{"id":998,"date":"2009-09-24T04:41:47","date_gmt":"2009-09-24T04:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=998"},"modified":"2013-08-21T00:50:24","modified_gmt":"2013-08-21T00:50:24","slug":"shifting-whiteness-a-life-history-approach-to-u-s-white-parents-of-%e2%80%9cbiracial%e2%80%9d-or-%e2%80%9cblack%e2%80%9d-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=998","title":{"rendered":"Shifting Whiteness: A Life History Approach to U.S. White Parents of \u201cBiracial\u201d or \u201cBlack\u201d Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shifting Whiteness: A Life History Approach to U.S. White Parents of \u201cBiracial\u201d or \u201cBlack\u201d Children<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Joshua Carter Woodfork, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005<\/strong><\/p>\n

This research examines how the experiences of parenting \u201cbiracial\u201d or \u201cblack\u201d children have affected the beliefs of white parents who have published books and essays regarding their situations.<\/strong>\u00a0 The participating parents claim that because of their relationship with their children of African descent their self-understandings, including their own sense of their racial identity, are altered.\u00a0 They now speak of themselves as \u201cnot quite white,\u201d \u201cblack by proxy,\u201d or as a \u201cbridge\u201d (between the races).\u00a0 My dissertation, \u201cShifting Whiteness: A Life History Approach to U.S. White Parents of \u2018Biracial\u2019 or \u2018Black\u2019 Children,\u201d explores how such parents talk about and conceptualize their experiences, including the implications of these parents\u2019 claims of racial identity transformation.<\/p>\n

This dissertation posits that the white parents\u2019 shift in attitudes and beliefs reflects their vivid engagement with the racism and racial experiences that their children endure.<\/strong> \u00a0The discord between the parents\u2019 claim of racial transformation and their continued benefiting from white privilege is also examined. Consideration of the parents\u2019 shifts provides a better understanding of racial beliefs and transformations at the individual, micro-level, which contributes to society\u2019s general knowledge about the conception of race.<\/p>\n

Understanding white parents\u2019 decisions to write about their identity transformations as\u2014to use Michael Omi<\/a> and Howard Winant<\/a>\u2019s (1994) phrase\u2014a \u201cracial project,\u201d I investigate its aims and limits, exploring which racial projects are presented by this group of U.S. white parents of biracial and black children. John L. Caughey<\/a>\u2019s (1994) approach to how individuals operate with \u201ccultural traditions\u201d and ideas of \u201cborder crossing\u201d also provide theoretical frameworks.\u00a0 Tools of analysis include ethnographic life history methods, textual analysis, critical race theory<\/a>, and intersectional analysis.\u00a0 My research method involves complementing a close reading of the writings of these authors that are white and parents with qualitative ethnographic life history interviews that gather detailed information from each of these individuals. I treat their publications together with my transcribed interviews as case studies through which I compare and contrast the similarities and differences in the belief changes and shifting that these informants have undergone, as well as their current constructions of race.<\/p>\n

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

Shifting Whiteness: A Life History Approach to U.S. White Parents of \u201cBiracial\u201d or \u201cBlack\u201d Children Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Joshua Carter Woodfork, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 This research examines how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[838,414,8,20],"tags":[1412,5387,423,5386,499,1586],"class_list":["post-998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dissertations","category-family","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-howard-winant","tag-joshua-c-woodfork","tag-joshua-carter-woodfork","tag-joshua-woodfork","tag-michael-omi","tag-university-of-maryland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998","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=998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}