{"id":63622,"date":"2022-03-31T17:30:35","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T17:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=63622"},"modified":"2022-03-31T17:30:36","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T17:30:36","slug":"what-are-you-reactions-to-american-racial-rhetoric-among-mixed-and-multiracial-caribbeans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=63622","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat are you?\u201d Reactions to American Racial Rhetoric among Mixed and Multiracial Caribbeans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat are you?\u201d<\/strong> Reactions to American Racial Rhetoric among Mixed and Multiracial Caribbeans<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Charisse L’Pree, Ph.D.: Media Made Me Crazy<\/a>
\n2014-08-19<\/p>\n

Charisse L’Pree<\/strong><\/a>, Associate Professor of Communications
\nS.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications<\/em>
\nSyracuse University, Syracuse, New York<\/em><\/p>\n

Historically, the United States<\/a> has had tumultuous relationship with mixed and multiracial individuals within its borders; interracial marriage was illegal until 1967, and the one-drop rule<\/a> continues affect racial discourse. Combined with the hegemonic power of American culture, the effect of this rhetoric is especially evident in neighboring cultures with different social constructions of race. This paper explores the experiences of young adults in the United States and the Caribbean<\/a> who identify as mixed or multiracial, and their use of social media to publicly identify and affect this conversation.<\/p>\n

To be \u201cmixed\u201d is to contain different qualities or elements. Although racial categorizations can differ from culture to culture, much of the literature regarding the identity of mixed individuals has emerged from the United States and Western Europe<\/a>. In these communities, multiracial individuals are less than 3% of the population and considered to be between groups. Stereotypes like the \u201ctragic mulatto<\/a>\u201d describe the psychological stress that multiracial individuals can experience as simultaneously ostracized and exoticized anomalies. They are the targets of curiosity, resulting in the common question: \u201cWhat are you?\u201d<\/em>…<\/p>\n