Mixed Race Studies

On mixedness and blackness

What Nadia Likes
2014-03-14

Nadia Riepenhausen

What are you? A question that is fairly straightforward for many, but not so much for me. Before you roll your eyes, expecting to hear another lengthy diatribe about another ‘tragic mullato’ identity crisis, hear me out.

A couple of Sundays ago, I found myself in a ‘battle of the races’ on twitter, a ‘twar’ for the lack of a better term. It started out as a pleasant debate regarding racial categories in South Africa, and the difference between a cultural and racial identity. It ended with me being called a racist who hates black people by choosing to identify as ‘mixed race’. I have been called many things, but a racist is definitely a first for me. I’m not going to justify my non-racist claim, by stating something lame like “some of my best friends are black”, because as I am mixed race, I am also black, but some people just don’t seem to get or accept that it’s possible to be both of these things at the same time

In the aforementioned twitter debate, I was explaining to my fellow tweeters that I prefer to identify as mixed race, rather than ‘coloured’. For those not in the know, ‘coloured’ is how mixed race people are referred to in South Africa, and in Zimbabwe where I grew up. For me ‘coloured’ is more of a cultural identity, rather than a race. Although both of my parents were born coloured, I have never been comfortable with the label. This is mainly due to the way that I have been socialised and the environment that I grew up in. I grew up with my German stepfather and spent parts of my childhood in Germany. I went to predominantly white schools, and was one of a handful of so-called ‘coloureds’ in my school. I found myself with either white or black friends, and when it came to debating issues of race or politics, I adopted a black identity. During the time I was in school, I didn’t have the means to question my identity too much, but always found it difficult to answer questions pertaining to what I was. I didn’t live in the areas that coloured people lived in, I didn’t speak the way they spoke, nor did I go to the same places they did. I may give the impression that I was afflicted with a superiority complex, and that I thought I was better in some way, but this was definitely not the case. I would have loved to have blended in, but I simply did not. The few times that I attempted to, I was told that I ‘didn’t belong’ and was even beaten up by a girl once for being where I don’t belong. Many years on, I have no desire to blend in with any group and have embraced my ‘otherness’…

Read the entire article here.

I Call Myself What I like: Mixed Race Identity & Social Media

University of Leicester
October 2013
68 pages

Nadia Riepenhausen

Submitted for the degree of MA in Mass Communications, Media & Public Relations

This research study asserts that mixed race people are hyper-visible in terms of their images in media and popular culture, yet still remain largely invisible, due to a lack of recognition and acknowledgment, in mainstream media. As a result of a lack of representation, social media has become an important and significant way for mixed race people to interact, in terms of producing and consuming content. The study uses a qualitative research methodology, in the form of in-depth interviews, as well as incorporating several theories, including a ‘uses and gratifications’ approach. The research also shows that social media allows those who identify as mixed race to navigate multiple identities more freely and express themselves in ways that are not always possible in ‘real life’.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1 Research questions
  • 1.2 Why mixed race?
• 2. Theoretical Perspective
  • 2.1 Representation theory
  • 2.2 New ethnicities
  • 2.3 Critical theories and mixed race
  • 2.4 Uses and gratifications theory and social media
• 3. Literature Review
  • 3.1 Mixed race studies
  • 3.2 Race, mixed race and media
  • 3.3 Social media and race
• 4. Research Methodology
  • 4.1 Objectives of research
  • 4.2 Qualitative Research/In-depth Interviews
  • 4.3 Research sample
  • 4.4 Shared Identities
  • 4.5 Data Collection and analysis
• 5. Results and Discussion
  • 5.1 Multiple Identities
  • 5.2 Mixed race identity and gender
  • 5.3 Media representations of mixed race
  • 5.4 Navigating mixed race and social media
  • 5.5 Creating new identities.
  • 5.6 ‘Produsage’
  • 5.7 Cheerios Commercial
  • 5.8 The way forward
• 6. Conclusion
  • 6.1 Limitations
  • 6.2 Future Research
• 7. Appendices
• 8. References

Read the entire thesis here.