Mixed Race Studies

The mulatta text and the muted voice in “Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon”: Revising the genre of the slave narrative

Marquette University
August 1995
202 pages

Rebecca Anne Ferguson

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English

From the earliest critical discussion of the slave narrative genre in Rev. Ephraim Peabody’s review essay of 1849 through the most recent scholarly analyses, unexamined assumptions have been advanced about the conventions, including structure, language, theme, and plot, which determine the inclusion of those slave narratives identified as generic texts. The 1988 publication of the Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers, under the editorship of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., includes several formerly unavailable slave narratives which constitute a new subgenre I am here defining for the first time as “mulatta texts.” Mulatta texts expose, in their structuring between unequal voices, the negotiations necessary in slavery, an institution defined as the “paradox of formal distance and physical intimacy” by historian C. Vann Woodward. I analyze the textual control and moral agenda that the named author, northern abolitionist Rev. Hiram Mattison, maintained over one exemplary mulatta text in the Schomburg Library, Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon, but I also attend carefully to the complex and “muted voice” (to borrow John Sekora’s term) of Louisa Picquet as she advances very different purposes. Determined to gain the financial contributions necessary to purchase the freedom of her mother and brother, Picquet cooperates with her interrogator even as she resists his familiar gaze and asserts her identity as a black woman in her own community. Although the last half of the text seems to erase Picquet, careful analyses of Louisa Picquet and other mulatta texts supports Toni Morrison’s project, as limned in Playing in the Dark, to re-examine the entire canon of American literature for the presences of “Africanisms.” Expanded understandings of the complexities of voice in mulatta narratives will allow us to respond to the voices of former slaves in other mulatta texts, narratives neither written nor controlled by the African Americans but nonetheless shaped by their powers of articulation and resistance.

Table of Contents

• I. A “Paradox of Formal Distance and Physical Intimacy”: Generic Criticism and the Mixed Nature of the Slave Narratives
• II. No Longer at the Margin: Mulatta Texts in the Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers
• III. Assessing the Participation of Rev. Hiram Mattison in the Mulatta Text, Louisa Picquet, the Octoroon
• IV. “Multiple Forms of Resistance”: A Narrative of Louisa Picquet’s Voice
• V. The Competing Narrative Strategies in the Mulatta Text of Louisa Picquet
• Endnotes

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Into the box and out of the picture: The rhetorical management of the mulatto in the Jim Crow era

Duke University
2005
573 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3250085

Jené Lee Schoenfeld

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English in the Graduate School of Duke University

Contemporary conventional wisdom maintains that anyone who has any trace of black ancestry is black. This precept, known as the “one drop rule,” was not always so widely accepted; in fact, from 1850 to 1920 an intermediate racial category—mulatto—appeared on the United States Census. Visibly “both/and” in a society of “either/or,” the ambiguous body of the mulatto had the potential to obscure the color line and thus the system of racial hierarchy predicated on the division it marks. Therefore, the limited tolerance under slavery of an intermediate racial status became untenable during Jim Crow. In my dissertation, I argue that the fiction of the Jim Crow era helped the one drop rule gain hegemonic status.

Through sustained close readings of texts by Frances Harper, Thomas Dixon, Nella Larsen, Charles Chesnutt, Mark Twain, and William Faulkner, I argue that the biological determinism of the one drop rule is inadequate to explain what makes their characters—who are often physically, culturally, and even socially aligned with whiteness—”truly” black and suggest that in mulatto fiction, self-identification emerges as the fundamental basis of racial identity. I argue that fiction facilitated the containment of racial indeterminacy by “rhetorically managing” the mulatto into choosing blackness for herself through characterizations of those who remained racially liminal as tragically marginal and generally despicable, and contrasting characterizations of those who chose to identify as black as noble, privileged, and supported by the embrace of their families and their communities. The possibility of choosing one’s racial identification, however, undermines racial ideology’s essentialist pretense to racial authenticity. Therefore, choice must be supplemented by demonstrations of racial allegiance, such as “intraracial” marriage, which preserves at least the illusion of biological and cultural racial continuity, and seamless performances, of blackness or whiteness. Finally, I examine the relative authority—asymmetrical because of the construction of whiteness as pure and exclusive—of self-identification with respect to whiteness and blackness, and the near impossibility of self-identification outside this binary.

Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Introduction
• 1. “What are you?” And why it matters
• 2. “Genocidal Images” or “Imagined Community”: Converting the Marginal Mulatto into a Light-Skinned Elite Black
• 3. Keeping Race in the Family: Marriage as Racial Pledge of Allegiance
• 4. Indeterminacy on the Loose! Invisible Blackness and the Permeability of the Color Line
• Conclusion
• Works Cited
• Biography

Introduction

The mulatto figure in American fiction is too often treated by critics as though she is static, both within individual texts and over the course of American literary history. Critics tend to assume that the most famous version of the mulatto figure—the antebellum tragic mulatto, whose near-whiteness was used to evoke white readers’ sympathy for the abolitionist cause is the only significant template for the mulatto figure. Moreover, they take for granted the mulatto’s essential blackness, explaining away her apparent whiteness as solely a concession to white racism. My dissertation models an approach to the mulatto figure that is attentive to the figure’s development.

On the scale of American literary history, I argue that the representation of the mulatto is inextricably bound up with the (United States’) political context. Though I am also interested in the way that racial indeterminacy is represented in contemporary texts, in what I think of as the post-mulatto moment, I decided quite early on that this was better saved for a future project. I focus instead on representations of the mulatto during the Jim Crow era and how those representations differ from antebellum representations of the mulatto. At its heart, this project is fundamentally a literary one, but as I sought to explain why the mulatto was represented differently in the Jim Crow era, I became interested in the relationship between those representations and a broader social and political context.

