I need to spend some more time digging into this piece, which was e-mailed to me this morning, but did anyone else catch John Cloud’s article on mixed-race children in Time?
Americans like answers in black and white, a cultural trait we confirmed last year when the biracial man running for President was routinely called “black”.
The flattening of Barack Obama’s complex racial background shouldn’t have been surprising. Many multiracial historical figures in the U.S. have been reduced (or have reduced themselves) to a single aspect of their racial identities: Booker T. Washington, Tina Turner, and Greg Louganis are three examples. This phenomenon isn’t entirely pernicious; it is at least partly rooted in our concern that growing up with a fractured identity is hard on kids. The psychologist J.D. Teicher summarized this view in a 1968 paper: “Although the burden of the Negro child is recognized as a heavy one, that of the Negro-White child is seen to be even heavier.”
But new research says this old, problematized view of multiracial identity is outdated. In fact, a new paper in the Journal of Social Issues shows that multiracial adolescents who identify proudly as multiracial fare as well as — and, in many cases, better than — kids who identify with a single group, even if that group is considered high-status (like, say, Asians or whites). This finding was surprising because psychologists have argued for years that mixed-race kids will be better adjusted if they pick a single race as their own. Read more…
Okay, off the bat, I’m a little irked at the writer’s “flattening” of the complex racial background of African Americans, which he achieves right in the second paragraph by mentioning Tina Turner and Booker T. Washington’s mixed heritage withough acknowleging how common it is among black Americans, particularly of Turner and Washington’s respective eras. A lot of America’s racial pathology, including the “one drop” rule began with slavery. It’s hard to address the issue of mixed-race Americans today, while continuing to deny part of the country’s history of race mixing.
If the author counts Turner, born to two black parents, but with some European and suspected Native American heritage, as mixed race, then, he must count a great proportion of African Americans as mixed race, and I doubt that is so. Also, I doubt Turner and Washington were identified as black because of concern for their well-being as mixed-race children. They were identified as black because they were born at a time when the “one-drop rule” was vigilantly enforced to maintain white racial purity and privilege. I may be making too much of this, but it bugs that this article about race, starts off by demonstrating a lack of understanding of racial history.
Anyhoo…what do you think of the new study published in the Journal of Social Issues?
I think it’s an interesting article. I would like to read the actual study as I am always skeptical of any social science study and what controls and variables get taken into account. As for the author of the Times article, I didn’t see his omission of other historical factors in race and categorization as a slight against or ignoring that history but rather as limited space. Again, I am making an assumption there. His phrase “partly rooted in our concern…” makes me think he recognizes there are other factors but this particular article is about a study that looks at childhood identity in and of itself and bringing more history in would take the article into a different place than it was intended. Whether that was the appropriate or best route to take, I cannot say. I just didn’t feel like the article was ignoring things so much as limiting it’s scope to announce this particular study. Thanks for bringing such interesting topics and all the interpretations to light. I’m continuing to learn so much about the nuances of race in our culture and I love that all this information and analysis is constantly brought forth.
I can buy into the concept that children who identify with aspects of themselves fare better. The introductory paragraph was distracting, I thought, in that most black American’s are multiracially mixed at some point in their family tree. These folks didn’t have a choice of how they wanted to identify themselves. These constraints haven’t been applied so rigidly to other racially mixed people- only those with African heritage. Even today, how a person with African heritage chooses to racially identify is complicated by historical and political factors. If President Obama had self-identified as “mixed” instead of African-American I don’t think he’d have fared as well politically.
The closing paragraph was absolutely ridiculous. First of all, in reference to white people not being the majority, it’s absurd how they lump all people of color together and compare us as a group to white people. I’m not clear on how racial identity will become less important because there are more people of color than not in this country.
Thanks, EB. You explained more articulately what I was trying to say with my rant. The writer tosses out Turner and Washington as if their ancestry is uniquely multiracial, when indeed it is not. The racial history of black Americans is nuanced and not really a good example for this story.
I agree with you, Tami, that the tone, assumptions, or lack of understanding (or all of the above?) about this piece threw me off from the get go.
But, as far as the new study goes, I have to say I hope it’s true and that we are moving away from the long lasting impact of the “one drop rule.” Now, I identify my son as Black because that’s how the world will see him, and that in NO way makes me feel like he is somehow denying me (his white mother). I worried long and hard about bringing a mixed baby into this world – worried that he would feel inbetween worlds, so to speak. I am raising him to be confident and proud, and I can only hope that’s how he feels about his racial identity when he grows up.
