Mixed Race Studies

I’ve got a Story to Tell: Critical Race Theory, Whiteness and Narrative Constructions of Racial and Ethnic Census Categories

Bowling Green State University
December 2010
245 pages

Candice J. LeFlore-Muñoz

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

This study examines the embedded nature of whiteness in the use of racial and ethnic categories on U.S. census forms. Specifically, this study focuses on people’s perceptions of racial and ethnic categories, how those categories have been historically used on U.S. census forms, and the relationship between this discourse on racial and ethnic categories and elements of whiteness. Like (Nobles, 2000), in this study, I argue that the rhetorical construction of race and ethnicity on census forms is not a trivial matter since the way that we structure these words and categories significantly influences how we understand them. Thus, this study practices critical rhetoric (McKerrow, 1989) and employs the use of critical race theory (Delgado & Stefanic, 2001) to investigate the relationship between the 20 counter narratives and the larger master narrative about racial and ethnic categorization in this country. Throughout this dissertation, I use Omi and Winant’s (1994) racial formation and racial projects to highlight several themes that emerge in the master narrative and counter narratives. By focusing on these themes, this analysis explores past, present, and future racial projects that may emerge in relation to the use of racial and ethnic categories on census forms and elements of whiteness.

Table of Contents

• INTRODUCTION
  • Unveiling Whiteness in Discourse
  • Chapter Breakdown
• CHAPTER ONE: EXPLORING RACE AND ETHNICITY THROUGH THE LENS OF WHITENESS
  • Muddled Memories of a Multiracial Past
  • Situating Race and Ethnicity within Whiteness Studies and Critical Rhetoric
  • Whiteness Studies: An Overview of Scholarship
• CHAPTER TWO: PAST TO PRESENT – TRACES OF RACIAL AND ETHNIC CATEGORIZATION
  • Early Racial Classification Systems
  • Race as a Biological Construction
  • Race as a Social Construction
  • Race, Power, and Dominance
• CHAPTER THREE: RACE, ETHNCIITY, AND THE U.S. CENSUS
  • Upholding Whiteness: Racial and Ethnic Classification on the U.S. Census
  • Self-Identification and Official Racial and Ethnic Categories
  • Check ONE Box: Monoracial Ideology and the U.S. Census
  • Hypodescent Racial Projects and Census Classification
  • Maintaining the Rigid Color Line: Anti-Miscegenation Laws and the U.S. Census
  • Free White Persons: Intersections of Citizenship, Whiteness, and the Census
  • Mark One or More: Census 2000
• CHAPTER FOUR: CRT AND THE PRACTICE OF A CRITICAL RHETORIC
  • Critical Race Theory (CRT)
  • Critical Rhetoric
  • Dismantling Power: Complimentary Aspects of Critical Rhetoric and CRT
  • Telling Whose Stories: Data Collection and Study Design
• CHAPTER FIVE: THE MASTER NARRATIVE
  • Box Checking and Socialization
  • Box Checking and Self-Identity/Self-Esteem
  • Defining Race and Ethnicity
  • Well What are You? Stereotyping, Social Rules, and Racial/Ethnic Categories
• CHAPTER SIX: COUNTER NARRATIVES, CATEGORIES, AND PRIVILEGE: HOW WHITENESS WORKS WITH BOX CHECKING
  • Privilege, Passing, and Box Checking
    • The White Category and Privilege
    • Minority Categories and Privilege
  • Passing for Privilege
    • Skin Color and Privilege
• CHAPTER SEVEN: SHATTERING THE PAST: CRACKS IN THE FOUNDATION OF THE MASTER NARRATIVE
  • What Race What Space?
  • Boxes Not Inclusive
    • Asian Groups – No Hyphen American
    • Cultural and National Identity
    • Boxes Not Inclusive for Whites
    • Boxes Not Inclusive for Latinos
  • Wording & the Use of Negro
• CHAPTER EIGHT: PRESERVING AND DISMANTLING THE AUTHORITY OF WHITENESS
  • Self-Identification, Public Policy, and Civil Rights Legislation
  • The Black/White Binary and Some Other Race
  • Possibilities for Change
    • Color Blindness
    • Honorary Whites and Collective Blacks
    • White Minority or White Majority?
  • Whiteness Deconstructed
    • Boxes Not Inclusive
  • Considerations for the Future
  • What Can Reasonably be Done?
    • Reducing Skepticism & Promoting Intersectionality
    • Limitations & Future Research
• REFERENCES
• APPENDIX A: LIST OF STUDY PARTICIPANTS
• APPENDIX B: RECRUITMENT FLYER
• APPENDIX C: CONSENT FORM
• APPENDIX D: NARRATIVE PROMPT
• APPENDIX E: CENSUS QUESTIONS HANDOUT
• APPENDIX F: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Introduction