Accordingly, I offer an interdisciplinary hypothesis that literature concerning the mulatto—what I call “mulatto fiction”—was instrumental in facilitating an historical shift in the racial structure of the United States from an antebellum racial system with some possibility of a third racial category (labeled “mulatto”) to a system that is much more rigidly a binary of black and white. The effect of this historical shift was that the mulatto “became” black. While I believe that this may be true, I want to qualify this as a provisional claim. I can and do offer (mostly in chapter one) concrete evidence that such a historical shift occurred. For example, “mulatto” appeared as a category on the United States’ census from 1850 to 1920, but from 1930 onward, mulattoes were moved into the box marked “Negro,” and thus rendered invisible as mulattoes. It is to this shift that my title, “Into the Box and Out of the Picture,” refers. To establish the causal relationship between mulatto fiction and the historical shift that I describe, at this stage I can only offer a theory about why other, more obvious, forms of racial discipline, such as the law, might have had limited power to control the mulatto’s racial identification.

I would also qualify my related claim that mulatto fiction is invested in facilitating the development of the binary racial system through the disappearance of the mulatto. Additional research into authorial biography would allow me to make that claim more forcefully, however, I stand by that claim as a description of a trend in fiction of the early Jim Crow era (in the years shortly after Reconstruction). Some of the most interesting works of mulatto fiction—those by Faulkner and Larsen, for example—are critical of the binary racial schema. Those texts, however, tend to appear later in the Jim Crow era, when the binary is already well-established. Even in those texts, as I argue at length in the body of my dissertation, the critiques are limited by the existing terms of the discourse. In Quicksand, for example, Larsen locates the “problem” of the mulatto in the system—not in her mulatto protagonist, Helga—yet she cannot imagine any positive resolution to the situation. Though Helga eventually marries a black man and settles in the most apparently “authentic” black setting—among the folk of the rural South—almost as soon as she arrives, Helga is (as usual) looking for a way out. Despite Larsen’s critique of the racial system that so confines Helga, there is no way out for her. As in earlier works of mulatto fiction, Helga must fully embrace a black racial identity or die.

Another way in which my dissertation seeks to broaden the context in which we interpret the mulatto figure is by expanding the scope of the texts we might include. I argue for the consideration of what I call “mulatto discourse,” which, in addition to literary texts, includes representations of the mulatto in such fields as law and (pseudo)science. The mulatto, especially in the Jim Crow era, is a site of contestation over the establishment and location of the color line. That is to say, the mulatto figures centrally in arguments about where whiteness (along with “legitimate” access to white privilege) ends and blackness begins. Indeed, this is a question explored in the literature I discuss, but it is a battle fought in other contexts as well. Regarding the literature, I argue that authors on both sides of the color line, and from both racist and antiracist perspectives, are invested in the racial identification of the mulatto figure. The motivation behind such an investment differs; racists, obviously, are interested in supporting racial hierarchy, whereas antiracists may hope that a strategic cssentialism will create a richer base from which to mount challenges to that hierarchy. Similarly, racists and antiracists represent the mulatto differently with respect to the question of racial identity. Racists tend to emphasize the mulatto’s degeneracy, thereby suggesting that the mulatto should not exist. Antiracists tend to push the mulatto away from racial liminality by representing the tragically marginal mulatto negatively, while drawing the mulatto into blackness by representing the “light-skinned” member of the black elite positively. Despite these variations, these approaches are part of a common discourse. What all of the fictional texts under analysis in my dissertation have in common is an interest in the possibilities (in some cases, even the necessity) and the limits of self- identification for the mulatto.

Self-identification is particularly important in mulatto discourse because of the difficulty of using the external evidence of the mulatto’s phenotype to assign the mulatto a racial classification in accord with the rules established by racial ideology, in particular, the one drop rule, which dictates that anyone with a trace of black ancestry is to be considered as unequivocally black. My work focuses on the mulatto figure, exemplified by Frances Harper’s Iola Leroy, whose phenotype suggests a white racial identity; the most “problematic” figure from the perspective of those invested in racial hierarchy. (I deliberately do not say “who could pass for white,” because then I, too, would be assuming the mulatto’s essential blackness, which I do not.) This mulatto’s apparent whiteness often contradicts her legal status as a black. (I say “often” because in some cases the mulatto is not legally black.) Racial ideology developed and deployed a set of narratives in various fields to support its insistence on the mulatto’s essential blackness despite the potentially contradictory “evidence” of phenotype, legal status, or even social acceptance in white communities. Though some texts in mulatto discourse frame their exploration of the contradiction embodied by the mulatto as a critique of the “logic” of racial ideology, the driving force of mulatto discourse during the Jim Crow era seems to be an impulse toward containment of racial ambiguity.

The ramifications for Jim Crow of the problem of the mulatto’s ambiguous body were both practical and ideological. The mulatto presented a practical problem for segregation because she could move out of the places designated for her without being detected. In other words, she could access white privilege without (according to racial ideology) being legitimately entitled to it. Furthermore, the mulatto—whose body is a concrete reminder of intimate relationships between blacks and whites—presented an ideological problem for segregation, a form of racial hierarchy that sought to institute maximum distance between the races.