If the author counts Turner, born to two black parents, but with some European and suspected Native American heritage, as mixed race, then, he must count a great proportion of African Americans as mixed race
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EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m soooo tired of people picking and choosing a few famous black people who are slightly mixed but seem to convienently forget that a good bulk of African-Americans are multigenerational mixed as well.
The author of the article did show lack of knowledge of the racial history of America.
In the article, I am utterly appalled as the use of the term “low status” and “high status” to define certain ethnic groups.
I found the article interesting, but agree with you about the fact that society does not treat people of multiracial heritage, when at least “part” of their identity is African American, as any different than their “full” (as if there is such a thing) African American brothers and sisters.
While we know that our oldest child’s birthmother is white, and frankly do not know very much about his birthfather (even his racial identity), we can see that African American people identify him as African American. (We also know that birthmother’s previous children were biracial white/African American.)
Is it possible that he could “pass”? Maybe. But we live in the Deep South, and I’d rather prepare him to consider himself the way others will see him (while still acknowledging his birthmother’s racial identity). When he faces discrimination (how I hope not, but fear will likely be the case), no one will care that his birthmom is white or that his adoptive parents are both white. Society, because of the “one-drop rule” will still see him as African American. Telling him any different will be preparing him poorly for his life ahead.
@JennMomtoThree – you put that so well, “Telling him any different will be preparing him poorly for his life ahead.” That’s the perfect way to put it, we don’t prepare our children for the world of ideals, we have to prepare them for reality.
When I read this sentence, I was astonished: “This phenomenon isn’t entirely pernicious; it is at least partly rooted in our concern that growing up with a fractured identity is hard on kids.”
That is the first time I have ever seen the flattening of racial identity attributed so generously to concern for children’s wellbeing. I’m not saying that concern isn’t out there, but by skipping so lightly over the “pernicious” aspects, it takes the reader’s appreciation of them for granted.
Having a white momma or a white daddy doesn’t change anything to the outside world if you look black. It only changes your understanding of their culture it doesn’t change people’s perception of you. There are plenty of people of color especially black folk who have a birth parent who is white and no can tell by looking at them.
I’ve noticed Black people, in general, are the only people that accept you as one of them if you are mixed. Most other cultures I’ve noticed particularly Asian and white don’t. They will say, specifically, that person is not white or that person is not Asian.
I was put off by the very first sentence. The biracial man running for President wasn’t just “called” Black, he IS Black. Which, in this country, has always been an inclusive enough category to include biracial/mixed people, for the historical reasons alluded to above. To tell biracial people who choose to identify with one aspect of our background more than another that we are “flattening” or “reducing” ourselves is extremely insensitive. And it denies a fundamental truth about whiteness: it is a category of exclusion. I could tell people all I want that I am “half white”–white people are still not going to accept me as one of their own. I can educate my brown-skinned, kinky-haired daughter all I want about the Italian and Polish aspects of her heritage–but no one is going to look at her at see a white girl. I think the author just misses entirely the way I, at least, conceptualize my identity. I revel in all the aspects of my identity and feel truly blessed to have had a multicultural upbringing. But I still identify primarily as Indian, while accepting that the categorization means something different for each person included in it. Finally, any discussion of mixed-race people must include a de-bunking of the myth of biologically “pure” race/blood, if we are ever going to elevate our understanding of race and racial categories.
The way I see describing someone like Barack Obama, Tiger Woods (or Tina Turner, for that matter) as black is not due to genetic heritage, but due to their skin color and appearance, and the impact their appearance has for them in society. Skin color is not just genotypic, it is phenotypic. It is how your genes are expressed that counts.
I know my experience as a privileged white person. I know, when I brought an apparently African American boy to my parents’ exclusive country club for lunch, no one asked him if one of his ancestors was white, and how many generations ago that was. My parents knew before I even got home, and I got a lecture about what all black boys want.
When I married a dark skinned Puerto Rican, my entire family freaked out. When my father said “Puerto Rican, that’s ‘next to’ black”, as if he has some color wheel of race to go off, I didn’t sit him down and say “Well, technically, one of his great grandparents WAS black.”
When high schools in Mississippi still have segregrated proms (that make me sick to my stomach), I don’t think multiracial students can show that, technically, they are “majority” white if they appear black. I know multiracial (black and white, for lack of more specific terms) people who could easily pass at a white prom, while their own siblings would not be able to.
