Mixed Race Studies

Are multiracial adolescents at greater risk? Comparisons of rates, patterns, and correlates of substance use and violence between monoracial and multiracial adolescents.

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry
Volume 76, Number 1 (January, 2006)
pages 86-97
DOI: 10.1037/0002-9432.76.1.86

Yoonsun Choi, Associate Professor of Social Service Administration
University of Chicago

Tracy W. Harachi, Associate Professor of Social Work
University of Washington

Mary Rogers Gillmore, Director and Professor of Social Work
Arizona State University

Richard F. Catalano, Bartley Dobb Professor for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Director, Social Development Research Group
University of Washington

Rates and patterns of substance use and violent behaviors among multiracial adolescents were examined and compared with 3 monoracial groups, European, African, and Asian Americans. The relationships between ethnic identity and the subjective experience of racial discrimination, substance use, and violent behavior were also examined. The authors found multiracial adolescents reporting higher rates of problem behaviors. Several significant relationships between ethnic identity and racial discrimination were found with these problem behaviors.

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Under and Beyond Constraints: Resource Allocation to Young Children from Biracial Families

American Journal of Sociology
Volume 112, Number 4 (January 2007)
pages 1044–1094
ISSN: 0002-9602/2007/11204-0003
DOI: 10.1086/508793

Simon Cheng, Associate Professor of Sociology
University of Connecticut

Brian Powell, Rudy Professor of Sociology
Indiana University

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99, the authors examine the extent to which biracial families differ from monoracial families in their transmission of resources to young children. In these analyses, the authors demonstrate the utility of distinguishing not only between white—biracial and nonwhite—biracial families and but also between even more refined measures of biracial families (e.g., white father/Asian mother). The authors find that, in most cases, biracial families provide comparable or greater economic and cultural resources to their children than do their monoracial counterparts, but offer fewer advantages in interactional/social resources. This overall pattern remains even after sociodemographic factors are taken into consideration. Exceptions to this pattern also are identified and explored. Implications for our understanding of racial stratification, interracial relations, and the role of both human agency and constraints on intergenerational transmission of resources are discussed.

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Biracial identity and social marginality

Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal
Issue Volume 7, Number 4 (August, 1990)
Pages 319-337
Print ISSN: 0738-0151, Online ISSN: 1573-2797
DOI 10.1007/BF00757029

Philip M. Brown
Phoebe Hart House, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

This comparative analysis of classic and recent literature explores the developmental and social implications of biracial identity in the U.S. Though specific attention was given to Black-White biracial persons, a broader analysis yielded some surprising insights into the nature and implications of the biracial personality and the accompanying differences in interpersonal styles and social relationships.

Despite the persistent cultural stereotypes depicting the United States as a cultural melting pot, rigid divisions between economic, class, racial and ethnic groups endure. Ours is a heavily stratified society with distinct boundaries and rigid barriers around socially defined groups, roles and status positions. These circumstances are difficult enough for Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and other groups who do not fit neatly into mainstream White society (and are, therefore, socially marginal). However, what happens to those individuals whose racial and cultural heritage is rooted in both White and non-White groups? These individuals belong to both while simultaneously not fully belonging to either (e.g. Black and Caucasian). Dual racial identity likewise implies a dual ethnic and cultural focus as well. For the biracial person these two cultural connections are reflected in the type of life one leads; the nature of one’s achievements and failures; as well as other social attitudes and aspirations…

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A Clearer Picture of Multiracial Substance Use: Rates and Correlates of Alcohol and Tobacco Use in Multiracial Adolescents and Adults

Race and Social Problems
Volume 2, Number 1 (March 2010)
Published online: 2010-03-12
18 pages
Print ISSN: 1867-1748, Online ISSN: 1867-1756 (Online)
DOI: 10.1007/s12552-010-9023-1

George G. Chavez
Rutgers University

Diana T. Sanchez, Assistant Professor of Social Psychology
Rutgers University

Existing studies indicate that multiracial adolescents face greater substance use rates than monoracial adolescents. However, it is unclear whether the risk identified in adolescence persists into adulthood. The current study uses data from the 2001 California Health Interview Survey to analyze the alcohol and tobacco use of multiracial adolescents and adults compared to European American, African American, Native American, Asian/Pacific Islander American, and Latino American individuals. Results generally support the hypothesis that multiracial adolescents and adults face higher rates of substance use than African American and Asian/Pacific Islander American individuals, though this pattern of results was reversed in comparison with Native Americans and European Americans, and less consistent compared to Latino Americans. We further establish and discuss the correlates of drinking and smoking behavior for mixed-race individuals—comparing them to other racial groups. We review the limitations of our design and the implications for future research on multiracial substance use.

