Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

The multiracial idea has at least two versions. One is that multiracial people are of mixed blood or mixed genetic material. The other is that multiracial people are those with parents of different recognizable races. On examination, both of these positions present problems. The first is most blatantly tied to the racist science of the nineteenth century. It suggests that a person with both black and white ancestry is not adequately or accurately described as black (or white). This assertion rests on the discredited biological model. To sustain this position, one would have to show not only that bloodlines or genes are the appropriate foundations upon which to classify races, but also that bloodlines or genetic indicators are clear. Stated more strongly, this view implies that pure blood-lines—people who are uniracial—define the current racial categories.

Many of the proponents of new multiracial categories are politically left of center and reject the overt racism of nineteenth-century biology. Yet, a number of the assumptions adopted by these advocates end up relying, unwittingly, on the same discredited science, one of the main assertions of which was that race and racial categories were based on blood or genes. Supposed racial difference cannot be sustained on this basis, however; the majority of white Americans have African ancestry, the majority of blacks have white ancestry, and a substantial number of each have American Indian ancestry. Indeed, under the old hypodescent or “one drop” rule, which asserts that “white blood” is pure and therefore contaminated by even one drop of “black blood,” most white Americans are, in fact, African American.

john a. powell, Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012), 39.

Biracial identity and social marginality

Posted in Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Social Science, United States on 2010-03-20 16:44Z by Steven

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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Mixed Race Studies

Biracial identity and social marginality

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