Because the mulatto’s blackness does not register visually, I argue that agency assumes a greater role in the mulatto’s racial identification than it otherwise might. Racism is implicated in the stakes of how the mulatto identifies racially, but because she is not visually identifiable as black, she may not be personally subjected to racism unless she identifies as black and publicly expresses this identification. For example, in Iola Leroy, set shortly after the Civil War, Iola takes a job in a Northern white establishment as salesperson. She informs the manager that she is “colored,” and he hires her, but cautions her not to tell her fellow employees. Iola does promise this, but she does not go out of her way to broadcast her racial identification either. Then one day, a coworker is where I go.” Confused by her own reluctance to make the connection between Iola’s church attendance and her racial identification—thereby admitting that she has been working with a “colored” woman without knowing it—the other salesperson asks why Iola attends a colored church. Iola finally makes her meaning plain: “Because I wished to be with my own people” Comprehending at last, the (presumably “legitimately”) white salesperson “looked surprised and pained, and almost instinctively moved a little farther from her.” By the end of the day, the entire staff knows about Iola’s racial identification and they insist that Iola be fired, which she is. This is a very clear example of the way in which agency plays a unique role in the apparently white mulatto’s racial identification and attendant experience (or lack thereof) of racism. If she had been characterized by more obvious phenotypic cues suggesting blackness, Iola would probably never have been hired, not even by the manager inclined to give a colored girl a chance. Yet if Iola had simply lied about her church (and other personal details that may have come up), the salespeople and their customers would have continued to assume that she was “legitimately” white, and she would not have been fired…

 Purchase the dissertation here.

Making the invisible visible: Experiences of multiracial late adolescents/young adults with three or more racial backgrounds

The Wright Institute
May 2011
182 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3459694
ISBN: 9781124715537

Frandelia Sharmila Moore

A dissertation submitted to the Wright Institute School of Psychology, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Psychology

Research regarding the experiences of multiracial late adolescents/young adults with three or more racial backgrounds has a rare presence in psychological literature. The present study was the first overall exploration of the experiences of this population. A qualitative approach, specifically Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), was used to investigate the experiences of multiracial late adolescents/young adults. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 participants between the ages of 19 and 25 to examine their experiences in different areas of their lives such as general experiences as a multiracial person, personal identification and identification by others. It also explored the influence of racial identity development, the experience of being multiracial in relation to attitudes/practices, the likes and challenges of being multiracial and advice from the multiracial perspective. IPA was used to extract 20 major themes which were placed in 3 domains: the effects of oppression on the community, the intersection of systemic perceptions of multiracial late adolescents/young adults, and experiences of multiracial identity. The domains and themes are discussed in connection with the current literature as well as clinical implications and future research for this population.

The outcome of this study emphasizes the effects of oppression on the community, family and the multiracial individual. Participants report how the long lasting effects of colonization and slavery have left them in position where they are judged because of their phenotype, their mixed racial background, and their behavior if different from the stereotype of a specific monoracial group. They are often classified as monoracial by others due to phenotype or because others must place them into a category regardless of their mixed heritage. However, the majority of participants claimed a private and public multiracial identity. Overall, multiracial identity has allowed participants to be more open and tolerant of others’ realities and it has influenced their course of education and/or future career goals in a positive way. Finally, participants advise parents of multiracial children to educate and expose their children to all of the races/cultures in their background in order to help them develop a healthy identity. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Table of Contents

• ABSTRACT
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• CHAPTER ONE
  • Introduction
• CHAPTER TWO
  • Literature Review
  • Definition of key terms
  • A historical context of Blacks in the United States
    • The slave trade
    • Race relations during the Colonial era
    • The American Revolution
    • The fight for freedom
    • The Civil Rights era
  • A historical context of people of color in the United States
  • A historical context of mixed people in the United States
    • The multiracial Civil Rights Movement: Where we are now
  • Racial Identity Development
    • Ethnic identity development
    • Monoracial identity development
    • Biracial identity development
    • Multiracial identity development
  • Research on mixed race people
  • Adolescent Identity Development
  • Mixed race adolescents
  • Present study
• CHAPTER THREE
  • Methodology
    • Participants
    • Procedure
    • Instrument
    • Data Analysis
• CHAPTER FOUR
  • Results
    • The Participants
    • Themes
    • Data Analysis
• CHAPTER FIVE
  • Discussion
    • Clinical Implications
    • Strengths and Limitations
    • Suggestions for Future Research
    • Conclusion
• REFRENCES
• APPENDICES
  • Appendix A: Informed Consent
  • Appendix B: Participant Consent Form
  • Appendix C: Demographic Questionnaire
  • Appendix D: Interview Questions
  • Appendix E: Full Review CPHS Protocol
  • Appendix F: Flyer

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Blood relations: The cultural work of miscegenation in nineteenth-century American literature

University of Pennsylvania
1999, 282 pages
Publication Number: AAT 9937719
ISBN: 9780599389762

Leigh Holladay Edwards, Associate Professor of English
Florida State University

A DISSERTATION in English Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

“Blood Relations” analyzes the way nineteenth-century literary texts use racial mixture to explore cultural anxieties about subjectivity and national identity. As many scholars have detailed, nineteenth century Anglo-America overwhelmingly rejected actual, literal interracial sex and reproduction between white and non-white races. Yet I show that on a symbolic level, the dominant white culture actively invoked metaphors of mixing in order to define itself. While it would be more conventional to argue that nineteenth-century culture ignored or suppressed miscegenation because it wanted to believe in racial purity, I illustrate that the culture shaped notions of race not by repressing mixture but rather by obsessively focusing on it. Intermixture emerges as a popular literary trope in the nineteenth century at the same time that amalgamation was becoming more socially and legally taboo. The literary focus on mixing is a way of micro-managing it, encouraging people to think about the interracial in certain ways, not in others. This process of cultural management through endless discussion is similar to nineteenth-century discourses about sexuality; as Foucault has shown us, the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie did not ignore sex, they endlessly talked about it, and their routinized ways of talking about sex worked to narrow and restrict sexual identities. Similarly, American race consciousness requires a discussion of the interracial in order to sustain itself. If Americans had not had interracial sex, their writers would have had to invent it.

