Mixed Race Studies

Raising Biracial Children

AltaMira Press an Imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing
November 2005
208pp
Cloth: 0-7591-0900-1 / 978-0-7591-0900-1
Paper 0-7591-0901-X / 978-0-7591-0901-8

Kerry Ann Rockquemore
University of Illinois

Tracey A. Laszloffy  

As the multiracial population in the United States continues to rise, new models for our understanding of mixed-race children and how their conception of racial identity must be developed.  A wide divide between academics who research biracial identity, and the everyday world of parents and practitioners who raise and deal with mixed-race children exists. This book aims to fill this gap by providing an extensive synthesis of the existing research in the field, as well as a model for better understanding the unique process of racial identity development for mixed-race children. Raising Biracial Children provides parents, educators, social workers, and anyone interested in multiracial issues with an accessible framework for understanding healthy mixed-race identity development and to translate those findings into practical care-giving strategies.

About the Authors
Kerry Ann Rockquemore is associate professor of African-American studies and sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is co-author of Beyond Black: Biracial Identity in America. Her research focuses on racial socialization in inter-racial families and racial identity development. Tracey A. Laszloffy is a marriage and family therapist in private practice in Connecticut. Prior to this she served on the faculty at Seton Hall University where she directed the masters level Marriage and Family Therapy Program. Dr. Laszloffy has published extensively in the area of race, oppression, and family therapy.

Table of Contents

• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Chapter One: Moving Beyond Tragedy: A Multidimensional Model of Mixed-Race Identity (Read the chapter here).
• Chapter Two: Acceptance and Denial: Shifting Our Gaze from Labels to Pathways
• Chapter Three: Racism in America: What Parents Need to Know
• Chapter Four: Starting at Home: Families and Racial Socialization
• Chapter Five: Beyond the Family: Community Influences on Racial Identity Development
• Chapter Six: More than Skin Deep: Appearances and Mixed-Race Identity
• Chapter Seven: Just between Sisters: The Intersection of Race and Gender in the Lives of Mixed-Race Girls
• Chapter Eight: Multiracialism in America: Reflections and New Directions
• Appendix A: Multiracial Organizations
• Appendix B: Online Resources
• Appendix C: Research and Reading for Interracial Families
• Appendix D: Movies and Documentaries
• References

Shades of Difference: A History of Ethnicity in America: Perspectives on Multiracial America

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
June 2006
208 pages
Cloth: 0-7425-4316-1 / 978-0-7425-4316-4
Paper 0-7425-4317-X / 978-0-7425-4317-1
 
Richard Rees, Assistant professor of American Literature
Antioch College

From its prehistory in the biological theories of racial difference formulated in the 1800s to its current position in academic debate, Richard Rees investigates the diverse fields of scholarship from which the multifaceted understanding of the term ethnicity is derived. At the same time, Rees traces the broader historical forces that shaped the needs to which the concept of ethnicity responded and the social purposes to which it was applied. Centrally, he focuses upon the emergence of ethnicity in the early 1940s as a means of resolving contradictions and ambiguities in the racial status of European immigrants and its subsequent legacy and implications on race and caste. Shades of Difference introduces new perspectives on the definition of “whiteness” in America, and makes an original contribution to the larger discussion of race through a detailed account of ethnicity’s original meaning and its revaluation when later appropriated by the discourse of Black Nationalism in the 1960s and 70s. Rees has produced a powerful new analysis of the cultural and political history of ethnicity in America.

Table of Contents

• The Invention of (the Concept of) Ethnicity
• Introduction: From the Invention of Race to the Rise of the Inbetween People, 1840 – 1924
• Whiteness and the Limits of the New Environmentalism
• Inventing Ethnicity in the Context of Race and Caste, 1930 – 45
• Black Ethnicity and the Transformation of a Concept, 1962 – 72
• Conclusion: Toward a Hybrid Discourse of Ethnicity

American Mixed Race: The Culture of Microdiversity

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
March 1995
420 pages
6 1/4 x 9 1/4
Cloth ISBN: 0-8476-8012-6 / 978-0-8476-8012-2
Paper ISBN: 0-8476-8013-4 / 978-0-8476-8013-9

Edited by Naomi Zack, Professor of Philosophy
University of Oregon

This exciting multidisciplinary collection brings together twenty-two original essays by scholars on the cutting edge of racial theory, who address both the American concept of race and the specific problems experienced by those who do not fit neatly into the boxes society requires them to check.

