Mixed Race Studies

Obama on Our Minds: The Impact of Obama on the Psyche of America

Oxford University Press
2016-09-01
312 Pages
6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches
Hardcover ISBN: 9780199390618

Edited by:

Lori A. Barker, Professor
Department Psychology and Sociology Department
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

• Examines the true psychological impact of Obama’s presidency on the nation’s collective psyche
• Connects well-known psychological theories with contemporary issues, such as racism, ethnic identity, and stereotyping, and applies them to the historic election of President Obama
• Offers expert critical approaches to widely disseminated rhetoric from political pundits, i.e.

On the evening of November 4, 2008, as news of Barack Obama’s presidential victory spread, television footage depicted the emotional reactions of people across the country and the globe. As Obama gave his acceptance speech in Grant Park that night, the camera focused on those in the audience who were overjoyed, tears streaming down their faces. People cheered. Spontaneous and joyful celebrations broke out in the streets. Change had finally come.

Analysts describe Barack Obama’s success as “unheard of”–a meteoric rise–leaving many in the elite political circles astonished at what he had accomplished in his campaign. With his success, many questions arose: How was a junior senator from Chicago able to do this? Why does he evoke such strong reactions? What cultural shifts took place in American society for this to happen? Do we now live in a post-racial society, and what will this mean for the next generation?

In Obama on Our Minds, Lori A. Barker leads a team of expert multicultural theorists and researchers studying racism, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, and immigration to answer these questions and analyze the enormous impact of this groundbreaking event in our nation’s history.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Section I: Obama and Key Concepts in Multicultural Psychology
  • Chapter 1: Presidents, Prototypes, and Stereotypes, Oh My! Understanding the Psychological Impact of Obama / Lori A. Barker
  • Chapter 2: The Struggle for Identity Congruence in an Obama White House / Thomas A. Parham
  • Chapter 3: Academic Success of Black Americans: Stereotype Threat in the Era of Obama / Brian E. Armenta and Carey S. Ryan
  • Chapter 4: Teaching for Change: Post-racial or a Different Kind of Racism? / Jeffrey Scott Mio
  • Chapter 5: Changing the Course of Race Relations in America: From Prevention of Discrimination to Promotion of Racial Equality / John F. Dovidio
  • Chapter 6: The Obama Effect on Racial Attitudes: A Review of the Research / Curtis A. Thompson and Lori A. Barker
• Section II: Obama’s Impact on Diverse Populations
  • Chapter 7: (Mixed) Race to the White House / Christine C. Iijima Hall
  • Chapter 8: Race, Masculinity, and Gendered Racism: President Obama’s Influence on Black Men / Christopher T.H. Liang, Carin Molenaar, and Shalena Heard
  • Chapter 9: Barack Obama and the LGBT Community: A Rocky Path to Real Progress and Ongoing Hopes for the Future / Laurie A. Roades
  • Chapter 10: New Hope for Immigrants in the Obama Era / Patricia Arredondo
  • Chapter 11: Has Change Come to America? College Student Attitudes Toward Obama’s Presidency / Andrea Aoun, Blake D. Daryaie, and Lori A. Barker
  • Chapter 12: The Obama Marriage: A Model for Moving Forward the ‘Stalled Revolution’ / Donna L. Franklin

The Multiracial Experience: Racial Borders as the New Frontier

SAGE Publications
1995
512 pages
Paperback ISBN: 9780803970595

Edited by Maria P. P. Root

In her bold new edited volume, The Multiracial Experience, Maria P. P. Root challenges current theoretical and political conceptualizations of race by examining the experience of mixed-race individuals. Articulating questions that will form the basis for future discussions of race and identity, the contributors tackle concepts such as redefining ethnicity when race is less central to the definition and how a multiracial model might dismantle our negative construction of race. Researchers and practitioners in ethnic studies, anthropology, education, law, psychology, nursing, social work, and sociology add personal insights in chapter-opening vignettes while providing integral critical viewpoints. Sure to stimulate thinking and discussion, the contributors focus on the most contemporary racial issues, including the racial classification system from the U.S. Census to the schools; the differences between race, ethnicity, and colorism; gender and sexuality in a multicultural context; ethnic identity and identity formation; transracial adoption; and the future of race relations in the United States. The Multiracial Experience opens up the dialogue to rethink and redefine race and social relations in this country. This volume provides discussions key to all professionals, practitioners, researchers, and students in multicultural issues, ethnic relations, sociology, education, psychology, management, and public health.

Table of Contents

The Multiracial Experience: Racial Borders as a Significant Frontier in Race Relations – Maria P. P. Root

PART ONE: HUMAN RIGHTS

• A Bill of Rights for Racially Mixed People –  Maria P. P. Root
• Government Classification of Multiracial/Multiethnic People – Carlos A. Fernandez
• The Real World – Susan R. Graham
• Multiracial Identity in a Color-Conscious World – Deborah A. Ramirez
• Transracial Adoptions: In Whose Best Interest? – Ruth G. McRoy and Christine C. Iijima Hall
• Voices from the Movement: Approaches to Multiraciality – Cynthia L. Nakashima

PART TWO: IDENTITY

• Hidden Agendas, Identity Theories, and Multiracial People –  Michael C. Thornton
• Black and White Identity in the New Millenium: Unsevering the Ties That Bind – G. Reginald Daniel
• On Being and Not-Being Black and Jewish – Naomi Zack
• An `Other’ Way of Life: The Empowerment of Alterity in the Interracial Individual – Jan R. Weisman

