Mixed Race Studies

The age of Obama: The changing place of minorities in British and American society

Manchester University Press
2010-04-01
192 pages
234x156mm
Hardback ISBN: 9780719082771; Paperback ISBN: 9780719082788

Tom Clark, Columnist
The Guardian

Robert D. Putnam, and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy
Harvard University

Edward Fieldhouse, Professor of Social and Political Science and Director of the Institute for Social Change
University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Drawing on collaborative research from a distinguished team at Harvard and Manchester universities, The age of Obama asks how two very different societies are responding to the tide of diversity that is being felt around the rich world. Guardian journalist Tom Clark, Robert D. Putnam – best-selling author of Bowling Alone – and Manchester’s Edward Fieldhouse offer a wonderfully readable account. Like Bowling alone, The age of Obama mixes social scientific rigor with accessible charts and lively arguments. It will be enjoyed by politics, sociology and geography students, as well as by anyone else with an interest in ethnic relations.

Injustice, it turns out, still blights the lives of many UK and US minorities – particularly African Americans. And there are signs the new diversity strains community life. Yet in both countries, public opinion is running irreversibly in favour of tolerance. That augurs well for the future – and suggests a British Obama cannot be ruled out.

Table of Contents

Summary
1. Introduction: the diversity revolution 
2. Two concepts in two countries: race and migration
3. Home truths: how minorities live
4. The rickety ladder of opportunity: minorities and work
5. Mosaic or cracked vase? Diversity and community life
6. Distorting mirrors: media framing and political debate
7. Tidal generation: politics and deeper currents of public opinion
8. Concluding thoughts: making a success of the revolution
Bibliography
Index

Homelands and Indigenous Identities in a Multiracial Era

Social Science Research
Article In Press, Accepment Manuscript
Online: 2010-02-17

Carolyn A. Liebler, Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology and Minnesota Population Center
University of Minnesota

Although multiple race responses are now allowed on federal censuses and surveys, most interracially married single-race parents report a single race for their children. It is well-established that the social context of these racial identification decisions affects their outcome. This research focuses instead on the physical context. It is argued that homelands – physical places with cultural meaning – are an important component of the intergenerational transfer of a single-race identity in indigenous mixed-race families. To test potential explanations for the relationship between homelands and indigenous identities, this research focuses on families in which an interracially married American Indian lives with a spouse and child and was included in the Census 2000 5% Public Use Microdata Sample. Logistic regression reveals a strong effect of living in an American Indian homeland on the child’s chances of being reported as single-race American Indian. This effect remains even after accounting for strong ties to American Indians and other groups, family and area poverty levels, geographic isolation, and the racial composition of the area. The intergenerational transmission of strong identities continues in this multiracial era (as it has for centuries) in the context of culturally meaningful physical places.

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Beyond Black and White: A film by Nisma Zaman

Women Make Movies
1994
28 minutes
Color, 16mm/DVD
Order No. W99431

Beyond Black and White is a personal exploration of the filmmaker’s bicultural heritage (Caucasian and Asian/Begali) in which she relates her experiences to those of five other women from various biracial backgrounds. In lively interviews and group discussions these women reveal how they have been influenced by images of women in American media, how racism has affected them, and how their families and environments have shaped their racial identities. Their experiences are placed within the context of history, including miscegenation laws and governmental racial classifications. Beyond Black and White is a remarkable celebration of diversity in American society.

Blood, Race, and National Identity: Scientific and Popular Discourses

Journal of Medical Humanities
Volume 23, Numbers 3-4 (December, 2002)
Pages 171-186
Print ISSN: 1041-3545; Online ISSN: 1573-3645
DOI: 10.1023/A:1016890117447

Allyson Polsky McCabe, Lecturer in English
Yale University

This essay examines the symbolic significance of blood in the twentieth century and its role in determining the composition of a national community along racial lines. By drawing parallels between Nazi notions of blood and racial purity and historically contemporaneous U.S. policies regarding blood and blood products, Polsky reveals a disturbing proximity in discourse and policy. While the Nazis attempted to locate Jewish racial essence and inferiority in blood and instituted eugenic measures and laws forbidding racial admixture, similar policies existed in the U.S. based on the so-called one drop rule that systematically discriminated against African Americans.

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Meeting the Needs of Multiracial and Multiethnic Children in Early Childhood Settings

Early Childhood Education Journal
Issue Volume 26, Number 1 (September, 1998)
Pages 7-11
Print ISSN 1082-3301; Online ISSN: 1573-1707
DOI 10.1023/A:1022974423276

Francis Wardle

Early childhood programs have been in the forefront of implementing a multiracial curriculum. Early childhood educators need to extend these approaches to support and embrace multiracial and multiethnic children. These are children whose biological parents crossed traditional U.S. Census categories to have children. To meet the unique needs of these children and their families, early childhood educators need to engage in staff training, provide classroom materials, work closely with parents, and challenge the single race approach to multicultural education.