I analyze works by writers such as Hawthorne, Melville, Chopin, Twain, and Helen Hunt Jackson, as well as popular Pocahontas narratives and the 1863 miscegenation pamphlet in which the term was coined. These representations titillated readers with America’s “open secret” of mixture, speaking to its paradoxical status as both social taboo and defining factor of self and nation. While distancing themselves from literal mixing, these writers simultaneously deploy symbolic intermixing, using mixture metaphorically to stage notions of the identity and the relationship between ideas of nation, gender, and race. I argue that we should place representations of mixture not at the periphery, but at the center of accounts of nineteenth-century culture.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Chapter One: Amalgamation and the National Imaginary in Hawthorne and Melville
• Chapter Two: Tricky Business: Racial Mixture as Hoax in Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson
• Section Introduction: Gendering Interracial Mixture
• Chapter Three: Women as the Source of Mixture in “Desiree’s Baby“
• Chapter Four: Women and Assimilation in Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona
• Chapter Five: The United Colors of Pocahontas: America’s Obsession with Race Mixing
• Bibliography

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Reactions in the Field: Interviews with Helping Professionals Who Work with Biracial Children and Adolescents

University of Cincinnati
2002
277 pages

Michele Neace Page

A dissertation submitted to the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTORATE OF EDUCATION (Ed.D.)

The number of interracial couples and marriages are growing in the United States, and it is expected that the number of biracial children will also increase. It is estimated that within five years, a third of America’s youth will be the offspring of an interracial relationship (Synder, 1996). The future design of support services to meet the needs of the biracial population is obviously crucial.

The literature review has revealed a lack of training of helping professionals and a framework for identifying and understanding biracial populations. Counseling professionals have recognized the need to increase research in the area of working with biracial children, but no previous study has gathered information from helping professionals in the field.

This study was designed to explore the knowledge, skills, attitudes and expectations of professionals who work with biracial children. Twenty male and female participants were interviewed from various helping professions including social work, mental health and school counseling. Each participant was required to have two years work experience with biracial children. Data was collected through a structured interview. Years of experience for helping professionals ranged from two to twenty-five with 85% of the respondents being Caucasian.

Helping professional’s top concerns for working with biracial adolescents and children were a lack of training, real-life experiences, awareness or comfort with identity, and acceptance of biracial children by others. The expectation for the future professional development and growth included the desire for more interaction of all people within their community.

This study supported the identified area of need in previous literature regarding a lack of training and experience. Long range sociopolitical issues appear to be upcoming issues for biracial individuals as well as the desire of helping professionals to be better prepared and supportive to biracial children and adolescents.

Table of Contents

• List of Tables
• CHAPTER I Introduction and Review of the Literature
  • Introduction
    • Statement of Problem
  • Review of the Literature
    • Characteristics of Biracial Children
    • Commonalities and Differences for Adolescent Biracial and Monoracial Children
      • Developmental stages
      • Physical Characteristics, language and socioeconomic status
  • Identity
    • Cultural influence on identity
    • Family influence on identity
    • Peer influence on identity
    • Counselor Education and Training Issues
      • Helping professionals working with biracial children and adolescents
      • Counselors education and training with biracial children and adolescents
      • Multiculturalism in counseling
      • Multicultural competency training
    • Challenges of Counseling and Working with Biracial Children
      • Knowledge
      • Skills
      • Attitudes
    • Summary
    • Research Questions
    • Significance of the Study
      • Increasing Biracial Population
      • New Issues in the Helping Professions
      • Recognizing the Need to Act
• CHAPTER II Methods
  • Population and Sample
  • Design of the Questionnaire
  • Procedures
  • Approaches to Recruitment
  • Securing Permission to Conduct the Study
  • Recruiting Participants
  • Data Storage
  • Conducting the Interviews
  • Data Analysis
• CHAPTER III Results
  • Initial Analysis
  • Data Analysis Steps
  • Sample Demographics
  • Experience Working with Biracial Children
    • How Do You Get Ready to Work with Biracial Children?
    • What Special Training has the Counselor Obtained
    • Attitudes Regarding Working with Biracial Children
    • Expectations for the Future
  • Summary
• Chapter IV: Summary, Discussion, Future Implications
  • Summary
  • Discussion
    • Basic of Problems and Issues for Biracial Adolescents and Children
    • Factors most Important When Working With Biracial Adolescents and Children
    • Comfort With Biracial Children and Adolescents
  • Limitations of the Study
  • Helping professional perspectives
    • Sample Size
    • Sample Selection
    • Survey methodology
  • Future Implications
    • Implications for research
    • Implications for Training Counselor Education Programs
    • Implications for Practice
• REFERENCES
• APPENDIXES
  • Appendix A: Informed Consent Letter
  • Appendix B: Interview Questionnaire (Part I)
  • Appendix C: Interview Data

List of Tables

• 3.1: Degrees Held by Helping Professionals
• 3.2: Helping Professionals’ Customary Practices When Working with Any Child or Student
• 3.3: Helping Professionals’ Customary Practices Working with Biracial Child or Student
• 3.4: Difficult Issues when Working with Biracial Children
• 3.5: Special Training Obtained by the Helping Professional for Work with Biracial Children
• 3.6: Areas Where More Knowledge or Information Is Needed
• 3.7: Of the Sorts of Biracial Children Who Come to Your School/Community Center, Which Do You Think You Understand the Least Well and Have (Or Would Have) the Most Difficulty Working With?
• 3.8: Biracial Children’s Needs Versus Monoracial Children’s Needs Regarding Their Passage Through Puberty
• 3.9 In the Next Ten Years, What Trends Do You See in the Your Community Regarding the Prevalence of Biracial Children?

Read the entire dissertation here.

