two frames for the Black-American papers: (a) The lobby advocates individual identity and is undergirded by denial or distancing from Blackness, and (b) that focus undermines Black America’s future by playing into the misguided notion that race is socially insignificant.

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When Race Becomes Even More Complex: Toward Understanding the Landscape of Multiracial Identity and Experiences

Journal of Social Issues
Volume 65, Number 1 (March 2009)
pages 1-11
DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.01584.x

Margaret Shih
University of California, Los Angeles

Diana T. Sanchez
Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey

The explosion in the number of people coming from a multiracial heritage has generated an increased need for understanding the experiences and consequences associated with coming from a multiracial background. In addition, the emergence of a multiracial identity challenges current thinking about race, forcing scholars to generate new ideas about intergroup relations, racial stigmatization, social identity, social perception, discrimination, and the intersectionality of race with other social categories such as social class.  The present issue brings together research and theory in psychology, sociology, education, culture studies, and public policy surrounding multiracial identity and introduces new advances in thinking about race, intergroup relations, and racial identity.  In exploring multiracial identity, the issue will reexamine conceptualization of race and racial identification by examining the social experiences of multiracial individuals.

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My Choice, Your Categories: The Denial of Multiracial Identities

Journal of Social Issues
Volume 65, Number 1 (March 2009)
pages 185-204
DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.01594.x

Sarah S. M. Townsend
University of California, Santa Barbara

Hazel R. Markus
Stanford University

Hilary B. Bergsieker
Princeton University

Mixed-race individuals often encounter situations in which their identities are a source of tension, particularly when expressions of multiracial and biracial identity are not supported or allowed.  Two studies examined the consequences of this identity denial. In Study 1, mixed-race participants reported that their biracial or multiracial identity caused tension in a variety of contexts. Study 2 focused on one often-mentioned situation: completing a demographic questionnaire in which only one racial background can be specified.  Relative to mixed-race participants who were permitted to choose multiple races, those compelled to choose only one showed lower subsequent motivation and self-esteem.  These studies demonstrate the negative consequences of constraining mixed-race individuals’ expression of their chosen racial identity. Policy implications for the collection of racial and ethnic demographic data are discussed.

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Racing to Theory or Retheorizing Race? Understanding the Struggle to Build a Multiracial Identity Theory

Journal of Social Issues
2009
Volume 65, Number 1
pp. 13–34

Kerry Ann Rockquemore, Associate Professor
University of Illinois at Chicago

David L. Brunsma, Professor of Sociology
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Daniel J. Delgado
University of Missouri-Columbia

Empirical research on the growing multiracial population in the United States has focused largely on the documentation of racial identification, analysis of psychological adjustment, and understanding the broader political consequences of mixed-race identification. Efforts toward theory construction on multiracial identity development, however, have been largely disconnected from empirical data, mired in disciplinary debates, and bound by historically specific assumptions about race and racial group membership. This study provides a critical overview of multiracial identity development theories, examines the links between theory and research, explores the challenges to multiracial identity theory construction, and proposes considerations for future directions in theorizing racial identity development among the mixed-race population.

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