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Examining Ethnic Identity and Self-Esteem Among Biracial and Monoracial Adolescents

Journal of Youth and Adolescence
Volume 33, Number 2 (April, 2004)
pages 123-132
Print ISSN: 0047-2891; Online ISSN: 1573-6601
DOI: 10.1023/B:JOYO.0000013424.93635.68

Jeana R. Bracey
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Mayra Y. Bámaca
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor
Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium

The psychological well-being and ethnic identity of biracial adolescents are largely underrepresented topics in current scholarly literature, despite the growing population of biracial and multiracial individuals in the United States. This study examined self-esteem, ethnic identity, and the relationship between these constructs among biracial and monoracial adolescents (n = 3282). Using analysis of covariance, significant differences emerged between biracial and monoracial adolescents on both a measure of self-esteem and a measure of ethnic identity. Specifically, biracial adolescents showed significantly higher levels of self-esteem than their Asian counterparts, but significantly lower self-esteem than Black adolescents. Furthermore, biracial adolescents scored significantly higher than Whites on a measure of ethnic identity, but scored lower than their Black, Asian, and Latino peers on the same measure. Finally, correlational analyses revealed a significant and positive relationship between ethnic identity and self-esteem for all groups.

The number of interracial marriages in the United States, as well as the number of interracial individuals, has steadily increased since the 1967 Supreme Court repeal of laws barring interracial marriages (Root, 1992; Wardle, 1987). In response to a long-term debate over the addition of a multiracial category for the 2000 census (Rockquemore and Brunsma, 2002), a compromise was made that allowed respondents to select multiple racial categories, resulting in approximately 2% of the population self-identifying as multiracial (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Despite these figures, this segment of the population remains largely invisible in the area of scholarly research. Much of the literature on biracial or multiracial populations tends to be theoretical (Phinney, 1990), and the limited empirical work has been based largely on small clinical samples or samples recruited via snowball sampling techniques (Phinney and Alipuria, 1996).

Given the growing visibility of biracial families in society, it is critical to learn more about the developmental outcomes of adolescents within these families, specifically with regard to their psychological adjustment. Understanding the complexity and impact of diversity on adolescent development should be at the forefront of our priorities. Two interrelated psychological factors in need of more in-depth examination among biracial adolescents are ethnic identity and self-esteem. Despite the fact that self-esteem, as an evaluative measure of psychosocial adjustment, is linked to major mental health outcomes, researchers have not focused on examining the self-esteem of biracial adolescents…

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Biracial-Bisexual Individuals: Identity Coming of Age

International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies
Issue Volume 5, Number 3 (July, 2000)
Pages 221-253
ISSN 1566-1768 (Print) 1573-8167 (Online)
DOI: 10.1023/A:1010137025394

J. Fuji Collins, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Health & Wellness – Vice Chancellor
University of California, Merced

There is considerable controversy regarding the means by which bisexual and biracial individuals achieve a sense of identity. In this paper, the concepts of bisexual and biracial identity are reviewed, and the literature on identity developmental models are critiqued. Further, a qualitative study is presented that explored the complexity of biracial identity development in Japanese-Americans. It is based on the constant comparative method of analysis, or grounded theory. The study focused on how Japanese-Americans perceived themselves in relation to other individuals, groups, and/or their environment. Findings related to initiating explorations of identity and perseverance in pursuing a biracial identity, which depended on the degree of support or negative experience within their social networks. Participants explored identity options attempting to develop their own meaning of identity, to develop a confident sense of themselves and secure a positive ethnic identity. Based on research and dialogue, there appears to be parallels between bisexual and biracial identity development. A model is proposed that suggests that individuals who are bisexual or biracial go through four phases in their development of their positive identity. These phases are: Phase I—Questioning/Confusion; Phase II—Refusal/Suppression; Phase III—Infusion/Exploration; and Phase IV—Resolution/Acceptance. These phases describe people who have two distinct identities that place them in a position of self-devaluation. From there they move to a position where there is a positive perception of identity based on the coexistence of their identities.

