Mixed Race Studies

Multiracial Identity

Bullfrog Films
2010
77 minutes/56 minutes
DVD ISBN: 1-59458-913-5
Directed by Brian Chinhema
Produced by Abacus Production
Narrated by Dieter Weber
Director of Photography: Jay Cornelius
Editor: Jay Cornelius
Music: Ed Beceril, Elizabeth Nicholson

Explores the social, political and religious impact of the multiracial movement.

Note: There are two versions of this program on the same DVD: 77-minutes and 56-minutes.

Multiracial people are the fastest growing demographic in America, yet there is no official political recognition for mixed-race people. MULTIRACIAL IDENTITY explores the social, political, and religious impact of the multiracial movement and the lived experience of being multiracial.

Different racial and cultural groups see multiracialism differently. For some Whites multiracialism represents the pollution of the White race. For some Blacks it represents an attempt to escape Blackness. And for some Asians, Latinos, and Arabs, multiracialism can be seen as ill equipped to perpetuate cultural traditions and therefore represents the dilution of the culture.

Also features commentary from noted scholars, Rainier Spencer, Naomi Zack, Aliya Saperstein, Aaron Gullickson, Susan J. Hayflick and Pastor Randall Sanford.

Existential hazards of the multicultural individual: Defining and understanding “cultural homelessness.”

Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology
Volume 5, Number 1 (February 1999)
pages 6-26.
DOI: 10.1037/1099-9809.5.1.6

Veronica Navarrete-Vivero
University of North Texas

Sharon Rae Jenkins, Professor of Psychology
University of North Texas

Discusses cultural homelessness (CH), the unique experiences and feelings reported by some multicultural individuals. Ethnically related concepts found in the cross-cultural and multiethnic literature (eg., marginality, intercultural effectiveness, ethnic enclaves, and reference group) are used to explain how CH may arise from cross-cultural tensions within the ethnically mixed family and between the family and its culturally different environment, especially due to geographic moves. CH is conceptualized as a situationally imposed developmental challenge, forcing the child to accommodate to contradictory and changing norms, values, verbal and nonverbal communication styles, and attachment processes. Culturally homeless individuals may enjoy a broader, stronger cognitive and social repertoire because of their multiple cultural frames of reference. However, code-switching complexities may lead to emotional and social confusion, which, if internalized, may result in self-blame and shame. Culturally encoded emotion labeling may be disrupted, leading to alexithymia.

Read or purchase the article here.

Identity and Marginality: Issues in the Treatment of Biracial Adolescents

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry
Volume 57, Issue 2 (April 1987)
pages 265–278
DOI: 10.1111/j.1939-0025.1987.tb03537.x

Jewelle Taylor Gibbs, Emeritus Professor
School of Social Welfare
University of California, Berkeley

Teenagers of mixed black and white parentage face peculiar difficulties in the developmental tasks of adolescence. The major conflicts and coping mechanisms of this group are examined, as are the clinical and sociocultural issues in its assessment and diagnosis. Specific treatment techniques are delineated.

Read or purchase the article here.

Study of HLA antigens of the Martinican population

Tissue Antigens
Volume 26, Issue 1 (July 1985)
pages 1–11
DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-0039.1985.tb00928.x

Nicole Monplaisir
Blood Transfusion Center of Martinique

Ignez Valette
Blood Transfusion Center of Martinique

Virginia Lepage
Groupe de Recherches d’Immunogenetique de la Transplatation Humaine, INSERM – U 93, Paris, France

Veronique Dijon
Blood Transfusion Center of Martinique

Elizabeth Lavocat
Blood Transfusion Center of Martinique

Colette Ribal
Blood Transfusion Center of Martinique

Colette Raffoux
Groupe de Recherches d’Immunogenetique de la Transplatation Humaine, INSERM – U 93, Paris, France

This is the first time a study has been undertaken on the HLA profile of the Martinican population, a population which is essentially the product of intermixture between African-Negroes and French Caucasians. Two hundred and thirty-eight non-related subjects were typed for the A and B loci, 158 subjects for C locus and 128 for DR locus.

After analysis of our parameters (antigen and gene frequencies, linkage disequili-bria, etc.) and their comparison to those found in the Black and Caucasian control populations, we came to the conclusion that our racially-mixed population is closer to the African-Negro population than to the French Caucasian. A study of the average gene flow enabled us to evaluate the Caucasian contribution as being about 30%. This figure is subject to change inasmuch as racial intermixture continues. Socio-cultural variables are assumed to play a minimal role, given the high rate of illegitimacy.

Read or purchase the article here.