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In Their Siblings’ Voices: White Non-Adopted Siblings Talk About Their Experiences Being Raised with Black and Biracial Brothers and Sisters

Columbia University Press
May 2009
248 pages
5 tables
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-231-14850-4
Paper ISBN: 978-0-231-14851-1

Rita J. Simon, University Professor Emerita
Department of Justice, Law and Society
American University, Washington, D.C.

In Their Siblings’ Voices shares the stories of twenty white non-adopted siblings who grew up with black or biracial brothers and sisters in the late 1960s and 1970s. Belonging to the same families profiled in Rita J. Simon and Rhonda M. Roorda’s In Their Own Voices: Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories and In Their Parents’ Voices: Reflections on Raising Transracial Adoptees, these siblings offer their perspectives on the multiracial adoption experience, which, for them, played out against the backdrop of two tumultuous, politically charged decades. Simon and Roorda question whether professionals and adoption agencies adequately trained these children in the challenges presented by blended families, and they ask if, after more than thirty years, race still matters. Few books cover both the academic and the human dimensions of this issue. In Their Siblings’ Voices helps readers fully grasp the dynamic of living in a multiracial household and its effect on friends, school, and community.

Racial Categorization in the 2010 Census

U.S. Commision on Civil Rights
Briefing Report
March 2009
59 pages

A Briefing Before The United States Commission on Civil Rights Held in Washington, DC on 2006-04-07.

On April 7, 2006, a panel of experts briefed members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on racial categorization in the 2010 Census. Charles Louis Kincannon, Director, U.S. Census Bureau; Sharon M. Lee, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Sociology, Portland State University; Kenneth Prewitt, Carnegie Professor of Public Affairs, Columbia University; and Ward Connerly, Chairman, American Civil Rights Institute, made presentations and offered their expertise on 1) the current racial categories in the 2010 Census; 2) proposed alternative racial categories in the 2010 Census; 3) the proposed elimination of racial categories in the 2010 Census; and 4) the legal and policy implications of Office of Management and Budget guidance to federal agencies on allocation of multiple responses. The briefing was held in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

A transcript of this briefing is available on the Commission’s Web site (www.usccr.gov), and by request from the Publications Office, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 624 Ninth Street, NW, Room 600, Washington, DC, 20425; (202) 376-8128; publications@usccr.gov.

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Race Card: Corinne Bailey Rae and Zadie Smith Navigate Race and Art

Bitch Magazine
2010-01-21

Nadra Kareem

Works by two mixed-race Brits—musician Corinne Bailey Rae and writer Zadie Smith—have recently been profiled in the New York Times. Both women navigate their collective white and Caribbean ancestry by embracing hybridity instead of relegating themselves to one group. Their doing so challenges entrenched American notions of race that say that multiracial people must choose one ethnicity or another, not all.

The English-Jamaican Smith, who rose to fame upon the publication of her 2000 bestselling book White Teeth, regards Zora Neale Hurston and Barack Obama as her sister and brother in arms. In her new book of essays, Changing My Mind, Smith praises Hurston for making “‘black woman-ness’ appear a real, tangible quality, an essence I can almost believe I share, however improbably, with millions of complex individuals.”…

…For singer Corinne Bailey Rae, whose mother is white and father is from the West Indian island of St. Kitts, being mixed-race had a direct impact on her music. Now, 30, Bailey Rae gravitated towards grunge in her teens…

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Phillip Handy – Race and gender in the family

Rutgers University Undergraduate Research Spotlight
2009-07-26

Phillip Handy
Rutgers University

Phillip Handy discusses his research, which looks into the question of how mother-daughter and father-son relationships impact a mixed-race child’s racial identity.

Phillip is advised by Dr. Diana Sanchez, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers University.

