Mixed Race Studies

Panel: Exploring the Historical Context for Contemporary Stories of the Mixed Experience

Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival
Japanese American National Musuem
National Center for Democracy, Tateuchi Democracy Forum
2010-06-13, 18:30 to 19:30Z

Moderator

Frank Buckley, Co-Anchor
KTLA Morning News

Panelists

Kelly F. Jackson, Assistant Professor of Social Work
Arizona State University

Farzana Nayani, President
Multiracial Americans of Southern California (MASC)

Larry Aaronson, Retired public school teacher

G. Reginald Daniel, Professor of Sociology
University of California, Santa Barbara

Listen to part 1 (00:31:12) or download the audio here.
Listen to part 2 (00:31:05) or download the audio here.

More Than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order [Book Review: Christian]

The Western Journal of Black Studies
Volume 27, Number 4 (2003)
pages 279-280

Mark Christian, Professor & Chair of African & African American Studies
Lehman College, City University of New York

This book comes out the school of thought that advocates for the “multiracial identity” classification in the US. More Than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order offers a postmodern analysis of “race” and issues a call for the acknowledgement of what can be deemed the multifaceted racialized heritages of many Black peoples located in the African Diaspora. In this sense the book offers little other than what is largely akeady known. Indeed many peoples of African descent do have claim to other heritages. For example it is broadly accepted now that at least two-thirds of African Americans have some Native American and European heritage. However, it is erroneous to run away with this idea as if it is the sole criteria for establishing a “new racial order” based on what is in fact unlikely to have any impact on white supremacy and its continued dominance over the socially constructed “peoples of color.”…

Read or purchase the book review here.

Race and Multiraciality in Brazil and the United States: Converging Paths? By G. Reginald Daniel. [Book Review]

Ethnic and Racial Studies
Volume 30, Number 6 (November 2007)
pages 1167-1181

Antonio Sérgio Alfredo Guimarães
Department of Sociology, University of Sao Paulo

In his recent comparative study G. Reginald Daniel looks at the convergence in race relations patterns between Brazil and the US with a reasonable amount of historical information extracted from an extensive literature, yet adds almost no empirical research. His narrative takes a descriptive, reading-notes-like mode as he passes over both countries’ history from colonial times to the present, following too closely different authors’ arguments. His metanarrative, the one that ties together his diverse sources, is a Gramscian–Marxist theory of hegemony and race formation borrowed mainly from Omi and Winant (1986), and Hanchard (1994)…

Read or purchase the article here.

Race and Multiraciality in Brazil and the United States: Converging Paths? By G. Reginald Daniel. [Book Review: Skidmore]

Hispanic American Historical Review
Volumes 88, Number 2 (May 2008)
pages 348-349
DOI: 10.1215/00182168-2007-156

Thomas E. Skidmore, Emeritus Professor of History
Brown University

In 1933, Gilberto Freyre published his classic Casa-grande y senzala. Although it was ostensibly about the uniquely Portuguese origins of Brazilian civilization, it included innumerable obiter dicta about the difference between the role of race in Portuguese and English America. Freyre argued that the relatively harmonious Brazilian race relations were due to more or less smooth Afro-European miscegenation, which contrasted so sharply with the rigid “one-drop rule” of the United States.

In the years since Freyre published his classic, Brazilian and U.S. scholars and social critics have been debating Freyre’s claims. But the issue has been viewed largely through the prism of each country’s distinct racial experience. In the earlier literature, in particular, relatively few scholars achieved an analysis that could be described as truly objective. That situation began to change several decades ago, as scholars emerged who were generally familiar with both countries. Reginald Daniel is certainly prominent among that number and has given us a systematic work on what is a most complex issue, making the volume useful for scholars in a variety of disciplines…

Read the entire review here.