Racial Socialization of Biracial Adolescents

Kent State University
May 2006
158 pages

Ja’Nitta Marbury
Marbury & Associates, University Heights, Ohio

A dissertation submitted to the Kent State University Graduate School of Education, Health and Human Services in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

The purpose in conducting this research was to develop grounded theory regarding the racial socialization process of Biracial adolescents who were the offspring of an African American father and a European American mother. The participants in the study were eight European American mothers of Biracial adolescents ranging in age from 10 to 17 years old. This study was conducted in a qualitative format using individual and focus group interviews to gather data. The study was conducted to lay the foundation for the development of grounded theory on the Biracial socialization process. The grounded theory foundation developed from the results was the Biracial Socialization Spectrum. The Biracial Socialization Spectrum is a tetrahedron with the dynamic process as the base, side one representing the Black/African American parent spectrum, Side two representing the White/European American parent spectrum, and side three representing the Biracial Socialization Spectrum.

Table of Contents

• ACKNOWLEDMENTS
• LIST OF FIGURES
• LIST OF TABLES
• I. INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW
  • History of Biracial People in America
  • Politics of a Biracial Identity
  • Biracial Childhood and Adolescence
  • The Development and Socialization of White Adolescents
  • Racial Socialization
    • Black Racial Socialization
    • Biracial Socialization
  • Parental Racial Socialization Messages
    • White Racial Identity
• II. METHODOLOGY
  • Purpose of the Study
  • Researcher Description
  • Research Design
  • Participants
  • Procedures
    • Individual Interviews
    • Focus Groups
  • Data Analysis
  • Limitations
• III. RESULTS
  • Recruitment
  • Participants
    • Gayl
    • Ananda
    • Kalpana
    • Bridgette
    • Patricia
    • Sandy
    • Ella
    • Sharon
  • Demographics
  • Individual Interviews
  • RQ₁: Research Question 1
    • IQ₁: What does the term Biracial mean to you?
    • IQ₂: What do you think being Biracial means to your child?
  • RQ₂: Research Question 2
    • IQ₃: What strategies, if any, of parenting a Biracial child are you using?
    • SQ₃: How do you process both negative and positive cross-racial encounters with them?
    • IQ₄: How does your child respond to the socialization methods you have tried?
    • IQ₆: How does your family aid in the socialization of your child?
  • RQ₃: Research Question 3
    • IQ₅: What impact does the difference in physical characteristics between you and your child have on how you socialize your child?
  • Focus Group Interview
    • Member Checking
  • Emerging Themes
  • Data Triangulation
    • Peer Reviewers and Researcher
    • Peer Reviewers’ Perceptions
    • Researcher’s Perceptions
  • Delimitations
• IV. DISCUSSION
  • Convergent & Divergent Socialization Process
  • Grounded Theory
    • Biracial Socialization Spectrum
  • Conclusions
    • White Racial Identity
    • Acceptance
    • Family of Origin and Immediate Family Acceptance
    • Social Political Environment
    • Implications For Counselors and Counselor Educators
  • Recommendations
  • The Intention Behind the Study
• APPENDICES
  • APPENDIX A: WHITE RACIAL IDENTITY EGO STATUSES
  • APPENDIX B: DIVERSEGRAD-L LIST-SERV POSTING
  • APPENDIX C: INTRODUCTORY LETTER
  • APPENDIX D: DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE
  • APPENDIX E: INFORMATION INDEX CARD
  • APPENDIX F: PEER REVIEWING CONSENT FORM (PARTICIPANT)
  • APPENDIX G: PARTICIPANT CONSENT FORM
  • APPENDIX H: AUDIO AND VIDEO TAPE CONSENT FORM
  • APPENDIX I: STRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
  • APPENDIX J: PEER REVIEWING CONSENT FORM (PEER REVIEWER)
  • APPENDIX K: RESEARCH QUESTION 1: INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEW
  • APPENDIX L: RESEARCH QUESTION 1: FOCUS GROUP
  • APPENDIX M: RESEARCH QUESTION 2: INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEW
  • APPENDIX N: RESEARCH QUESTION 2: FOCUS GROUP
  • APPENDIX O: RESEARCH QUESTION 3: INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEW
  • APPENDIX P: TREE NODE DIAGRAM FOR RESEARCH QUESTION 1
  • APPENDIX Q: TREE NODE DIAGRAM FOR RESEARCH QUESTION 2
  • APPENDIX R: TREE NODE DIAGRAM FOR RESEARCH QUESTION 3
• REFERENCES

List of Figures

1. Methodology flow chart
2. Biracial Socialization Spectrum
3. Parental Spectrums (Side 1 & Side 2 Tetrahedron)
4. Dynamic process

List of Tables

1. Participant Education Level
2. Participant Marital Status
3. Participant Annual Household Income
4. Demographic Information Listed by Participant

Read the entire dissertation here.

Comparing Biracials And Monoracials: Psychological Well-Being And Attitudes Toward Multiracial People

Ohio State University
2008
108 pages

Peter J. Adams

DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

The study of biracial individuals and their unique experience has been limited. As biracial individuals increase in number, understanding their experiences will become more important to psychologists and mental health professionals.

The purpose of the study was to compare biracial individuals and monoracial individuals on measures of psychological well being, ethnic identity, and attitudes towards biracial people. The present study examined one general research question and
three hypotheses:

• General Research Question & Hypotheses
  • Will scores on measures of ethnic identity, individual self-esteem, collective self-esteem, subjective well being, and attitudes toward biracial children significantly differ between biracial and monoracial groups?
  • Bracey, Bamara, and Umana-Taylor’s (2004) results on self-esteem and ethnic identity will be replicated in this study on adults.
  • When compared to monoracial individuals, biracial individuals will have significantly more positive attitudes towards biracials
  • A positive relationship exists between psychological well being and attitudes towards biracials for biracial individuals.

Participants completed a web-based survey from an undisclosed location of their choosing. Participants were solicited from various multicultural and professional psychology list serves and through Ohio State University’s Research Experience Program.

