{"id":42973,"date":"2015-09-29T01:32:36","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T01:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=42973"},"modified":"2017-03-20T23:55:06","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T23:55:06","slug":"black-no-more-the-recent-recognition-of-mixed-race-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=42973","title":{"rendered":"Black No More? The Recent Recognition of Mixed-Race Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Black No More? The Recent Recognition of Mixed-Race Identity<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Acta Philologica<\/a>
\nIssue 45<\/a> (2014)
\npages 78-84<\/p>\n

Joanna Chojnowska<\/a><\/strong>, Assistant Professor
\nAmerican Literature Section, Department of Modern Philology
\nUniversity of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland<\/em><\/p>\n

Artyku\u0142 omawia relatywnie niedawn\u0105 zmian\u0119, jaka zasz\u0142a w kategoryzacji to\u017csamo\u015bci rasowej w USA. Tradycyjnie postrzegani i identyfikuj\u0105cy si\u0119 jako podgrupa Afroamerykan\u00f3w zgodnie z zasad\u0105 \u201ejednej kropli krwi\u201d, dawni \u201eMulaci\u201d zyskali w ci\u0105gu ostatnich dziesi\u0119cioleci nowe mo\u017cliwo\u015bci definiowania swej to\u017csamo\u015bci rasowej dzi\u0119ki teoriom postetniczno\u015bci i hybrydowo\u015bci, to\u017csamo\u015bci \u201enew mestiza\u201d i wp\u0142ywom \u015bwiata latynoskiego. Jednocze\u015bnieujawni\u0142y si\u0119 g\u0142osy krytyki wobec porzucenia esencjalistycznego postrzegania rasowo\u015bci. Por\u00f3wnuj\u0105c przeciwstawne stanowiska w tej sprawie, artyku\u0142 przedstawia r\u00f3\u017cne mo\u017cliwo\u015bci (auto)identyfikacji rasowej w USA.<\/em><\/p>\n

For most of the history of the United States, the racial categorization of mixed black\/white\u00a0persons was illogical and often contradictory (Sollors, \u201cIntroduction\u201d 6). Generally speaking,\u00a0people with any percentage of black ancestry were most commonly classified simply as\u00a0black (according to the \u201cone-drop rule\u201d<\/a> imposed by whites), and, at times, recognized as a\u00a0separate subgroup within this category. Interestingly, black and biracial people internalized\u00a0the \u201cone-drop\u201d thinking, and by the 1920s people were unlikely to identify themselves as\u00a0mulattoes<\/a> (Pabst 199\u2013200; Morton 116). This situation remained largely unchanged until\u00a0the 1990s, which witnessed a noticeable shift towards acceptance and even celebration of\u00a0mixedness (Hollinger 1370). This article aims to demonstrate how the new approaches to\u00a0mixed race \u2013 postethnicity, hybridity and \u201cmestizaje<\/a>\u201d \u2013 have complicated the traditional\u00a0\u201ceither-or\u201d racial division in the United States. It also argues that the long-established racial\u00a0ideas \u2013 the \u201cone drop\u201d thinking and essentialism (albeit in a modified form) \u2013 are still\u00a0strongly present in the American racial discourse. Comparing opposing stances on this\u00a0matter, the article illustrates different possibilities of racial self-identification in the United\u00a0States.<\/p>\n

Since the 1990s, popular and academic interest in multiracialism has been growing\u00a0(Elam xiii). For the first time since 1920, mixedness was also officially recognized by the\u00a0state in the National Census 2000 (Zack 15). In the words of Patricia Morton, \u201cAmerican\u00a0scholars are not only exploring the contemporary role of mulattoes, but also recognizing\u00a0their historical existence and roots. [. . .] Americans of mixed black-white ancestry are no\u00a0longer the most invisible \u2018invisible man\u2019 of American history\u201d (122). Studies and anthologies\u00a0on mixed race published in the last decade of the 20th century include such important\u00a0works as: Racially Mixed People in America<\/a><\/em> (1992) and The Multiracial Experience<\/a><\/em> (1996) by\u00a0Maria P. P. Root<\/a>, Race and Mixed Race<\/a><\/em> (1993) and American Mixed Race<\/a><\/em> (1995) by Naomi\u00a0Zack<\/a>, as well as Neither Black nor White yet Both<\/a><\/em> (1997) and Interracialism<\/a><\/em> (2000) by Werner\u00a0Sollors<\/a>. The critical attention to the notion of mixed race continues unabated into the\u00a0new millennium. Recent works include: Mixing It Up<\/a><\/em> (2004) edited by SanSan Kwan<\/a> and\u00a0Kenneth Zack, Complicating Constructions<\/a><\/em> (2007) edited by David Goldstein, The Souls of\u00a0<\/em>Mixed Folk<\/em><\/a> (2011) by Michele Elam<\/a> and Crossing B(l)ack<\/a><\/em> (2013) by Sika A. Dagbovie-Mullins<\/a>.\u00a0Significantly, a growing body of such critical works is written by multiracial persons…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most of the history of the United States, the racial categorization of mixed black\/white persons was illogical and often contradictory (Sollors, \u201cIntroduction\u201d 6). Generally speaking, people with any percentage of black ancestry were most commonly classified simply as black (according to the \u201cone-drop rule\u201d imposed by whites), and, at times, recognized as a separate subgroup within this category.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1196,8,20],"tags":[21236,21237],"class_list":["post-42973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-acta-philologica","tag-joanna-chojnowska"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42973"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52688,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42973\/revisions\/52688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}