Mixed Race Studies

The Identity Development of Multiracial Youth. ERIC/CUE Digest, Number 137

Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)
ERIC Identifier: ED425248
November 1998
9 pages

Wendy Schwartz

In the past several decades, individuals have been responding more actively to political and personal pressures to identify with a specific group that shares their background. For many people of mixed racial, ethnic, and cultural heritage, making such an identification is complicated. It is important for society to foster the positive development of these individuals, and it is even more important for educators and counselors to know how best to serve the special developmental and educational needs of multiracial students. A key factor in the lives of multiracial children is how they are labeled by themselves, their families, and society in general. A model of the identity development of multiracial children and youth has been proposed by W. Poston (1990). This model suggests that families may foster identity choices for their children that encompass “human,” “multiracial,” and “monoracial” options. At present, many of the important official tallies of individuals in the United States allow for only one racial or ethnic designation. However, in the year 2000, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget will allow individuals to identify themselves with as many racial designations as appropriate. By 2003, schools will also have to change the ways in which students report race, and this may affect the way in which multiracial students see themselves. Individuals who are socialized as multiracial usually benefit from their heritage, but there are disadvantages to being multiracial. One of the disadvantages is the complicated nature of the identity development process for multiracial youth. Another pressure on multiracial youth is societal racism in general and bias against interracial marriage in particular. Given the existence of the prejudices, it is likely that educators and counselors will also harbor some of these ideas, even unconsciously. It is important that educators and counselors consider their personal views carefully to ensure that they do not further complicate the development of the multiracial student’s identity. Learning about and respecting the beliefs, attitudes, and concerns of multiracial students is crucial for educators.

Read the entire paper here.

What’s Black and White and Black Or White?: The Effects of Category Assignment on the Evaluation of and Memory for Multi-raced Faces

University of Colorado
2007
85 pages
ISBN: 9780549508632

Eve C. Willadsen-Jensen

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Psychology

This paper examines the effect of social categorization, from the initial category assignment to perceiver evaluations and memory, on a racially ambiguous target. In a series of 3 studies, racial categorization at the initial stage of person perception was manipulated by providing a race cue prior to viewing racially-ambiguous faces. The studies demonstrated that categorization of an ambiguous target lead to differences in the initial processing of the face as well as evaluation and memory. Racially ambiguous faces were evaluated in a manner consistent with the race cue. In Studies 1 and 2, racially ambiguous faces cued with the word “Black” primed more biased responses than racially ambiguous faces cued with the word “White”. This difference was reflected in participants’ event-related potentials (Study 2) with larger initial attention to faces primed by “Black” followed by a shift in attention to faces primed by “White”. This pattern was for both ambiguous and unambiguous faces. The pattern continued into memory effects (Study 3) with better memory for “White” than “Black” cued faces. These results demonstrate how initial category assignment during early face processing affects the entire person perception process.

Purchase the dissertation here.

Belonging nowhere and everywhere: multiracial identity development.

Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic
Volume 61, Number 3 (Summer 1997)
pages 368-384

K. A. Deters

Few therapists are trained to work with multiracial individuals. Most have little knowledge of the process of identity development in this ever-increasing population. In this article, an examination of how the social construction of race impacts identity development is followed by a review of current theories regarding multiracial identity development. Interviews of clinicians illustrate how therapists understand their work with multiracial clients as well as the issues they have personally confronted. The challenges faced by therapists working with this population center on understanding how oppression affects identity development, supporting racial ambiguity as a part of normal identity development, working from a nonoppressive theoretical perspective, and examining their own internalized rules about racial and ethnic stereotypes. This preliminary examination indicates the need for further research. A controlled study in this area would be of benefit to the field.

Ambiguity and the Timecourse of Racial Perception

Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic
Volume 24, Number 5 (October 2006)
pages 580-606
DOI: 10.1521/soco.2006.24.5.580

Eve C. Willadsen-Jensen
University of Colorado, Boulder

Tiffany A. Ito, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
University of Colorado, Boulder

Two studies examined early perceptual processing and explicit racial categorization of racially ambiguous faces. Participants viewed racially ambiguous faces as well as faces of Whites, Asians, and Blacks while event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Initial perceptual processes, indexed by ERP components occurring within 200 ms [milliseconds]  of stimulus onset, showed that racially ambiguous faces were differentiated from Asian and Black but not White faces. Later in processing, around 500 ms after stimulus onset, racially ambiguous faces were differentiated from White faces. However, the racially ambiguous faces were still perceived more similarly to Whites than to Asians or Blacks. Finally, explicit social categorization reflected the ambiguity of the faces. These results highlight the complex nature of racial perception, and the importance of understanding how the growing population of multiracial individuals is perceived.

Read or purchase the article here.

Multiracial Identity Development

Arlington County Public Schools
Arlington County, Virginia
Clarendon Education Center
2011-11-30
28 pages/ 55 slides

Ms. Eleanor Lewis, M.A., CAGS, School Psychologist
Arlington Public Schools

Ms. Veronica Sanjines, M.A., CAG, School Psychologist
Arlington Public Schools

Dr. Ricia Weiner, Ph.D., School Psychologist
Arlington Public Schools

Special Education Parent Resource Center: Workshop Handouts

View the entire presentation here.