I understand how parents of multiracial children want to honor all of the elements that are involved with that child’s racial or ethnic makeup. I understand how multiracial individuals want to identify with and possibly be identified by all of their racial or ethnic spectrum. But, when discussing the cultural impact of a black skinned athlete or a black skinned politician, I think discussion of multiracial background is a nuance issue, and calling them “black” may be a type of oversimplification, but, it’s the societal reality of how they are perceived and treated.
I think it’s important for racially mixed children of African descent to identify ALL aspects of themselves. Will they benefit from simply saying, “the world sees me as black, so that’s what I am”? Maybe. They’ll have experiences in common with folks who are monoracial. It’s good to understand how others view you and respond to you. But on some level it’s sticking them into a box that doesn’t quite fit. It’s insuffiecient. That doesn’t leave space for exploring everything that makes them who they are. It doesn’t help them find their place in the world because it’s not a true reflection of their background and life experience. People will no doubt apply the rule of hypodescent to them like it or not, but in what other circumstance would we advocate that our kids define themselves solely based on what other’s think of them?
I think it’s fair to say that generally the black community embraces multiracially black children as a part of the community- there’s so much diversity among black people, we all know that. But it’s false to assert that mixed race black people (particularly those who look mixed or behave in a manner other than what’s expected- whatever that is) don’t a have a unique experience to that of black folks who identify as or look monoracial, or grow up in a black family/community. To believe that there’s no difference is essentially subscribing to the one drop rule.
Lu: In regards to your comment about not feeling that your child is denying you. Your point is well taken and is an important one. But consider another angle- it’s not about you or you feeling denied. It’s about your child’s self identification, his finding a place in the world and his ablity to navigate these racial waters without denying himself.
Just this: doesn’t President Obama self identify as Black? To those who are trying to decide “what he is” for him, news flash, he’s got it figured out. My kids are technically biracial, but self-ID as AA or Black. It in no way “flattens” their identity, or means they are denying any part of it. I’m glad President Obama is there as a role model for this and many other things.
I love that there is no acknowledgment that many people who our culture sees as “white” have a more diverse racial background. If we really are all about acknowledging people’s true heritages, why is it always framed as “black kids should be able to embrace their white identity” and NEVER as “white kids should be able to embrace their black identity”. I just finished Bliss Broyard’s book “One Drop”, so the issue is right on the surface for me. The day you see white families embracing and exploring any nonwhite racial heritage in a meaningful (non-Indian princess) way is the day I buy that America embraces mixed race identity. The only way to be psychologically healthy is to know who you are and where you come from. Any obfuscation on either point can only lead to a host of trouble.
I teach 8th grade English is a fairly racially diverse school. I have to say I have observed that mixed race children are more comfortable identifying as mixed. Many of them will proudly tell you their racial make up. They are also the quickest growing population. Trying to do the standardized population makeup questions is a fun time because most of them do not want to mark just one box.
Thinking about this a little more . . . it strikes me that recently, post-Obama, some white people have started to make a lot of noise about how mixed race people with white backgrounds need to start acknowledging our “whiteness.” After years of brutal enforcement of the one-drop rule, some white people now want to lay claim to Barack, for instance. And seem offended that he identifies as Black, and are trying to undermine that. My comment to all that is, maybe our (mixed race people’s) refusal to identify with our “white sides” is about more than just how society perceives us. I could possibly pass, if I worked really hard at it and stayed out of the sun and changed my name. But I don’t want to. And that’s a political stance. I personally don’t have a lot of regard for white culture. Nothing in it speaks to me and I think the overwhelming history of white people in this country and around the world is shameful. So, yeah, I don’t really want to identify with it. (That doesn’t mean I don’t have to acknowledge and unlearn my light skin privilege, and it doesn’t mean I don’t love and respect many white people, including my mama.) And maybe some white people don’t like that–that after so many years of rejecting us, now, in “post-racial” America, we are rejecting them. But as Malcolm said, its just chickens coming home to roost.
*clap clap clap* to Kavina.
I’ve noticed that too, about that reaction of so many White people, wanting to insist that President Obama is biracial not Black, wanting to spotlight his “whiteness”. Whites are used to being reflected at the top of all the systems. Seems to me this is a way to continue to see ourselves reflected …
Interestingly, my eldest daughter, junior at Howard University, says that “Barack” has become a slang term for biracial, specifically white mother/black father. The first time she heard it, someone said, “Oh, so you’re a Barack?” Apparently it’s pretty widely used now. It’s not meant as positive or negative in most cases, just matter of fact. I don’t know if it’s a Howard thing, a DC thing, or what. I live in Seattle and haven’t heard it used here.
oops, sorry – Kavita, not Kavina. Apologies.