Mixed Race Studies

“What Are You?”: Racial Ambiguity and the Social Construction of Race in the U.S.

University of North Texas
May 2012
165 pages

Starita Smith

Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

This dissertation is a qualitative study of racially ambiguous people and their life experiences. Racially ambiguous people are individuals who are frequently misidentified racially by others because they do not resemble the phenotype associated with the racial group to which they belong or because they belong to racial/ethnic groups originating in different parts of the world that resemble each other. The racial/ethnic population of the United States is constantly changing because of variations in the birth rates among the racial/ethnic groups that comprise those populations and immigration from around the world. Although much research has been done that documents the existence of racial/ethnic mixing in the history of the United States and the world, this multiracial history is seldom acknowledged in the social, work, and other spheres of interaction among people in the U.S., instead a racialized system based on the perception of individuals as mono-racial thus easily identified through (skin tone, hair texture, facial features, etc.). This is research was done using life experience interviews with 24 racially ambiguous individuals to determine how race/ethnicity has affected their lives and how they negotiate the minefield of race.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
• CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
  • Research Questions
• CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
  • Changing Definitions of Race
  • Race under European Domination
  • The One-Drop Rule or Hypo-Descent
  • Color Stratification among Blacks
  • Passing as White
  • Challenge to the One-Drop Rule
  • Biracial Identity
  • Racial Classifications have Porous Borders
  • Race as a Sorting Mechanism
  • Tri-Racial Isolate Groups
  • The Case of the Mississippi Choctaw Rejected
  • Racial Misclassification and Native Americans
  • Mixed Race Individuals and Kinship Networks
  • Racial Fusion and the Hispanics
  • The U.S. Census and the Social Construction of Race
• CHAPTER 3 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
  • Racial Formation Theory
  • Assimilation Theory
  • The Latin Americanization Thesis
  • Theoretical Perspectives: Discussion
• CHAPTER 4 METHODS
  • Recruitment
  • Data-Gathering Instruments
  • Interview Locations
  • The Interviewees
  • The Interview Script
  • Reflexivity
• CHAPTER 5 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE ENDURES IN A “COLORBLIND SOCIETY”
  • Race in Work and School
  • Family life
  • Romantic and Spousal Relationships
• CHAPTER 6 CONSTANT OBJECTIFICATION
  • Objectification of Native Americans
  • Being Constantly Doubted
• CHAPTER 7 STUBBORN STEREOTYPES
• CHAPTER 8 DEVELOPING AN ADULT CORE RACIAL IDENTITY
  • “We’re All the Same in God’s Eyes, Then How Come I Don’t Look Like You?”
  • Black is Bad
  • Making up Your own Racial Identity
• CHAPTER 9 NAVIGATING THE RACIAL LANDSCAPE: THE MULTIFOCAL RACIAL IDENTITY
  • Pride in Minority Identity
  • Learning to be Resilient
  • Being Flexible under Globalization
• CHAPTER 10 HURTFUL LIVES
• CHAPTER 11 THEORY REVISITED
• CHAPTER 12 CONCLUSION
• APPENDIX A CONSENT FORM
• APPENDIX B INTERVIEWEE PHOTO INSTRUMENT
• REFERENCE LIST

LIST OF TABLES

1. Interviewee Demographic Data
2. Thematic Codingg
3. Sample of Thematic Coding for Indira

LIST OF FIGURES

1. Racialized society
2. Objectification of racially ambiguous people
3. Adult core racial identity

Read the entire dissertation here.

Creole Angel: The Self-Identity of the Free People of Color of Antebellum New Orleans

University of North Texas
August 2006
136 pages

Ben Melvin Hobratsch

Thesis Prepared for the Degree of Masters of Arts, University of North Texas, August 2006

This thesis is about the self-identity of antebellum New Orleans’s free people of color. The emphasis of this work is that French culture, mixed Gallic and African ancestry, and freedom from slavery served as the three keys to the identity of this class of people. Taken together, these three factors separated the free people of color from the other major groups residing in New Orleans—Anglo-Americans, white Creoles and black slaves.

The introduction provides an overview of the topic and states the need for this study. Chapter 1 provides a look at New Orleans from the perspective of the free people of color. Chapter 2 investigates the slaveownership of these people. Chapter 3 examines the published literature of the free people of color. The conclusion summarizes the significance found in the preceding three chapters and puts their findings into a broader interpretive framework.

Table of Contents

• INTRODUCTION
• Chapters
  • 1. THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR’S ANTEBELLUM NEW ORLEANS
  • 2. THE SLAVEHOLDING OF NEW ORLEANS’S SLAVEHOLDING FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR, 1820-1840
  • 3. THE LITERATURE OF NEW ORLEANS’S FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR, 1837-1845
• CONCLUSION
• Appendices
  • A. CENSUS SLAVE SCHEDULES, 1820-1840
  • B. EMANCIPATION PETITIONS, 1814-1843
• BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Free people of color, or gens de couleur libres, were men and women of either African or mixed African and European ancestry that were legally free from slavery, yet were proscribed in their social condition by the law. These men and women had always played a significant role within New Orleans. This was due, in part, to their sheer numbers. In New Orleans in 1840, for instance, free people of color numbered 19,226 of a total population of 102,193 or 18.8% of the population. Only Baltimore, Maryland could claim relatively similar numbers of free people of color. Of Baltimore’s total population of 102,313 in 1840, 17,967 or 17.5% were free people of color. Other southern cities did not even come close to approaching such levels. In the same year, in Charleston, another southern city in which a significant population of free men and women of color resided, only 5.4% of the population or 1,588 of a total population of 29,261 were free people of color.

