{"id":5114,"date":"2010-02-08T04:09:14","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T04:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=5114"},"modified":"2011-10-28T03:38:48","modified_gmt":"2011-10-28T03:38:48","slug":"multiracial-politics-or-the-politics-of-being-multiracial-racial-theory-civic-engagement-and-political-participation-in-a-contemporary-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=5114","title":{"rendered":"Multiracial Politics or the Politics of Being Multiracial?: Racial Theory, Civic Engagement, and Political Participation in a Contemporary Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

Multiracial Politics or the Politics of Being Multiracial?: Racial Theory, Civic Engagement, and Political Participation in a Contemporary Society<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jungmiwha Bullock<\/a><\/strong>
\nUniversity of Southern California<\/em><\/p>\n

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary, multi-method, and multi-site project that investigates where race as a social construction and outdated biological explanations of race contradict in the twenty-first century, using grassroots mobilization around multiracial identity as the point of departure. Although many scholars claim that ideas about biology as a determinant of race have long been set aside to adopt the view that race is indeed a social construction, this dissertation argues that this is true to the extent it has occurred in theory, but not in actual practice.<\/strong> Based on the extensive field research and data collected between 2004 and 2009, it is evident that when the identity or population under question involves two or more races (herein referred to as the \u201cmultiracial population\u201d), the race-as-biology slippage is much more sharpened and pronounced, staunchly applied, and hardly if ever questioned.<\/strong> While it may be true that most groups are affected by this latent slippage in the discourse, I have observed that a unique phenomenon occurs specifically where \u201cblood\u201d and subsequently, \u201cblood quantum\u201d, continues to stand in as a metonym for multiracial identity in both private and public discourses. As long as \u201cblood\u201d as a signifier of race continues to be used both in public and private dialogue, and in social science research more broadly, I argue that race-as-biology dogma will continue to limit equal access to culturally competent healthcare, coverage in basic concerns in public policy, and educational accountability where race is still a measure by which resources are allocated.<\/strong> In order for society to engage in a more holistic discussion about race and politics, this dissertation proposes we begin to differentiate between \u201cmultiracial politics\u201d from that which I consider \u201cthe politics of being multiracial.\u201d<\/strong> It is precisely through the convergence of these two concepts that I locate my project. I hope to contribute a nuanced language we can incorporate for future research, public policy, and theory construction on the basis of race and ethnicity, and other structures of identity on a broader scale. The principal methods implemented in this ethnographic study includes case studies, interviews, participant and field observations, content analysis, and archival research collected primarily in the cities of Los Angeles<\/a>, Washington DC<\/a>, Chicago<\/a>, and Sacramento<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n