Results indicated that biracial adults appear to be as psychologically well adjusted as their monoracial counterparts. Results even suggested that biracial adults have more realized ethnic identities than their monoracial counterparts. Bracey et al.’s (2004) results were replicated in the present study (biracials were found to be as psychologically well adjusted as monoracials). Also, a positive relationship was found between biracial individuals’ psychological well being and their attitudes towards multiracial children. Support for the second hypothesis was not found – biracial individuals in the study did not have more positive attitudes toward biracials than their monoracial counterparts.

Implications of the findings along with the limitations of the study are discussed. Recommendations of future research are also given.

Table of Contents

• Abstract
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Vita
• List of Tables
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Literature Review
  • 2.1 Ethnic Identity
  • 2.1.1 Biracial Ethnic Identity
  • 2.2 Psychological Well Being
  • 2.3 Attitudes Towards Biracial Individuals in America
  • 2.4 Summary, Hypotheses, and Research Questions
• 3. Method
  • 3.1 Participants
  • 3.2 Instruments
    • 3.2.1 Demographic Questionnaire
    • 3.2.2 Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM)
    • 3.2.3 Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSES)
    • 3.2.4 Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE)
    • 3.2.5 Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS)
    • 3.2.6 Attitudes Toward Multiracial Children Scale (AMCS)
    • 3.2.7 Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR)
  • 3.3 Procedure
  • 3.4 Data Analysis
• 4. Results
  • 4.1 Descriptive Statistics
  • 4.2 Correlations
    • 4.2.1 MEIM and the AMCS
    • 4.2.2 CSE and the AMCS
    • 4.2.3 RSE and the AMCS
    • 4.2.4 SWLS and the AMCS
    • 4.2.5 BIRD and the AMCS
  • 4.3 MANOVA
• 5. Discussion
  • 5.1 General Research Question
  • 5.2 Hypotheses
  • 5.3 Other Finding of Interest – Correlational Findings
  • 5.4 Limitations
  • 5.5 Conclusion and Future Directions
• List of references
• APPENDICES:
  • A. Survey Solicitation Letter
  • B. REP Solicitation Letter
  • C. Debriefing Page
  • D. Survey Introduction
  • E. Consent for Participation
  • F. Demographic Questionnaire
  • G. Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure
  • H. Collective Self-esteem Scale
  • I. Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale
  • J. Satisfaction With Life Scale
  • K. Attitudes Toward Multiracial Children Scale
  • L. Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding

List of Tables

• 4.1 Breakdown of Participants Based on Sex, Age, Racial Categorization, and Interracial Romantic Relationships
• 4.2 Breakdown of Caucasian Participants Based on Sex, Age, and Interracial Romantic Relationships
• 4.3 Breakdown of Monoracial Minority Participants Based on Sex, Age, and Interracial Romantic Relationships
• 4.4 Breakdown of Biracial Participants Based on Sex, Age, and Interracial Romantic Relationships
• 4.5 Descriptive Statistics for Measures and Age

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Being Raced, Acting Racially: Multiracial Tribal College Students’ Representations of Their Racial Identity Choices

University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
September 2010
208 pages

Michelle Rene Montgomery

DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies

In recent years, many studies have clearly documented that mixed-race people are currently engaged in the process of self validation (DaCosta. 2007; Dalmage, 2003; McQueen, 2002; Root, 1996 & 2001; Spencer, J, M., 1997; Spencer, R., 2006a; Thorton, 1992). There is not a lot of empirical research that examines how schools influence the racial identity of multiracial students, in particular mixed-race students that identify as Native American. Even more troubling is the lack of literature on experiences of mixed-race students using racial identity choice as a social and political tool through race discourse and actions. The aim of this qualitative case study was to look at the relationship between the racial agency of multiracial students and the larger white supremacist social structure. The research questions addressed in this study are as follows: (1) How do the formal and informal schooling contexts shape the identity choices of multiracial students? (2) How do the identity choices of multiracial students conform to an/or resist the racialized social system of the United States?

This study was conducted at a tribal college in New Mexico with selected mixed-race participants who identified as Native American, or acknowledged Native American ancestry. At the time of data collection, the school enrollment was 513 students, representing 83 federally recognized tribes and 22 state recognized tribes. The presence of a multi-racial body of students created a unique contributing factor of multiracial participants for a broader understanding of mixed-race experiences in cultural and traditional learning environments. The study was conducted using qualitative case study methodology of mixed-race students interviewed in the last weeks of the fall semester (pre-interview) and once during the last few weeks of the spring semester (post interviews). Mixed-race students were asked to discuss nine group sessions during the spring semester their lived experiences that influenced their identity choices. The sample for this study represented mixed-race participants from various tribal communities. In an eight-month time period of the study, nine participants were interviewed and participated in-group sessions. Of the nine total in sample, two were male, seven were female; three were Native American/white, two were black/white/Native American, three were Hispanic/white/Native American, and one were Hispanic/Native American.

From my analysis of the nine participants’ mixed-race experience, three overarching themes emerged: (a) racial(ized) self-perceptions, (b) peer interactions and influences, and (c) impact on academic experiences. Of the nine participants, how a students’ race was asserted, assigned, and reassigned appears to be determined by being mixed-race with black versus white or non-black. According to the participants, this particular tribal college did not provide a supportive or welcoming environment. As a result, students were highly stratified based on experiences tied to their phenotype and racial mixture; the more “black” they appeared, the more alienated they were. In the classroom, there was often a divide between black/Native mixed-race students versus white/Native mixed-race students, similar to the differences between monoracial white and black student experiences. As a result of dissimilar experiences based on mixedness, there were group association conflicts during their schooling experiences that included feeling vicitimized when their whiteness did not prevail as an asset or being alienated due to blackness. The study also found a clear distinction between the mixed-race black experience versus the mixed-race with white experience based on phenotypic features. Overall, mixed-race with black schooling experiences indicated situations of racial conflict. The findings of this study have policy implications for tribal colleges and other institutions to develop programs and services to help mixed-race students identify and bond with their learning environments.