‘A Yellow-Ass Nigga’?: Hip Hop and the ‘Mixed-Race’ Experience

Intermix
Academic Papers
February 2010

Dr. Kevin Searle

Hip Hop has always engaged with the politics of ‘race’ and racism. From the Black Panther Party-inspired Marxism of acts such as The Coup and Immortal Technique, to the Nation of Islam-influenced stance of Public Enemy and Ice Cube, to the black feminism of Ursula Rucker and MeShell Ndgeocello, socially conscious emcees have approached the issues from a number of angles. In the context of this engagement with the politics of ‘race’ and racism, the topics of ‘mixed race’ and interracial relationships have often featured.

This article explores some of the lyrics about the ‘mixed-race’ experience in Hip Hop. It does not aim to provide an exhaustive list of songs which have engaged with issues of ‘mixed-race,’ but to serve as an introduction. The article is borne out of my longstanding interest in Hip Hop, and much of the research involved me consulting my ever-growing record collection, and songs which have come to my attention over the years.

Hip Hop provides the soundtrack to the lives of many ‘mixed-race’ youth and adults. The genre is perhaps more relevant to the ‘mixed-race’ experience than any other form of music. Charlie Owen (2001: 138) has noted how ‘mixed-race’ people constitute a relatively young population. This population has been at its largest, at a time when Hip Hop has taken its greatest share of record sales. However, as many emcees have pointed out, in rhymes which engage with such themes as the division of labour on slave-plantations in the American South, this does not in anyway mean that ‘mixed race’ people somehow constitute a ‘new racial group.’

The present article is structured into four main sections. The first engages with songs about the ‘mixed-race’ experience, the second looks at lyrics about interracial relationships, the third about colour/shade and the final part focuses on tracks about women and colour. It is perhaps worth noting that a number of artists, from different musical genres, have commented on all of these themes, prior to the dawn of Hip Hop in the 1970s.3 In his book On Racial Frontiers…, Gregory Stephens (1999: 170) argues that Bob Marley was, ‘a master of employing double-voiced lyrics,’ and Marley’s line: ‘I’m a rainbow too,’ on the track Sun is Shining constitutes a comment on the artists’ ‘biraciality.’ Nina Simone described a woman who was the product of interracial rape in her song Four Women. The blues artist, Big Bill Broonzy drew upon the African-American expression: If you’re white, you’re all right, If you’re brown stick around, if you’re black, get back’, in the song Black, Brown and White. And, socially conscious soul singer, Curtis Mayfield, admonished ‘high yellow girls’ in We the People who are Darker than Blue, additionally, as Mike Rugel (2007) shows, the theme of women and colour has also been present in a number of blues songs…

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Telling a Tall Tale, Family-Style—Author and Cultural Historian Scott Sandage Delivers 17th Annual Levine Lecture

Rider University News
Rider University, New Jersey
2008-10-16

For all his traditional academic rearing, Scott Sandage readily concedes that the revival of narrative has brought a new vitality to the discipline of history. “It was long considered unintellectual to tell stories,” explained Sandage, an associate professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “But today, with the rise in history writers like David McCullough, it’s become a way to compete with them for people’s attention.”

Sandage, who presented the 17th Annual Levine Lecture at Rider University on October 16, arrived with a new twist on a story that had been often told on the old American frontier, but was unfamiliar to the capacity audience in the Sweigart Auditorium. In doing so, Sandage not only shone a new light on the social conceptions of race, but framed it in a surprisingly personal context.

A noted author and cultural historian, Sandage specializes in the 19th century United States and in the changing aspects of American identity. He spoke in support of his current book project, Half-Breed Creek: A Tall Tale of Race on the Frontier, which focuses on a little-known, mixed-race Native American reservation in southeast Nebraska and investigates how family folklore has shaped racial identity in the United States.

“This is a story of what race is and how Americans have determined what race a person belongs to based on what stories can be told about them,” Sandage began. He set the scene of the so-called Half-Breed Creek, a reservation established by the United States government in 1856 as a place for those who claimed partial, but not full, Native American lineage. “The thinking was that the smart, educated half of the half-breed would organize the Indians into making trouble” in the already tenuous location, situated in the only spot in the United States where slave, free and Indian territories met at the same time, he explained…

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