Wondering…
1st grade: Wondering why my mom calls my light-skinned aunt Black, when I think she looks more White. 3rd grade: Wondering why Black and Native American are not considered mixed… wondering why my father is called Black when he is Native American too…

Acknowledging and Believing…
6th grade: Mutually acknowledging with one of my best friends from 1st grade (who is a White- appearing blond-haired, blue-eyed Native American boy) that we shouldn’t hang around each other because now the kids at school tend to hang out with the people who look like them and we are tired of getting teased. Middle school: Believing the one-drop rule… or that if you are anything mixed with Black, you are just Black. High school: Acknowledging that there are five “official” racial and ethnic categories—White, Black, Asian, Native American, and Latino. Knowing that White always comes first, but not fully understanding why… wondering why it is so easy for me to just say the five categories when there are other racial and ethnic categories out there.

Wondering and Questioning…
College: Being happy about the new Black golfer Tiger Woods even though he doesn’t describe himself as Black, but as multiracial. Wondering why he has to just be Black? Grad School: Being skeptical about all of the media referring to the new president (Barack Obama) as the first Black president… again because he is multiracial… then realizing that he refers to himself as Black. Questioning the very racial and ethnic categories that have framed so much of my life.

Since the first census in 1790, the United States has been a country that is obsessed with labels and the use of racial and ethnic categories. These labels have become a fundamental part of how individuals view the world, and they play a significant role in how reality is constructed. Whether a person identifies as Black or African American, Latina or Hispanic, Asian or Chinese American, these words have roots of significance far beyond the words that appear on the page. These labels carry their historical significance with them every time they are uttered, written, or seen on a page. Thus, given the fact that racial and ethnic labels enjoy widespread use, these terms are important in society and they become a central factor in how individuals craft their identity (Yanow, 2003)….

…Likewise, I also acknowledge the fact that my personal experiences with race and ethnicity have been undoubtedly shaped by their discursive constructions and the embedded nature of whiteness in our language system. As Fanon (1967) points out, “a man who has a language consequently possesses the world expressed and implied by that language” (p. 18). In their discussion of the importance of whiteness studies to rhetoric and composition studies, Kennedy, Middleton, and Ratcliff (2005) also highlight this when they point out that whiteness is prevalent in the ways in which it socializes how we talk about groups of people through our racially-inflected language. This reminds me of Lorde‟s (1984) warning that “the master‟s tools will never dismantle the master‟s house” (p. 112).

As a result, I feel that it is necessary to briefly address the problematic nature of using a language system which is inherently shaped by whiteness, while simultaneously maintaining the ultimate goal of trying to deconstruct it. Thus, while I do not systematically place words like race and ethnicity in quotation marks throughout this dissertation, I envision them to be this way in order to serve as a reminder of their socially constructed status and their historical connection to notions of White superiority and pseudo-scientific research. Likewise, this also applies to my use of multiracial and mixed race since they are premised on the idea that pure, distinct racial groups exist that can be mixed and result in multiracial people. Furthermore, I also acknowledge the problematic nature of using words like White, non-White, people of color, other, minority and majority since the use of these terms rhetorically re-centers whiteness and demonstrates how notions of whiteness are normalized in the current language system. Thus, despite my use of people of color, I also envision White as a color even as I search for ways in which to talk about non-White people without re-centering whiteness…

Read the entire dissertation here.