Mixed Race Studies

Has perception of biracial women changed in modern times?

SMU Daily Campus
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
2011-05-03

Victoria Ahmadi

As a biracial woman myself, I find it essential that society become better informed of the life-altering consequences that biracial individuals are forced to deal with.

While the media’s perceptions of identity shift, young women of mixed racial backgrounds are quickly becoming much less of the minority in society. America is in the midst of a demographic shift driven by a change in social views, immigration, and intermarriage. For some time in history, the question of “What Are You?” was much less complicated than it is today. Biracial women struggle with the idea of truly belonging to either race.

According to data collected by the Census in 2008 and 2009, those categorized as “mixed race” are steadily becoming one of the fastest growing demographic groups. In 2010, it has been recorded that 2.9 percent of Americans consider themselves as being two or more races. There has been a 32 percent increase in those in this category since 2000.

What is the significance of these statistics? The growing trend of biracial women feed into the growing trend of a number of other things: including the way the media defines beauty, politics, and religion.

Dr. Angela Gillem and Dr. Cathy Thompson’s Biracial Women in Therapy: Between the Rock of Gender and the Hard Place of Race, examines how physical appearance, cultural knowledge, and cultural stereotypes affect the experience of mixed-race women in belonging to, and being accepted within, their cultures…

The authors implies that people (women) who don’t fit into a defined racial category threaten the psychological and sociological foundations of the “we” and “they” mentality that determines so much of an individual’s social, economic, and political experience in the United States…

Read the entire article here.

Biracial Women in Therapy: Between the Rock of Gender and the Hard Place of Race

Routledge
2004-03-04
280 pages
Hardback ISBN: 9780789021441; Hardback ISBN-10: 0789021447
Paperback ISBN: 9780789021458; Paperback ISBN-10: 0789021455

Editor: Cathy A. Thompson, Psychologist
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
University of California at San Diego

Editor: Angela R. Gillem, Professor & Clinical Psychologist
Arcadia University

Get a unique perspective on the female biracial experience!

Biracial Women in Therapy: Between the Rock of Gender and the Hard Place of Race examines how physical appearance, cultural knowledge, and cultural stereotypes affect the experience of mixed-race women in belonging to, and being accepted within, their cultures. This unique book combines empirical research, theoretical papers, and first-person narrative to address issues relevant to providing therapy to biracial women and girls, helping therapists and counselors develop a treatment framework based on sociocultural factors. Researchers, practitioners, and academics provide insight into the biracial reality, taking multiple aspects of clients’ lives into account rather than looking for simple hierarchies of well-being based on race.

Biracial Women in Therapy is a building block for mental health practitioners in the construction of theory and practice in working with biracial females. The book examines how a biracial women’s racial/ethnic identity intersects with her gender and sexual identity to affect her sense of belonging and acceptance, addressing issues of appearance, social class, disability, power and guilt, and dating and marriage. Topics addressed in the book include:

• the complexities of multiple minority status
• how ethnic differences affect biracial adolescents
• issues encountered by biracial women from a sociohistorical context
• biracial women’s attitudes toward counseling
• stereotypes of marginalization and identity confusion
• a multicultural feminist approach to counseling
• and a first-person narrative of one author’s racial and sexual identity development

Table of Contents

• Introduction: Biracial Women in Therapy: Between the Rock of Gender and the Hard Place of Race
• From Exotic to a Dime a Dozen – Maria P. P. Root
• Utilizing the Strengths of Our Cultures: Therapy with Biracial Women and Girls
• Biracial (Black/White) Women: A Qualitative Study of Racial Attitudes and Beliefs and Their Implications for Therapy
• Understanding and Assisting Black/White Biracial Women in Their Identity Development
• Negotiating Racial Identity: Biracial Women and Interactional Validation
• Dating Practices, Racial Identity, and Psychotherapeutic Needs of Biracial Women
• When Face and Soul Collide: Therapeutic Concerns with Racially Ambiguous and Nonvisible Minority Women
• Counseling Biracial Women: An Intersection of Multiculturalism and Feminism
• Depressive Symptoms and Attitudes Toward Counseling as Predictors of Biracial College Women’s Psychological Help-Seeking Behavior
• Biracial Lesbian and Bisexual Women: Understanding the Unique Aspects and Interactional Processes of Multiple Minority Identities
• Conversations, Not Categories: The Intersection of Biracial and Bisexual Identities
• Out of the Closet but Still in Hiding: Conflicts and Identity Issues for a Black-White Biracial Lesbian
• Therapeutic Considerations in Work with Biracial Girls
• Fitting In and Feeling Good: Patterns of Self-Evaluation and Psychological Stress Among Biracial Adolescent Girls
• Mixed Race Women: One More Mountain to Climb
• Index
• Reference Notes Included