PART THREE: BLENDING AND FLEXIBILITY

• LatiNegra Lillian: Mental Health Issues of African –  Lillian Comas-Diaz
• Race as Process: Reassessing the `What Are You?’ Encounters of Biracial Individuals – Teresa Kay Williams
• Piecing Together the Puzzle: Self-Concept and Group Identity in Biracial Black/White Youth – Lynda D. Field
• Changing Face, Changing Race: The Remaking of Race in the Japanese American and African American Communities – Rebecca Chiyoko King and Kimberly McClain DaCosta
• Without a Template: The Biracial Korean/White Experience – Brian Chol Soo Standen

PART FOUR: GENDER AND SEXUAL IDENTITY

• In the Margins of Sex and Race: Difference, Marginality, and Flexibility – George Kitahara Kich
• (Un)Natural Boundaries: Mixed Race, Gender, and Sexuality – Karen Maeda Allman
• Heterosexual Alliances: The Romantic Management of Racial Identity-  Francine Winddance Twine
• Ambiguous Bodies: Locating Black/White Women in Cultural Representations – Caroline A. Streeter

PART FIVE: MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

• Making the Invisible Visible: The Growth of Community Network Organizations – Nancy G. Brown and Ramona E. Douglass
• Challenging Race and Racism: A Framework for Educators – Ronald David Glass and Kendra R. Wallace
• Being Different Together in the University Classroom: Multiracial Identity as Transgressive Education – Teresa Kay Williams et al
• Multicultural Education – Francis Wardle

PART SIX: THE NEW MILLENIUM

• 2001: A Race Odyssey – Christine C. Iijima Hall

Racially Mixed People in America

SAGE Publications, Inc.
1992
400 pages
Paperback ISBN: 9780803941021

Edited by Maria P. P. Root

Recipient of the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the United States 1993 Outstanding Book Award.

America has been the breeding ground of a “biracial baby boom” for the past 25 years. Unfortunately, there has been a dearth of information regarding how racially mixed people identify and view themselves and how they relate to one another. Racially Mixed People in America steadily bridges this gap and offers a comprehensive look at the social and psychological adjustment of mixed-race people, models for identity development, contemporary immigration and marriage patterns, and methodological issues involved in conducting research with mixed-race people, all in the context of America’s mixed race past and present. Including contributions by ethnohistorians, psychologists, and sociologists, this powerful volume will provide the reader a tool for examining ideologies surrounding race, race relations, and the role of social science in the deconstruction of race. Racially Mixed People in America is essential reading for researchers and practitioners in cross-cultural studies, psychology, family studies, sociology, and social work.

Table of Contents

• PART ONE: RACIAL ECOLOGY
  • Within, Between, and Beyond Race — Maria P. P. Root
  • The Illogic of American Racial Categories — Paul R. Spickard
  • The Human Ecology of Multiracial Identity — Robin L. Miller
  • Developmental Pathways — Deborah J. Johnson
  • Toward an Ecological Theoretical Formulation of Race Identity in Black/White Biracial Children
  • Mixed Heritage Individuals — Cookie White Stephan
  • Ethnic Identity and Trait Characteristics
  • The Quiet Immigration — Michael C. Thornton
  • Foreign Spouses of US Citizens, 1945-1985
  • Beauty and the Beast — Carla K. Bradshaw
  • On Racial Ambiguity
• PART TWO: RECOVERING THE MULTIRACIAL PAST
  • Passers and Pluralists G. Reginald Daniel
  • Subverting the Racial Divide
  • Blood Quantum — Terry P. Wilson
  • Native American Mixed Bloods
  • La Raza and the Melting Pot — Carlos A. Fernandez
  • A Comparative Look at Multiethnicity
  • From Dust to Gold Kieu — Linh Caroline Valverde
  • The Vietnamese Amerasian Experience
  • An Invisible Monster — Cynthia L. Nakashima
  • The Creation and Denial of Mixed Race People in America
• PART THREE: WHAT OF THE CHILDREN
  • Back to the Drawing Board Maria P. P. Root
  • Methodological Issues in Research on Multiracial People
  • Identity Development in Biracial Children — James H. Jacobs
  • Between a Rock and a Hard Place — Ana Mari Cauce et al
  • Social Adjustment of Biracial Youth
  • Negotiating Ethnic Identity — Jewelle Taylor Gibbs and Alice M. Hines
  • Issues for Black/White Biracial Adolescents
  • Offspring of Cross-Race and Cross-Ethnic Marriages in Hawaii — Ronald C. Johnson
  • Please Choose One — Christine C. Iijima Hall
  • Ethnic Identity Choices for Biracial Individuals
  • Interracial Japanese Americans — Amy Iwasaki Mass
  • The Best of Both Worlds or the End of the Japanese American Community?
  • Prism Lives Teresa — Kay Williams
  • Identity of Binational Amerasians
  • The Developmental Process of Asserting a Biracial, Bicultural Identity — George Kitahara Kich
• PART FOUR: CHALLENGING THE CENSUS
  • Is Multiracial Status Unique? The Personal and Social Experience — Michael C. Thornton
  • Coloring Outside the Lines — Christine C. Iijima Hall
  • Multicultural Identity and the Death of Stereotypes — Philip Tajitsu Nash
  • Beyond Black and White — G. Reginald Daniel
  • The New Multiracial Consciousness
  • From Shortcuts to Solutions — Maria P. P. Root