Hapa, Amerasian, Euro-Asian, or ‘Other’

Asian Week: The Voice of Asian America
2005-12-16

Nathalie Ishizuka

From day one, I was labeled, “other.” Singing my ABCs, looking Japanese and asking for a “bonbon,” it was hard not to notice me. My French mother and Japanese father told me that it was my terrible singing voice that drew attention, so being an “other” never went to my head.

What did go directly to my head and heart, was the feeling that I was indeed different — as Katherine Knorr of the International Herald Tribune put it so well, “Someone at home in two places and a stranger in both as well.”

After hearing from other hapas, Amerasians, Euro-Asians, Nisei and countless “others,” I have often thought about what it means to never entirely fit into one category — nor to entirely want to…

Read the entire article here.

More than the Sum of My Parts: Multiracial Teen Identity Development and Experiences of Appeasement and Objection in a Mono-Racialized Context

University of Minnesota
2013
321 pages

Brynja Elisabeth Halldórsdóttir Gudjonsson

Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

This dissertation examines multiracial student cultural awareness and how their experiences provided them insight into their current educational environment. The multiracial students in this study had significant self-awareness and cultural literacy due to their early identity formation and their continued navigation of disparate cultures. Because these students have received little attention in academic research, this dissertation explored multiracial identity in adolescents and the student experiences in a secondary educational context. This ethnographic study explores the students’ experiences through participant observations, in-depth interviews of students, teachers and school administrators, ethnographic reflections and field notes. The dissertation found that students encountered pressures in the school environment which affected their interactions in the school setting with teachers and peers. These encounters could be racially charged, although at times they could be so subtle that adults might not have recognized them as racially charged. In spite of these difficulties the students found supportive teachers and academic success. Based on the study’s findings the dissertation proposed a new lens through which to view multiracial student behavior. Since students were sensitive to others expectations, they mold their behavior to conform to these expectations. Through appeasement and objection the student actively chose how to react to others’ perceptions of them. Appeasement and objection in response to expectations could have stressful impacts on students as they sublimated portions of their identities in order to better fit into their environments.

Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Acknowledgements
• Dedication
• List of Tables
• Table of Figures
• Chapter 1
  • Categories of Self
  • Historical Understanding of Mixed Race Individuals
  • Racial Mixing and History
  • Definition of Modern Multiracial Identity
  • Schooling in Central City
  • Racism Entrenched in Schools
  • Research Questions
  • Methodology
  • Author Subjectivity
  • Data Discussion
  • Conclusions and Further Research
• Chapter 2 “My grandmother told me:” Race, History, School and Multiracial Identity Theory
  • In White and Black: Race and Dichotomy in U.S. Social Systems
  • Whiteness: Conception, History and Meaning
  • Black Identity: History and Context
  • Urban Education and Student Experience
  • Equal Education?
  • Multiracial Identity and Schooling
  • Multiracial History
  • Official Categorization of Multiracial and Multi-ethnic People
  • Identity Theory and the Multiracial Student
  • Contemporary Multiracial Identity Models and Theory
  • Conclusion and Research Questions
• Chapter 3: The Elusive Methodology of Critical Ethnography
  • Objective
  • The Ethnographic Frame
  • Embedding Ethnographers
  • Methods
  • Analysis
  • Cultural Politics in the Research
  • School Population
  • Sample Selection
  • Conclusion
• Chapter 4: This Examined Life An Exploration of Identity Creation and Projection for Multiracial Teens
  • Sorting the M&M’s: Seeing Multicultural and Multiracial Students at MWHS
  • Getting to Know You: Seeing Identity Changes
  • The Opportunity to Choose
  • Asking Permission: Finding Mixed Race Students
  • School Choice
  • “What are you?”
  • Friendship Groups
  • Foreclosure of Categorizing
  • Conclusion
• Chapter 5 “You think you’re special light-skind’ed bitch:”Student Interactions and School Curriculum
  • “You don’t just belong:” Finding Place in Social Groups in and out of School
  • Complex Problems with Simple Answers: Student Classroom Experiences
  • “Our history is still not their history too:” Student Connection to School Curriculum
• Chapter 6 “Ear-hustling” and Unsavory Experiences: Micro-aggressions are the Hidden Racial Interactions in School
  • Who is Listening? And What Do They Hear?
  • Micro-aggressions
  • Not Enough: Stepping Outside of the Expected Limits
  • Power and Control: Student Misbehavior and Punishment
  • Sit here not there: How negative attention affects students
  • Punishment: How Did it Affect Multiracial Students?
• Chapter 7 “To thine ownself be true:” Appeasement, Objection and Cultural Compliance
  • Additive Parts: Making up Identity
  • More than Code-switching: When Linguistic Analysis is not Enough
  • Act More White and Play School
  • Assimilation or Acculturation
  • Appeasement or Objection: How Mixed Students Reflect Expectations
  • Repercussions of objection and appeasement
• Chapter 8 Beyond All of the Pieces: What was Missing and Next Steps
  • Recommendations
  • The Matter of Power and Punishment
  • Directions for Future Research
  • The Last Pieces of the Puzzle
• References
• Appendix A: Research protocols
  • Observation protocol
  • Student questions:
  • Teacher questions:
• Appendix B
  • Male participant coding rubric
  • Female participant coding rubrique

Read the entire dissertation here.

Hafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
29th Edition
2013-05-02 through 2013-05-12

2012
87 minutes
Directed by: Megumi Nishikura and Lara Perez Takagi
English, Japanese

Screening: Wednesday, 2013-05-08, 19:30 PDT (Local Time): National Center for the Preservation of Democracy

HAFU is more than a mere documentary about mixed race Japanese, or so called Hafu. The film seeks to break with the “one nation, one culture, one race” paradigm which has shaped much of contemporary Japan’s self-image, and makes a compelling argument for the hybrid reality of Japanese identity today. At the same time, Megumi Nishikura and Lara Perez Takagi, both Hafu themselves, render visible the hardship of those subjects who do not comfortably fit into common categories of belonging, and offer them a platform to be heard. What happens if my looks do not match my nationality, or if my language does not reflect my home country? Who defines the compatibility of subjects and their identities in the first place?

Most of the featured protagonists grew up in Japan, but cannot escape the role of the foreigner. As a Venezuelan citizen, Ed has to renew his visa every few years, despite being raised by his Japanese mother in Japan. Every time again, he is confronted with his identification as an outsider to Japanese society and the prospect of being expelled from the country he identifies both as home and hostile. Fusae is part of that same community of “foreigners within.” Part Korean and part Japanese, she appears with a strong sense of belonging at first, “I was born in Kobe, so this is where I want to work and pay taxes.” After a while, however, Fusae allows a deeper look into the traumatic experience of being mixed race in Japan and the tears she sheds reveal the inner turmoil that defines the lives of many other Hafus: of David, born to a Japanese father and Ghanaian mother, who surprised the other kids with the fact that his blood was not green, but red as theirs; of Sophia, who grew up in Australia ashamed of her bento box lunch and secretly wishing to be blond like her class mates. What all of the here depicted Hafus share, is the longing to belong. Not just to be acknowledged, as Ed puts it, but to be understood and accepted.

—Feng-Mei Heberer

For more information, click here.

When do I use “we”? In a room full of people I do not know, I always search out the ones who fall in the middle, like me, out of some irrational ideal that we belong together.  I worry that this is the wrong thing for the child of a mixed marriage to feel.  My parents conquered difference, and we would all like to think that sort of accomplishment is something that could be passed down from generation to generation.  That’s why we’re all, in theory, so excited by the idea of miscegenation—because if we mix the races, presumably, we create a new generation of people for whom existing racial categories do not exist.  I don’t think it’s that easy, though.  If you mix black and white, you don’t obliterate those categories; you merely create a third category, a category that demands, for its very existence, an even greater commitment to nuances of racial taxonomy.

Malcolm Gladwell, “Lost in the Middle,” in Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural, ed. Claudine Chiawei O’Hearn. (New York: Pantheon, 1998), 112.

Why isn’t multiculturalism accepted in society nowadays?

The Voice
London, England
2013-01-25

Kamran Assadi

Kamran Assadi on why diverse cultural identities in Britain should be embraced not questioned

I BELIEVE society and the environment you live in can alter your opinions and the way you view life.

Stereotypes can alter our thinking towards different religions, sexualities and ethnicities amongst other things. I think it is fair to say we’ve all been there and I can only talk about this from my personal experience.

I am a young British mixed-race father of Montserratian and Iranian heritage. My parents were of mixed religions (Christian and Muslim) and they taught me about both without any prejudice being passed onto me.

I’m Iranian so people associate me with terrorism. I’m also Caribbean so I get all the Black stereotypes as well. I was a victim of racial profiling whilst travelling to New York. They looked at my full Iranian name and my facial hair, and then took me for questioning in several rooms searching me for signs of terrorism.

Although I’m a mixed-race father, some people categorise me as black – putting me under the negative thumbprint of being a deadbeat absent dad which isn’t necessarily true. Why subject me to such extreme measures? Why should I be judged by a country’s politics I don’t believe and am not a part of? What does race have to do with being a good dad? My stereotypes are thrust into me like a sharp pronged fork.

Even I’ve succumbed to society’s notions of preconceived prejudices. As I looked Black and never wanted to complicate things with people who didn’t understand my culture, I just called myself Black. I even changed the pronunciation of my Iranian name to a more British phonetic so people could say it properly. I wrote a poem ‘The Black Boy’ that harked over these issues and overcoming them by being myself and being a positive influence. However as I didn’t know my Iranian family, all I could truly talk about was my Caribbean identity…

Read the entire article here.