Assessing Multiracial Identity Theory and Politics: The Challenge of HypodescentPosted in Articles, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, Social Science, United States on 2009-09-06 23:11Z by Steven |
Assessing Multiracial Identity Theory and Politics: The Challenge of Hypodescent
Ethnicities
Volume 4, Number 3 (September 2004)
pages 357-379
DOI: 10.1177/1468796804045239
Rainier Spencer, Professor
Department of Anthropology & Ethnic Studies
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
It is increasingly possible to detect a split in regard to current analyses of multiracial identity in the United States. On the one hand there remains a relatively naive brand of multiracial activism and identity politics that has deep roots in the recent movement to institute a US federal multiracial category; while on the other hand we find a steadily maturing body of scholarship on mixed-race identity that is several levels removed in terms of intellectual rigor and objectivity. As this latter movement continues to mature, it increasingly forces the former to acknowledge and to confront important issues of logical consistency in the multiracial identity debate. This article represents an effort to guide and shape that discussion in assessing the ideological foundation of multiracial identity politics in the United States.
Read or purchase the article here.