Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

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Tag: The Root

  • Beyond Biracial: When Blackness Is a Small, Nearly Invisible Fraction

    Beyond Biracial: When Blackness Is a Small, Nearly Invisible Fraction The Root 2014-05-12 Jenée Desmond-Harris, Senior Staff Writer and White House Correspondent In the past, these Americans would have been labeled “quadroons” or “octoroons.” Today their options are so much broader. What can they teach us about race in 2014 and in the future? Stephanie…

  • Americans Say Obama’s Not Black? How Pew Got This Wrong

    Americans Say Obama’s Not Black? How Pew Got This Wrong The Root 2014-04-14 Jenée Desmond-Harris, Senior Staff Writer and White House Correspondent Saying “Yes, Obama is mixed race” is not the same as saying “No, he’s not black.” Racial Identity 101: You can be both. Twenty-seven percent of Americans say President Barack Obama is black,…

  • Ties to Thomas Jefferson Unravel Family Mystery

    Ties to Thomas Jefferson Unravel Family Mystery The Root 2014-01-26 Gayle Jessup White A woman seeks answers to decades-old questions about whether her family is related to the descendants of Thomas Jefferson. ore than 40 years ago, I learned of my family’s ancestral ties to Thomas Jefferson. It was a blood connection impossible to prove,…

  • Biracial Girls Will Be Fine If Their Dolls Don’t Look Like Them

    Biracial Girls Will Be Fine If Their Dolls Don’t Look Like Them The Root 2013-12-27 Jenée Desmond-Harris Race Manners: A rainbow of toys is great, but how kids live is much more important than how they play. “Hello. I’m wondering if you can offer some broad guidance before I head out to the malls for…

  • Many Rivers to Cross: From Black Power to the Black President

    Many Rivers to Cross: From Black Power to the Black President The Root 2013-11-26 Peniel E. Joseph, Professor of History Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts In the sixth and final installment of his PBS series, Henry Louis Gates Jr. leads us from the black power movement to the historic election of Barack Obama. Americans have notoriously…

  • How Diversity Will Alter Black History

    How Diversity Will Alter Black History The Root 2013-11-06 Lynette Holloway A changing population will help shed more light on America’s multiracial past. (The Root)—This is part 3 of a three-part series. To see the previous stories, here and here. Time was, the social construct of the one-drop rule made United States history either black…

  • The Future of Race in America

    The Future of Race in America The Root 2013-11-05 Jenée Desmond-Harris, Senior Staff Writer Editor’s note: This is part 2 of a three-part series. To read part 1, click here. Will we ever abandon stereotypes? Will “people of color” act as a group? Here are four possible theories about where we are headed as a…

  • Multiracial America Makes Census Boxes Obsolete

    Multiracial America Makes Census Boxes Obsolete The Root 2013-11-04 Keli Goff As the nation becomes more multiracial, some question whether the survey can accurately reflect the country’s true diversity. Editor’s note: This is the first of three in a series. (The Root) — In 30 years, America will look very different than it does now.…

  • Interracial Families in 18th-Century Mexico

    Interracial Families in 18th-Century Mexico The Root 2013-07-23 Unknown artist working in New Spain (Mexico), De español y negra mulata, oil on canvas, 36 by 48 cm (Museo de America, Madrid) Image of the Week: A painting captures the multiethnic population in New Spain, now Mexico. One of the most typical, revealing products of colonial…

  • We are going to need new terms that reflect numerical reality and social-political reality…

    We are going to need new terms that reflect numerical reality and social-political reality. Part of that implies thinking about what race and ethnicity mean in general and what specific racial and ethnic, and multiracial and multiethnic, identities mean in particular. At the same time, we’ve got to remember that every racial or ethnic community…