List of Contributors
Linda Alcoff, Debra A. Barrath, Jennifer Clancy, Susan Clements, F. James Davis, Abby L. Ferber, Carlos A. Fernandez, Freda Scott Giles, David Theo Goldberg, Susan R. Graham, Helena Jia Hershel. M. Annette Jaimes, Cecile Ann Lawrence, Zena Moore, Maria P.P. Root, Laurie Shrage, Stephen Satris, Carol Roh Spaulding, Mariella Squire-Hakey, Teresa Kay Williams, Bruentta R. Wolfman, and Naomi Zack.

Table of Contents

• Introduction – Naomi Zack
• Autobiography
  • Five Arrows – Susan Clements
  • Color Fades Over Time – Brunetta R. Wolfman
  • Racelessness – Cecile Ann Lawrence
  • Check the Box That Best Describes You – Zena Moore
  • What Are They? – Stephen Satris
• Art
  • From Melodrama to the Movies – Freda Scott Giles
  • The Theater of Identity – Teresa Kay Williams
  • The Go-Between People – Carol Roh Spaulding
• Social Science
  • The Hawaiian Alternative to the One-Drop Rule – F. James Davis
  • Some Kind of Indian – M. Annette Jaimes
  • Exploring the Social Construction of Race – Abby L. Ferber
  • Therapeutic Perspectives on Biracial Identity Formation and Internalized Oppression – Helena Jia Hershel
• Public Policy
  • Grassroots Advocacy – Susan R. Graham
  • Testimony of the Association of Multi Ethnic Americans – Carlos A. Fernàndez
  • Multiracial Identity Assertion in the Sociopolitical Context of Primary Education – Jennifer Clancy
  • Yankee Imperialism and Imperialist Nostalgia – Mariella Squire-Hakey
• Identity Theory
  • The Multiracial Contribution to the Psychological Browning of America – Maria P. P. Root
  • Made in the USA – David Theo Goldberg
  • Mestizo Identity – Linda Alcoff
  • Race and Racism – Debra A. Barrath
  • Ethnic Transgressions: Confessions of an Assimilated Jew – Laurie Shrage
  • Life After Race – Naomi Zack

Louisiana Creoles: Cultural Recovery and Mixed-Race Native American Identity

Lexington Books an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
December 2006
Cloth: 0-7391-1896-X / 978-0-7391-1896-2
Paper: 0-7391-1897-8 / 978-0-7391-1897-9

Andrew J. Jolivétte, Associate Professor of American Indian Studies
San Francisco State University

Foreword by Paula Gunn Allen

Louisiana Creoles examines the recent efforts of the Louisiana Creole Heritage Center to document and preserve the distinct ethnic heritage of this unique American population. Dr. Andrew Jolivétte uses sociological inquiry to analyze the factors that influence ethnic and racial identity formation and community construction among Creoles of Color living in and out of the state of Louisiana. By including the voices of contemporary Creole organizations, preservationists, and grassroots organizers, Jolivétte offers a comprehensive and insightful exploration of the ways in which history has impacted the ability of Creoles to self-define their own community in political, social, and legal contexts. This book raises important questions concerning the process of cultural formation and the politics of ethnic categories for multiracial communities in the United States. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the themes found throughout Louisiana Creoles are especially relevant for students of sociology and those interested in identity issues.