G. Reginald Daniel. More Than Black: Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order [Book Review: Harrison]

Journal of African American Men
Volume 6, Number 4 (June, 2002)
pages 96-97

Lisa Harrison
California State University, Sacramento

Many people in the United States have worked tirelessly to develop a truly egalitarian society that embraces all people, regardless of individual differences. Although there is an abundance of evidence to demonstrate that the United States has yet to achieve that goal, social change advocates have contended that one way to encourage social egalitarianism is to develop a national consciousness that fully accepts and embraces multiculturalism. Attempts at this endeavor have been  plagued with conflict, but some progress has been made. For example, there is growing recognition of the importance of adding a multicultural component to the core curriculums of our learning institutions. Thus, there is an increasing emphasis on understanding how ethnic and racial identity influences individual human behavior and larger social groups. However, most of this emphasis has been on understanding the experiences of singlerace groups. Therefore, little empirical or theoretical work has emerged on the experiences of multiracial individuals or the complexity of their position within the larger culture. Dr. [G.] Reginald Daniel’s timely examination of multiracial identity within the United States, aptly titled More Than Black, strives to correct this troublesome gap in the literature by exploring the historical legacy of multiracial identity within the United States and the contemporary impediments facing mixed-race persons…

Read the entire review here.

More Than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order by G. Reginald Daniel [Book Review: Bonilla-Silva]

Social Forces
Volume 81, Number 2 (December 2002)
pages 674-676

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Professor of Sociology
Duke University

Most books on multiracial matters are as fluffy as a goose-down pillow. These books are often edited collections in which personal narratives by multiracial people from middle-class backgrounds are paraded with very little historical analysis to provide context, no theoretical argument on how multiracialism fits in the larger racial system, and no regard for how representative the stories are. Fortunately, this is not the case with G. Reginald Daniel’s book, More than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order. This is a sophisticated, historically complex, and theoretically driven analysis of multiracialism in the U.S…

Read the entire review here.

Professor G. Reginald Daniel to be Featured Guest on Mixed Chicks Chat

Mixed Chicks Chat (The only live weekly show about being racially and culturally mixed. Also, founders of the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival) Hosted by Fanshen Cox and Heidi W. Durrow
Website: TalkShoe™ (Keywords: Mixed Chicks)
Episode: #146 – Professor G. Reginald Daniel
When: Wednesday, 2010-03-24 22:00Z (17:00 EDT, 14:00 PDT)

G. Reginald Daniel, Professor of Sociology
University of California, Santa Barbara

Key Publications: Race and Multiraciality in Brazil and the United States: Converging Paths? (2006); “Multiracial Identity in Global Perspective: The United States, Brazil, and South Africa,” New Faces in a Changing America: Multiracial Identity in the 21st Century (2002); More Than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order (2001); “Black and White Identity in the New Millennium: Unsevering the Ties That Bind,” The Multiracial Experience: Racial Borders as the New Frontier (1996); “Passers and Pluralists: Subverting the Racial Divide,” Racially Mixed People in America (1992).

Most Recent Publications:

• “Race, Multiraciality, and Barack Obama: Toward a More Perfect Union?” Ed. Laura Chrisman, Habiba Ibrahim and Ralina L Joseph.  The Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research. Volume 39, No. 3/4 (Fall 2009).
• “Race, Class, and Power: The Politcs of Multiraciality in Brazil” Ed. Julius O. Adekunle and Hettie V. Williams.  Color Struck: Essays on Race and Ethnicity in Global Perspective. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2010.

From February 2003: G. Reginald Daniel discusses his book, More Than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order.

Framing mixed race: The face of America is changing

Contra Costa Times
2010-02-07

Jennifer Modenessi

Like any proud mother, Janine Mozée sees beauty when she looks at her four children.

But the Benicia resident perceives more than their physical qualities and the various shades and hues of their skin, eyes and hair. For Mozée, 46, it’s a “beautiful thing” that they can take strength and security from their identities, traverse diverse worlds and cultures and fit in where they want.

Bianca, Austin, Weston and Isabella Carr, whose mother is white and father is black, white and Native American, are not alone.

According to the most recent U.S. census, the number of people identifying as mixed race is growing. California‘s mixed-race population, by percentage, ranks fifth in the nation, and data from the 2008 U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimates that more than 4 percent of Bay Area residents identify as belonging to two or more races. Though that number may seem low and could be attributed to people of mixed heritage choosing to identify with one race, a look at the Bay Area’s diversity suggests the 2010 census could reveal much higher numbers. Still, more youths are being raised in interracial homes, often by mixed-race parents who are encouraging their children to embrace their diverse backgrounds, said sociologist and UC [University of California, ] Santa Barbara professor G. Reginald Daniel. The stories of Bay Area residents such as Carr and her family; Donna and Kim Hunter, sisters whose mother was German and father was black; and Whitney Moses, whose father was black, Native American and white, reflect that trend. And their images, featured in the recent book “Blended Nation: Portraits of Mixed-Race America,” offer further proof that the face of the nation is changing…

Read the entire article here.