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Multiracial Children in Child Development Textbooks

Early Childhood Education Journal
Volume 35, Number 3 (December, 2007)
Pages 253-259
Print ISSN: 1082-3301; Online ISSN: 1573-1707
DOI 10.1007/s10643-007-0157-8

Francis Wardle

The 2000 US census was the first to allow respondents to check more than one race/ethnic response for their identity. About 6.8 million Americans did so, and a disproportionate percentage of them were children under age 18 years old. The purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which this change is reflected in contemporary child psychology textbooks. Twelve books were examined to determine whether they covered multiracial and multiethnic children. Results of this study showed that only two of these books addressed issues related to the healthy development of multiracial/multiethnic children in any detail; and, while several used terms such as biracial and bicultural, these terms were always used to describe single-race minority children living in a majority context. The discussion section covers possible reasons for this omission.

For the first time in many years the 2000 U.S. Census allowed people in the United States with more than one racial/ethnic heritage to accurately report their racial/ethnic identity to their government (Williams, 2006). Respondents were permitted to check more than one response to the question of racial or ethnic identity (U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 2000). In response to this change, 6.8 million Americans identified themselves with more than one racial/ethnic category. Further, forty percent of these respondents were children under 18 years of age (U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 2000). This radical change was the result of a powerful grassroots effort of various multiracial groups and individuals in this country before the 2000 census, including parents—biological and adoptive—of multiracial children (Williams, 2006). Thus this statistical change in the demographics of this country truly reflects a change in the thinking of many parents; it′s not simply an artifact of government policy.

The question this study addresses is whether the shift in the way the U.S. government categories its citizens is reflected in college textbooks published since the change was made. Specifically, I selected textbooks that cover child development and human development, because racial and ethnic identity has come to be considered a critically important aspect in the development of healthy children. The definitions I use are, multiethnic: a person or child whose acknowledged identity includes the two U.S. Census ethnic categories (Hispanic/non Hispanic); multiracial: a person or child whose acknowledged identity includes two or more of the U.S. Census categories (Wardle & Cruz-Janzen, 2004). Clearly, many children can be considered multiethnic and multiracial, especially as these terms are currently in considerable flux…

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The racial canons of American sociology: Identity across the lifespan as biracial alternative

The American Sociologist
Volume 31, Number 1 (March, 2000)
pages 86-93
Print ISSN: 0003-1232; Online ISSN: 1936-4784
DOI: 10.1007/s12108-000-1006-z

Ronald E. Hall, Professor of Social Work
Michigan State University

The fabric of American sociology is woven from societal belief and tradition. Sociology is thus, to some extent, a manifestation of canons. While research has concluded no single model of racial identity based in fact, sociologists apply racial canons in conformation to cultural tradition and Western belief systems. Traditions and beliefs are reflected in sociological research, literature, and various theoretical constructs. In the aftermath, racial canons pertaining to the identity of biracial Americans assume the force and merit of fact.

In the search for knowledge and scientific evidence the weight of canons is not irrelevant to the direction of sociological conclusions. Assumed truths may be expressed directly or indirectly to explain certain social phenomena. This allows for particular bodies of knowledge to be implicitly defined by canons. Occasionally, more explicitly, canons define a social phenomenon. For example, the canons of race category define the theory of racial identity by specifying what kinds of attributes designate race. In this instance sociologists frequently make use of what is perceived as universal fact. Racial canons are presented as if there were general agreement about their validity, even though this validity cannot be demonstrated (Bennett, 1996)…

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White Women in Interracial Families: Reflections on Hybridization, Feminine Identities, and Racialized Othering

Gender Issues
Volume 14, Number 2 (June, 1994)
pages 49-72
Print ISSN: 1098-092X, Online ISSN: 1936-4717
DOI: 10.1007/BF02685656

Carmen Luke, Emeritus Associate Professor of Education, and Director of the Centre for Women’s Studies
James Cook University, Queensland, Australia

Interracial unions, biracial and bicultural children are social facts of modern multicultural societies, yet they have been almost completely overlooked by scholars. What little research is available on interracial family formations and identity is largely based in psychological, sociological, social psychological, social work and counselling theories. Interracialism has not been taken up at all by feminists, postcolonial theorists, or multicultural research.

This essay is concerned with race and gender identity politics among white women living in interracial relationships, particularly in families with biracial and monoracial children. I report here on published research on inter- and biracialism, and include some data from pilot interviews I conducted with white women in interracial families with whom I share work relationships and friendships. I discuss, first, the politics of voice and identity in the context of current debate over speaking rights, racial and cultural identities. I then briefly survey recent research on biracial children before turning attention to white women in interracial relationships. Drawing on existing research and my own data, I discuss relationships between interracial couples and their own parents, the politics of managing their biracial children’s schooling, and the often contradictory logics of the cultural and gender regimes women marry into. I conclude that current theories of identity politics are analytically inadequate for describing how racisms operate within a racially unmarked dominant culture because racial identity is theorized exclusively as an identity marker of groups and persons of color…

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