Mixed Race Studies

Assimilating Blackness?: Multiple-Race Identification and African American Mate Selection

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
Hilton San Francisco & Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel
San Francisco, CA
2004-08-14

23 pages

Jenifer L. Bratter, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Associate Director of the Institute for Urban Research
Rice University

I investigate the influence of multiracial identification on assortative mating by race for the African American population. Using 2000 1 percent Public Use Microdata File of the U.S. Census, I compare mate selection patterns of the single race non-Hispanic Black population to the multiple race population whose selected “Black” at least once. I employ multinomial logistic regression models to explore how likely a respondent selects Black (single race) spouses compared to non-Hispanic Whites and Multiracial Blacks. The results show Black persons who selected at least one other race are more likely than their single race counterparts to have White spouses, they are far more likely to have multiracial spouses.  These analyses also show that neither of these tendencies are explained by other identity choices such as alternative races or ancestry responses, structural assimilation of the multiracial population, or regional location near other interracial couples. These results indicate that a “Black” identity is still salient in the mate selection of multiracial Blacks.  Although some marital assimilation is occurring , multiracial persons appear to engage in more marital homogamy with other multiracial persons.

Read the entire paper here.

Determinants of Multiracial Identification and Their Effects on Poverty Estimtates among US Children

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
Hilton San Francisco & Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel
San Francisco, California
2004-08-14

21 pages

Anthony Daniel Perez, Assistant Professor
Chapel Hill Department of Sociology
University of North Carolina

This project examines the role of family background on the identification of multiracial children in the U.S. and considers the impact of various classificatory schemes on child poverty estimates. I seek to resolve several questions in this analysis. First, I consider the extent to which key family background characteristics such as income, education, and race influence patterns of child race reporting (monoracial vs. multiracial) by parents in interracial unions. I then consider whether child poverty tabulations are sensitive to how and where we include multiracial children in the estimates. In undertaking this analysis, I examine the large, nationally representative 5 percent Public Use Microdata from the Census 2000 long form.

Read the entire paper here.

A Practical Approach to Using Multiple-Race Response Data: A Bridging Method for Public-Use Microdata

September 2006

Carolyn A. Liebler, Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology and Minnesota Population Center
University of Minnesota

Andrew Halpern-Manners
Department of Sociology and Minnesota Population Center
University of Minnesota

This project was begun while the first author was funded by “IPUMS-Redesign” (NIH GRANT R01-HD043392), Steven Ruggles, P.I. We thank John Robert Warren, Deborah D. Ingram, Elaine M. Hernandez, C. Matthew Snipp, and J. Trent Alexander for their helpful feedback and the Minnesota Population Center for its invaluable research support. Address comments to: Carolyn Liebler, Department of Sociology, 267 – 19th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55455; e-mail: liebler@soc.umn.edu.

Revised federal policies require that multiple-race responses be allowed in all federal data collection efforts, but many researchers find the multitude of race categories and variables very difficult to use. Important comparability issues also interfere with using multiple-race data in analyses of multiple datasets and/or multiple points in time. These difficulties have, in effect, discouraged the use of the more nuanced new data on race. We present a practical method for incorporating multiple-race respondents into analyses that use public-use Microdata. We extend prior work by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) in which they use multiple-race respondents’ preferred single race and other characteristics to develop a model predicting preferred single race (if forced to choose). In this paper, we apply the NCHS-generated regression coefficients to public-use Microdata with limited geographic information. We include documentation and dissemination tools for this practical and preferable method of including multiple-race respondents in analyses.

Read the entire paper here.

Homelands and Indigenous Identities in a Multiracial Era

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting
Sheraton Boston and the Boston Marriott Copley Place
Boston, Massachusetts
2008-07-31
27 pages

Carolyn A. Liebler, Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Minnesota

Although multiple-race responses are now allowed on federal forms like the census, most interracially married single-race parents report their children as single race.  I argue that homelands – physical places with cultural meaning – are an important component of the intergenerational transfer of a single-race identity in multiracial families. I make my case by focusing on families with an interracially married American Indian who was living with his or her spouse and child in 2000 (Census 2000 5% PUMS [Public Use Microdata Series]). Logistic regression reveals that there is a strong effect of living in an American Indian homeland on the child’s chances of being reported as single-race American Indian.  This effect remains even after accounting for family connections to American Indians and other groups, family and area poverty levels, geographic isolation, and the racial composition of the area.  The intergenerational transmission of strong indigenous identities can continue in this multiracial era (as it has for centuries) in the context of culturally meaningful physical places.

Read the entire paper here.