The Politics of Biracialism [Issue]

The Black Scholar
Journal of Black Studies and Research
Fall 2009 (2009-09-22)
Volume 39, No. 3/4

Guest Editors:

Laura Chrisman, Professor of English
University of Washington

Habiba Ibrahim, Assistant Professor of English
University of Washington

Ralina Joseph, Assistant Professor of Communications
University of Washington

Why a biracial issue, and why now? As black Americans we have mixed ancestry; one might ask what is gained by giving this obvious fact the attention of a special issue. Rather than focus on this broad history, however, we instead highlight here the situations of first-generation biracial black people. Perhaps this does not simplify matters. Foregrounding their specific experiences, identities, and concerns may stir up the anger of those who feel judged “not black enough” and the anger of those who feel betrayed and devalued by self-identifying biracial individuals. The politics of biracialism, seen this way, are individualistic, diminishing our community’s cohesion. Yet we feel that the time is right for an exploration of the topic. Biracial or multiracial studies is fast-growing and itself extremely varied in its methods, disciplines, and orientation. Acknowledging the important and interesting work that has been produced in the last two decades, we provide a forum for such work. Another factor in our choice of topic is the emergence, in 2008, of Obama as a presidential candidate. Both his blackness and his first generation biracialism have prompted new consideration, within black communities and within the U.S. population as a whole, of the operations and meanings of race, nation, family and community within the U.S.A. This gives us additional incentive to explore biracialism in the present moment. Our moment differs from the fraught late 1990s when the multiracial social movement campaigned for recognition in the 2000 Census, and was opposed by influential black voices. The present adds some confidence and optimism: to profile biracialism now, we suggest, is not to jeopardize black collectivity so much as it is to recognize and join the healthy debates that are flourishing within and beyond black studies…

Table of Contents

• Introduction to “The Politics of Biracialism” / Laura Chrisman
• Interracial Intimacies, Barack Obama, and the Politics of Multiracialism / Kimberly McClain DaCosta
• Review Essay: Performing the Twenty-first Century Tragic Mulatto: Black, White, and Jewish: Autobioraphy of Shifting Self by Rebecca Walker / Ralina Joseph
• Toward Black and Multiracial “Kinship” After 1997, or How a Race Man Became “Cablinasian” / Habiba Ibrahim
• Poetry: “The Art of Loving” / Madeleine Clifford
• Baby janay and Naomi Pabst: Negotiating Race Mixing, Adoption, and Transnationality / Naomi Pabst
• Reframing the National Family: Race Mixing and Re-telling American History / Catherine Squires
• Race, Multiraciality, and Barack Obama: Toward a More Perfect Union? / G. Reginald Daniel
• Books Reviews
  • Amalgamation Schemes: Anti-blackness and the Critique of Multiracialism by Jared Sexton / LeiLani Nishime
  • Dispatches from the Color Line: The Press and Multiracial America  by Catherine R. Squires / Manoucheka Celeste
  • Framing the Black Panthers: The Spectacular Rise of a Black Power Icon by Jane Rhodes / Madhavi Murty
  • Mixed Race Hollywood Edited by Mary C. Beltrán and Camilla Fojas / Sarita Cannon

More Than Black? Humanitis Series

University of California Television
February 2003
00:50:32

G. Reginald Daniel, Professor of Sociology
University of California, Santa Barbara

Introduced by:

Paul R. Spickard, Professor of History
University of California, Santa Barbara

In the United States, anyone with even a trace of African American ancestry has been considered Black. Even as the twenty-first century opens, a racial hierarchy still prevents people of color, including individuals of mixed race, from enjoying the same privileges as Euro-Americans. In his book, G. Reginald Daniel argues that we are at a cross-roads, with members of a new multiracial movement pointing the way toward equality. Presented as part of the Humanitas Lecture Series at UC Santa Barbara. Series: “Humanitas” [2/2003] [Humanities] [Show ID: 7094]

G. Reginald Daniel discusses his book, More Than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order.