Mixed Race Studies

The Impact of the Media on Biracial Identity Formation

University of North Texas
December 2007
93 pages
OCLC: 227035319 | 
ARK: ark:/67531/metadc5185

Alicia Edison

Thesis Prepared for the Degree of Master of Science

Biracial individuals undergo a developmental process that is different than monoracial individuals. Not only do they have to develop a strong and cohesive self-esteem, but also develop a strong and cohesive racial identity to have a healthy self-concept. The media is a social structure that has infiltrated into many aspects of American lives, including their racial identity. The media perpetuates current beliefs concerning race and racial identity. This research investigates how biracial identity has been portrayed in the media. Historically, biracial individuals have been portrayed as the tragic “mulatto” because of their confused racial background. In addition, mulatto women have been stereotyped as exotic and sexual objects. A content analysis was used to investigate how the media presents biracial identity. Only movies with black/white biracial individuals were watched. The categories under study included perceived race, character’s race, skin color, likeability, sex appeal, ability to contribute, ability to be violent, mental health, overall positive portrayal social, and negative portrayal score. This study may suggest that the media is making attempts to rectify old stereotypes. Overall, this study does demonstrate that the media portrays biracial and black characters differently in film. One overarching theme from these results implies that the perception of race is more salient than one’s actual race.

Table of Contents

• LIST OF TABLES
• INTRODUCTION
• LITERATURE REVIEW
  • Race
  • History of Race Relations
  • One-Drop Rule
  • Importance of Racial Identity
  • Census
  • Choosing a Race
  • Identity Models
  • Factors in Biracial Identity Construction
  • Family
  • Other Factors
  • Identity Issues Facing Biracial Individuals
  • Well-Being
  • Media
• THEORY
• HYPOTHESES
• PROCEDURE
  • Interrater Reliability Score
  • Data Analysis
  • Results and Discussion
• LIMITATIONS
• CONCLUSIONS
• Appendices
  • A. EVALUATION FORM
  • B. INTERRATOR RELIABILITY SCORES
  • C. LIST OF ACTOR/ACTRESSES AND MOVIES
• REFERENCES

List of Tables

1. Percentage Distribution of Roles Played by Skin Color and Gender
2. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Overall Positive Portrayal Score on Character’s Race
3. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Overall Positive Portrayal Score on Perceived Race
4. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Overall Negative Portrayal Score on Character’s Race
5. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Overall Negative Portrayal Score on Perceived Race
6. Percentage Distribution of Roles Played by Women and Skin Color
7. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Attractiveness by Character’s Race
8. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Attractiveness by Perceived Race
9. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Ability to Contribute by Character’s Race
10. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Ability to Contribute by Perceived Race
11. Means, Standard Deviation, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effect of Likeability by Character’s Race
12. Means, Standard Deviation, and t-Test for Equality for Means for Effect of Likeability by Perceived Race
13. Means, Standard Deviation, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effect of Ability to be Violent by Character’s Race
14. Means, Standard Deviation, and t-Test for Equality of Means for Effect of Ability to be Violent by Perceived Race
15. Means, Standard Deviation, and t-Test for Equality of Means for Effect of Skin Color by Character’s Race
16. Means, Standard Deviation, and t-Test for Equality of Means for Effect of Skin Color by Perceived Race

Read the entire thesis here.

Gender, Work and Fears of a ‘Hybrid Race’ in 1920s New Zealand

Gender & History
Volume 19, Issue 3 (November 2007)
pages 501–518
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0424.2007.00495.x

Barbara Brookes, Professor of History
Otago University, New Zealand

The 1929 New Zealand Committee of Inquiry into the Employment of Māori on Market Gardens affords insight into the ways in which masculine fears of racial degradation through miscegenation—of a ‘hybrid’ Chinese/Māori race—operated within a hierarchy of race, gender and Iwi (tribal) interests. The participation of Māori men in national politics contributed to a new articulation of ‘National Manhood’, in which Māori men and white men combined to express fears about women’s work and sexuality and young women’s potential to undermine a fragile and contested hierarchy of racial purity. Māori women, silenced in the cacophony of voices lamenting their plight, were at the centre of debates between Māori men, Pakeha (white New Zealander) employers, Chinese market gardeners, Anglican and Methodist interests and Pakeha women’s groups. I argue that the Inquiry was about commerce, both in a business and a sexual sense. As a historical episode, it also serves to complicate the picture of New Zealand as a historically bicultural society, made up only of Māori and Pakeha, by signalling the importance of the Chinese in debates about national belonging.

Read or purchase the article here.