Table of Contents

• CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
  • Introduction
  • Statement of the Problem
  • Purpose of the Study
  • Significance of the Study
  • Research Questions
  • Definition of Key Terms
  • Overview of Methodology
  • Limitations of the Study
• CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
  • Introduction
    • The Politics of Multiracialism
    • Empirical Research On The Identity Politics of Multiracial Students40
• CHAPTER 3 METHODS
  • Focus of the Research
  • Research Design
  • Research Participants
  • Setting
  • Portrait of Participants
  • Data Collection
  • Data Analysis
  • Ethics
  • Validity
  • Trustworthiness
• CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS OF MIXED-RACE EXPERIENCES
  • Theme One: Racial(ized) Self-Perceptions
    • Identity Politics of Blood Quantum
      • Black/Native American Experience
      • Non-Black/Native American Experience
    • Summary
    • Self-Perceptions of Race Being Asserted, Negotiated and Redefined
      • Non-Black/Native American Experience
      • Black/Native American Experience
      • Non-Black/Native American Experience
        • Black/Native American Experience
        • Non-Black/Native American Experience
    • Disadvantages: Mixed-race Identity Choice
      • Black/Native American Experience
      • Non-Black/Native American Experience
    • Advantages: Mixed-race Identity Choice
      • Non-Black/Native American Experience
    • Summary
  • Theme Two: Peer Interactions and Influences
    • Perceivable Differences
      • Non-Black/Native American Experience
      • Black/Native American Experience
    • Summary
    • Surviving the Losses
      • Non-Black/Native American Experience
      • Black/Native American Experience
    • Summary
  • Theme Three: The Impact on Academic Experiences
    • The Role of Tribal Colleges
    • Schooling Experiences
      • Black/Native American Experience
      • Non-Black/Native American Experience
    • Summary
• CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION
  • Discussion
    • Major Findings
      • Research Question #1
      • Research Question #2
    • Summary
    • Recommendations
      • Administrators
      • Faculty and Staff
      • Future Research
      • Conclusion
• APPENDICES
• APPENDIX A CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE IN RESEARCH
• APPENDIX B PARTICIPANT DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE
• APPENDIX C FIRST PARTICIPANT INTERVIEW
• APPENDIX D SECOND PARTICIPANT INTERVIEW
• REFERENCES

Chapter 1: Introduction

Introduction

Dark brown skin with wavy hair, I am accustomed to being asked, “What are you?” Often I am mistaken for being reserved despite my easy, sincere grin. My facial expression perhaps does not show what I have learned in my life: reluctant people endure, passionate people live. Whether it is the glint of happiness in my eyes or what I call “using laughter to heal your soul,” my past experience as a mixed-race person has been significantly different from my current outlook on life. I am at ease with my lived experiences, very willing to share and even encouraging others to probe more into my racialized experience. Like many mixed-race people, I experienced an epiphany: disowning a need to belong and disengaging from the structure of race has given me the confidence to critique race discourse.

I identify as Native American with mixed-race heritage. I am mixed-race black/white, Native American, and mixed-race Korean/Mongolian. My father is mixedrace black/white and Native American, and my mother is mixed-race Korean/Mongolian. We are enrolled members of the Haliwa Saponi Tribe. When I was growing up, my father taught me that I am a multiracial person. So, I can personally relate to the idea that monoraciality does not fit my multiracial identity or those of other multiracials in our socalled “melting pot” society.

However, countless numbers of times I have been raced in ways that have forced me to choose a group association. My own experiences illustrate how racial designation and group association plays itself out in society, including in classroom learning environments. My siblings and I grew up in a predominantly mixed-race Native American community in northeastern North Carolina that included black, Native American, and white ancestry. I attended a rural high school that contained mixed-race black/Native American, mixed-raced white/Native American, monoracial blacks, and monoracial white students. It was not unusual for mixed-race black/Native American and monoracial blacks to create close group associations, which were exhibited through social interactions that occurred when sitting together in the cafeteria, classrooms, or in designated lounging areas around campus. However, mixed-race white/Native American students, especially those who seemed phenotypically white, did not want to be associated with monoracial black students. Most mixed-race white/Native American students created group associations with monoracial white students. As a brown complexioned multiracial person in this racially polarized environment, I was placed in a situation where I had to choose a group association to keep mixed-race black/Native American and monoracial black students from viewing me as acting white. On the other hand, the mixed-raced white/Native Americans and monoracial whites viewed my actions as acting black.

Because of my Korean and Mongolian ancestry, I was not perceived phenotypically as a true member of the black or Native American groups. My Koreanness caused friction between me and the monoracial black and mixed-race black/Native American groups with which I most commonly associated because it gave me an inroad to the white/r groups that they did not have. Because I did not acknowledge and challenge my advantage, I allowed myself to be used as an agent of racism. This happened in a number of ways. For instance, monoracial white and mixed-race Native American groups asked me to sit with them in the cafeteria, but they did not invite monoracial blacks and mixed-race black/Native Americans. And I accepted their invitation. As a consequence, the group with which I most associated viewed me as a race traitor, as a racial fraud. And I felt like one, too. I am ashamed that I actively participated in the denigration of blacks, which is the most denigrated part of my own ancestry. A multiracial person with black ancestry who accepts not being identified as black in an effort to subvert white privilege (i.e., resisting racial categorization as a way of challenging the notion of race) can actually be reinforcing it, as was the case for me. The problem is how the context and meaning of being a race traitor or committing racial fraud arises out of and is bounded by the social and political descriptions of race. Both social and political constructs are then used as a justification for policing the accuracy of racial identification or political alliance. In most instances, being cast as a race traitor, or as an alleged racial fraud, is a constitutive feature of the dynamics of the informal school setting, and is further developed in the formal schooling setting Since racial identity is a social and political construct, it requires meaning in the context of a particular set of social relationships. In a tribal college setting, the identity politics of blood quantum often influences the multiracial experience of students (i.e., learning environment…

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Home and Identity for Young Men of Mixed Descent

Queen Mary University of London
2009
319 pages

Akile Ahmet

Mixed descent identities span ethnic, religious, and cultural identities as well as race. This thesis addresses the multi-layered identities embodied by young men of mixed descent in relation to their ideas and lived experiences of home. I have adopted a feminist methodological approach to my research and have used three different types of methods to conduct this research: one to one interviewing (with repeat interviews), written electronic diaries and photo-voice.