Table of Contents

• Foreword: Paula Gunn Allen
• Introduction: Who Is White?
• The Reconfiguring of Creole-Indian Identity in Louisiana: Situating the Other in Social Discourse
• Including Native Identity in the Creole of Color Movement: Ethnic Renewal and Cultural Revival within a Black-Indian Population
• Migratory Movement: The Politics of Ethnic Community (Re)Construction Among Creoles of Color, 1920-1940
• Examining the Regional and Multi-Generational Context of Creole and American Indian Identity
• Conclusion: (Re)Imagining and (Re)Writing Racial Categories

Beyond Black: Biracial Identity in America (Second Edition)

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
December 2007
220 pages
Cloth ISBN: 0-7425-6054-6 / 978-0-7425-6054-3
Paper ISBN: 0-7425-6055-4 / 978-0-7425-6055-0

By Kerry Ann Rockquemore and David L. Brunsma
Foreword by Joe Feagin

Beyond Black is a groundbreaking study of the dynamic meaning of racial identity for multiracial people in post-Civil Rights America. Kerry Ann Rockquemore and David Brunsma document the wide range of racial identities that individuals with one Black and one White parent develop, and they provide a incisive sociological explanation of the choices facing those who are multiracial.

Stemming from the controversy of the 2000 Census and whether an additional “multiracial” category should be added to the survey, this second edition of Beyond Black uses both survey data and interviews of multiracial young adults to explore the contemporary dynamics of racial identity formation. The authors raise even larger social and political questions posed by expanding racial categorization on the U.S. Census.

About the Authors
Kerry Ann Rockquemore is associate professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and coauthor of Raising Biracial Children.

David L. Brunsma is associate professor of sociology at the University of Missouri-Columbia and coeditor of The Sociology of Katrina: Perspectives on a Modern Catastrophe.

Table of Contents

• List of Tables and Figures
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword: Joe Feagin
• Chapter 1: Who is Black? Flux and Change in American Racial Identity
• Chapter 2: Biracial Identity Research: Past and Present
• Chapter 3: What it Means to be Mixed-Race in Post-Civil Rights America
• Chapter 4 : Sociological Factors Influencing Biracial Identity
• Chapter 5: The Color Complex: Appearances and Multiracial Identity
• Chapter 6: Who is Black Today and Who Will be Black Tomorrow?
• Endnotes
• Appendices
• References
• Index

Is That Your Child? Mothers Talk about Rearing Biracial Children

Lexington Books (an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield)
October 2008
146 pages
Hardback ISBN: 978-0-7391-2763-6
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-7391-2764-3
eBook ISBN: 978-0-7391-3208-1

By Marion Kilson and Florence Ladd

“Is That Your Child?” is a question that countless mothers of biracial children encounter whether they are African American or European American, rearing children today or a generation ago, living in the city or in the suburbs, are upper middle class or lower middle class. Social scientists Marion Kilson and Florence Ladd probe mothers’ responses to this query and other challenges that mothers of biracial children encounter.

Organized into four chapters, the book begins with Kilson and Ladd’s initial interview of one another, continues with an overview of the challenges and rewards of raising biracial children gleaned from their interviews with other mothers, presents profiles of mothers highlighting distinctive individual experiences of biracial parenting, and concludes with suggestions of positive biracial parenting strategies.

This book makes a unique contribution to the growing body of literature by and about biracial Americans. Although in the past twenty years biracial Americans like Rebecca Walker, June Cross, and James McBride have written of their person experiences and scholars like Kathleen Korgen, Maria Root, and Ruth Frankenberg have explored aspects of the biracial experience, none has focused on the experiences of a heterogeneous set of black and white mothers of different generations and socioeconomic circumstances as Kilson and Ladd do.

About the Authors
Marion Kilson is an anthropologist and the author of Claiming Place: Biracial Young Adults of the Post-Civil Rights Era (Bergin & Garvey 2000). Florence Ladd is a psychologist and won the Black Caucus of the American Library Association award for her novel, Sarah’s Psalm (Scribner 1997).

Table of Contents

• Foreword
• Chapter 1: The Back Story of Is That Your Child?
• Chapter 2: Challenges and Rewards for Mothers of Biracial Children
• Chapter 3: Profiles of Mothers of Biracial Children
• Chapter 4: Nurturing Biracial Children: Some Lessons Learned
• Appendix I: Interracial Marriages in the United States
• Appendix II: Some Sociological Attributes of Mothers
• Appendix III: Selected Multiracial Resources