Mixed Race Studies

My Choice, Your Categories: The Denial of Multiracial Identities

Journal of Social Issues
Volume 65, Number 1 (March 2009)
pages 185-204
DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.01594.x

Sarah S. M. Townsend
University of California, Santa Barbara

Hazel R. Markus
Stanford University

Hilary B. Bergsieker
Princeton University

Mixed-race individuals often encounter situations in which their identities are a source of tension, particularly when expressions of multiracial and biracial identity are not supported or allowed.  Two studies examined the consequences of this identity denial. In Study 1, mixed-race participants reported that their biracial or multiracial identity caused tension in a variety of contexts. Study 2 focused on one often-mentioned situation: completing a demographic questionnaire in which only one racial background can be specified.  Relative to mixed-race participants who were permitted to choose multiple races, those compelled to choose only one showed lower subsequent motivation and self-esteem.  These studies demonstrate the negative consequences of constraining mixed-race individuals’ expression of their chosen racial identity. Policy implications for the collection of racial and ethnic demographic data are discussed.

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Hapa is a Hawaiian term used to describe a person of mixed Asian or Pacific Islander racial/ethnic heritage.

Wikipedia

…A major deficiency in multiracial scholarship has been the lack of historical context, together with the concomitant error of viewing mixed-race identity as an exclusively recent phenomenon…

Rainier Spencer, Spurious Issues: Race and Multiracial Identity Politics in the United States, 1999-08-12

Racing to Theory or Retheorizing Race? Understanding the Struggle to Build a Multiracial Identity Theory

Journal of Social Issues
2009
Volume 65, Number 1
pp. 13–34

Kerry Ann Rockquemore, Associate Professor
University of Illinois at Chicago

David L. Brunsma, Professor of Sociology
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Daniel J. Delgado
University of Missouri-Columbia

Empirical research on the growing multiracial population in the United States has focused largely on the documentation of racial identification, analysis of psychological adjustment, and understanding the broader political consequences of mixed-race identification. Efforts toward theory construction on multiracial identity development, however, have been largely disconnected from empirical data, mired in disciplinary debates, and bound by historically specific assumptions about race and racial group membership. This study provides a critical overview of multiracial identity development theories, examines the links between theory and research, explores the challenges to multiracial identity theory construction, and proposes considerations for future directions in theorizing racial identity development among the mixed-race population.

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