Previous research on mixed descent and the home has located people of mixed descent as ‘homeless’ (see Ifekwuingwe, 1999, Garimara, 2002 and Carton, 2004). I place young men of mixed descent aged between 16-19 in homes, both in terms of dwelling spaces and wider ideas about belonging. The space of the home becomes a cultural site of their own identities and their family identities. Religious and cultural identities both via material possessions and emotional signifiers affect the identity of these young men and their definitions and experiences of home. These multiple identities are seen within the space of the home, particularly for those inhabiting the parental home. I address the multiple web of identity which these young embody via their religion, culture, ethnicity, and in some cases language. I move beyond the location of mixed race households and place this research inside the home space for young men of mixed descent. Alongside which I explore the idea of home as stretching’ (Gorman-Murray, 2006) beyond the scale of the private domestic into the public realm.

Table of Contents

• TITLE PAGE
• DECLARATION OF PhD
• ABSTRACT
• IMAGES AND TABLES
• ACKNOWLEDEGMENTS
• Chapter One: Introduction
• Chapter Two: Methods and Methodology
• Chapter Three: Autobiographies of Participants
• Chapter Four: Understanding Mixed Descent and Gender
• Chapter Five: Understanding Home and Identity
• Chapter Six: Meanings of Mixed Descent: How do young Men of mixed descent ‘narrate their identities?
• Chapter Seven: Exploring the Parental home: Experiences of Home and Mixed Descent
• Chapter Eight: Definitions of Home for Young Men of Mixed Descent
• Chapter Nine: Conclusions
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• APPENDIX

IMAGES AND TABLES

• Images
  • 7.1 Tariq’s photo-voice: image of his hallway
  • 7.2 Tariq’s photo-voice: image of his hallway
  • 7.3 Tariq’s photo-voice: image of his front room
  • 8.1 Tariq’s photo-voice: image of his bedroom
  • 8.2 David’s photo-voice: image of his bedroom
  • 8.3 Craig and David’s photo-voice: image of their bedroom
  • 8.4 David’s photo-voice: image of his bedroom wall
  • 8.5 David’s photo-voice: image of his playstation games
  • 8.6 David’s photo-voice: image of David’s college
• Tables
  • 2.1 Methods employed by each participant
  • 2.2 Timing of research
  • 2.3 Location of interviews
  • 2.4 Breakdown of participant backgrounds and living arrangements
  • 6.1 Outline of participants
  • 7.1 Outline of participants homes and living arrangements

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Visually white, legally black: Miscegenation, the mulatto, and passing in American literature and culture, 1865–1933

Illinois State University
2004
193 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3128271

Karen A. Chachere

Many historians and literary scholars characterize the period between 1865-1933 as America’s preoccupation with the “Negro Question.” Admittedly, America was intrigued by the idea of the former slave as “citizen.” Seemingly, the more resounding question obscured behind the “Negro Question” was how whites would maintain their privilege. The answer to this question plagued America’s consciousness and manifested itself most obviously in American literature written from 1865-1933. Indeed, the novels, which emerged during this turbulent period, with their focus on miscegenation, the mulatto, and passing, accurately reflect the fear that whites felt at the thought of losing their legal, social, and economic advantages. White and black writers of the era capitalized on the nation’s fear of miscegenation and racial passing and voraciously used these themes to protest the venomous social, legal, and political conflicts that ensued over America’s desire to maintain its whiteness.

Diverse writers such as Mark Twain, Charles Waddell Chesnutt, and Jessie Redmon Fauset debated the color line in their works. “Visually White, Legally Black: Miscegenation and the Mulatto in American Literature and Culture, 1865-1933” examines the dialectical relationship that emerged between these diverse writers through American literature’s theme of miscegenation and passing narratives and exposes the underlying issue that was not blackness, but whiteness. And yet, the mulatto’s attempt at racial passing has often been misconstrued as an indictment against the black community rather than for what it really is–an indictment against claims of racial purity and white superiority. The first four chapters of this dissertation are grounded in biographical, historical, and legal evidence in order to expose the ways in which writers negotiated the nexus of race, class, and gender. Finally, chapter five illustrates how the passing genre may be used in the literature classroom to challenge and encourage dialogue concerning race, class, and gender superiority/inferiority.

Table of Contents

• DEDICATION
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• CONTENTS
• I. HISTORICAL, LEGAL, AND LITERARY OVERIVIEW OF RACE MIXING
  • Brief Historical Overview of Miscegenation
  • A Divided Sisterhood: The Beginning
  • Building a Case Against Race Mixing
  • Constructing Whiteness Through the Legal System
• II. PROTECTING THE UNMARKED CATEGORY: WHITENESS RECOVERED IN MARK TWAIN’S PUDD’NHEAD WILSON
• III. WHITE ACCOUNTABILITY IN CHARLES W. CHESNUTT’S “THE SHERIFF’S CHILDREN”
• IV. REPRESENTATIONS OF WHITENESS IN JESSIE REDMON FAUSET’S COMEDY: AMERICAN STYLE
• V. MISCEGENATION, THE MULATTO, AND PASSING: A TEACHING NARRATIVE
• WORKS CITED

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