Racial Identity

Racial Category Construction

Perceptions of Multiracial People

How newspapers geared towards black or white audiences interpreted the growing number of multiracial identities

• In the late 19th century race was considered biological
• Today it is understood to be a social construction
• Race distinction has changed throughout history as cultural and political climates change

Four Themes for Organizing the Landscape of Multiracial Experiences

Racial Identification

Race can be operationalized using social criteria

• Black newspapers: identifying as multiracial expresses a desire to deny or distance oneself from blackness, which will politically unravel the power of black

communities

• White newspapers: multiracial identities are evidence that color has lost its meaning in society, reinforcing a (problematic) color-blind ideology

• Multiracial Identity Construction
• Multiracial People's View of Race
• Perception and Representation of Multiracial People
• Public Policies and Their Consequences for Multiracial People

• Using culturally related groupings such as government created definitions
• Until the census in 2000, people were only aloud to check one racial category
• Using individual self definitions rather than prefabricated categories
• Using the biological perspective
• Physical appearance
• Blood
• One Drop Rule: anyone with a drop of black blood was considered black
• Native Americans having to prove a blood quantum or degree of racial inheritance

Mexican Americans and the Question of Race

"We were never white": Mexican Americans Identifying Outside the Bounds of Whiteness

The "Other" Race Continuum Points

1) Racism is Minimal

Everyday racism becomes so naturalized that it is unremarkable.

Discrimination is thought of in terms of individual bigoted acts as opposed to systematic racism of segregation and punitive policies.

2) Racism is Significant

Racism is not minimized, but strong anti racist rhetoric is not espoused

"You can't fight the system, so I go with the flow."

Racial otherness is embraced rather than internalized as a stigmatized identity

3) Racism is Endemic

Highly political

Align selves with immigrants and African Americans in the struggle to fight racism

Racism is a pervasive part of everyday life and must be combated

Expression of pride in culture and heritage

Obtaining clarity of culture and heritage gives better sense of identity

Latinos and Mexican Americans Experience Racialization based on:

Public Policies and Their Consequences for Multiracial People

1) Phenotype

2) Gender

3) Socioeconomic status

4) Level of cultural assimilation

5) Generational status

• Acknowledging multiracial as an identity assumes that boundaries exist between races
• Public policy in the U.S. facing multiracial people is lacking systematic procedures to assess multiracial identity and the mixed support for multiracial policies

Classifying oneself in the census indicates both personal identity and how society classifies you racially

When Race Becomes Even More Complex: Toward Understanding the Landscape of Multiracial Identity and Experiences

Multiracial People's Views on Race

• More flexible understanding of race and race relations
• Challenge validity of race itself and view race as a social construct more than people of monoracial descent

Why This is an Advantage

• Racial stereotypes lose their meaning and fail to affect multiracial people's performance
• Race isn't given the same meaning and weight
• There is greater comfort with interracial social interactions than other racial minorities
• Less evidence is shown of implicit racial bias for their multiracial group

No matter your race, it is important to remember that racial identity is distinguished by how you choose to respond to racialization.

Home-Culture

Multiracial American Voices: Identity

Multi-generational Mexican-Americans may be clearly racialized as nonwhite yet experience exclusion from other Mexican-Americans for perceived cultural assimilation. To gain cultural competency to enhance acceptance home culture frames are developed

Turn to someone next to you and share examples of how you or your family has created a home-culture frame and how that influences your racial identity.

Home-cultures can provide an important base for a quiet struggle against white culture dominance

Home-culture counter frame used to assert pride in heritage

Language as a tool against discrimination

Powerful home-culture frames serve as a root of community activism

Multiracial Identity Construction

Three Prong Approach for Understanding the Identities of Mixed Race People

• Racial identity: personal, chosen, racial self understanding
• Racial identification: how others view them
• Racial categorization:chosen racial identity in different contexts

Two Subsets

What It's Like to be Ambiguously Ethnic

• Racial conflict: feelings of tension among component racial identities
• Racial distance: perception of how separate component racial identities are

Racial Identity

When Race Becomes Even More Complex: Toward Understanding the Landscape of Multiracial Identity and Experiences

-Shih, Margaret, Sanchez, Diana T.

“We were never white”: Mexican Americans Identifying Outside the Bounds of Whiteness

-Dowling, Julie A.