The important role of free men and women of color within New Orleans was also due to the fact that until the implementation of American order in Louisiana in 1803, there had existed a tripartite socioracial stratification within the city, along the Latin model. This non-Anglo socioracial stratification allowed the gens de couleur libres to enjoy more social rights than free people of color in any other area of North America, in addition to near-equality with whites in regards to legal rights. In the Anglo-dominated United States, a binary socioracial hierarchy existed that placed free people of color at the same level as enslaved men and women of color.

The tripartite socioracial stratification of colonial New Orleanian society was one of fracture and fragmentation (see Table 0.1). One’s place in society was determined by economic and racial factors. As with most societies, individuals in antebellum New Orleans were categorized based upon their economic status. Individuals were wealthy, poor, or somewhere in between.

Factors of racial ancestry complicated a purely economic classification. Individuals, regardless of their economic status, were labeled white, black or “of color” (somewhere in between). In antebellum New Orleans, an individual’s racial phenotype took precedence over wealth. As a result New Orleanian society was first ordered by skin color, then, within each of the three separate racial groups, by economic condition. Within this Latin-style tripartite social stratification, the free people of color occupied the middle strata. As occupants of the middle strata, free people of color were viewed as socially “below” whites (of whatever economic condition) and “above” all black slaves…

Read the entire thesis here.

The Impact of the Media on Biracial Identity Formation

University of North Texas
December 2007
93 pages
OCLC: 227035319 | 
ARK: ark:/67531/metadc5185

Alicia Edison

Thesis Prepared for the Degree of Master of Science

Biracial individuals undergo a developmental process that is different than monoracial individuals. Not only do they have to develop a strong and cohesive self-esteem, but also develop a strong and cohesive racial identity to have a healthy self-concept. The media is a social structure that has infiltrated into many aspects of American lives, including their racial identity. The media perpetuates current beliefs concerning race and racial identity. This research investigates how biracial identity has been portrayed in the media. Historically, biracial individuals have been portrayed as the tragic “mulatto” because of their confused racial background. In addition, mulatto women have been stereotyped as exotic and sexual objects. A content analysis was used to investigate how the media presents biracial identity. Only movies with black/white biracial individuals were watched. The categories under study included perceived race, character’s race, skin color, likeability, sex appeal, ability to contribute, ability to be violent, mental health, overall positive portrayal social, and negative portrayal score. This study may suggest that the media is making attempts to rectify old stereotypes. Overall, this study does demonstrate that the media portrays biracial and black characters differently in film. One overarching theme from these results implies that the perception of race is more salient than one’s actual race.

Table of Contents

• LIST OF TABLES
• INTRODUCTION
• LITERATURE REVIEW
  • Race
  • History of Race Relations
  • One-Drop Rule
  • Importance of Racial Identity
  • Census
  • Choosing a Race
  • Identity Models
  • Factors in Biracial Identity Construction
  • Family
  • Other Factors
  • Identity Issues Facing Biracial Individuals
  • Well-Being
  • Media
• THEORY
• HYPOTHESES
• PROCEDURE
  • Interrater Reliability Score
  • Data Analysis
  • Results and Discussion
• LIMITATIONS
• CONCLUSIONS
• Appendices
  • A. EVALUATION FORM
  • B. INTERRATOR RELIABILITY SCORES
  • C. LIST OF ACTOR/ACTRESSES AND MOVIES
• REFERENCES

List of Tables

1. Percentage Distribution of Roles Played by Skin Color and Gender
2. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Overall Positive Portrayal Score on Character’s Race
3. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Overall Positive Portrayal Score on Perceived Race
4. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Overall Negative Portrayal Score on Character’s Race
5. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Overall Negative Portrayal Score on Perceived Race
6. Percentage Distribution of Roles Played by Women and Skin Color
7. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Attractiveness by Character’s Race
8. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Attractiveness by Perceived Race
9. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Ability to Contribute by Character’s Race
10. Means, Standard Deviations, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effects of Ability to Contribute by Perceived Race
11. Means, Standard Deviation, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effect of Likeability by Character’s Race
12. Means, Standard Deviation, and t-Test for Equality for Means for Effect of Likeability by Perceived Race
13. Means, Standard Deviation, and One-Way Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) for Effect of Ability to be Violent by Character’s Race
14. Means, Standard Deviation, and t-Test for Equality of Means for Effect of Ability to be Violent by Perceived Race
15. Means, Standard Deviation, and t-Test for Equality of Means for Effect of Skin Color by Character’s Race
16. Means, Standard Deviation, and t-Test for Equality of Means for Effect of Skin Color by Perceived Race

Read the entire thesis here.