Full Description
The debate over potential addition of a multiracial category to the 2000 census forced the nation to reflect upon important questions concerning the possibility of multiracialism and the reality of racial categories. At the heart of this controversy was the question of what it means to be multiracial in the U.S. How do individuals with one Black and one White parent understand their racial identity? What social and psychological factors influence their racial identity construction and maintenance? This book answers these important questions by presenting findings from the largest existing data set of Black/White individuals. Using both in-depth interviews and survey data, the authors document how Biracial people develop a number of different racial identities and how these self-understandings are rooted in intriguing social, psychological, and cultural processes. The findings from this groundbreaking study provide a new and complex empirical foundation for future debates about the efficacy of multiracialism and the future of racial categorization in America.
Contents
PART ONE; WHO IS BLACK? FLUX AND CHANGE IN AMERICAN RACIAL IDENTITY / The Beginnings of Miscegenation / Slavery and the One-Drop Rule / Jim Crow and the Protection of White Womanhood / The One-Drop Rule and Civil Rights / Mixed-Race People in the Post Civil Rights Era / Cultural Norms and Support of Racial Stratification / Assimilation versus Egalitarian Pluralism / PART TWO: BIRACIAL IDENTITY RESEARCH: PAST AND PRESENT / Definitions of 'Biracial Identity' / Theoretical Frameworks for the Study of Biracial Identity / Empirical Findings / Patterns and Limitations / Research Design / WHAT DOES 'BIRACIAL IDENTITY' MEAN? / Theoretical Framework of Identity Formation / Biracial Identity / Discussion / PART FOUR: SOCIALIZATION AND BIRACIAL IDENTITY / Choosing between and among Identity Options / Factors Influencing Racial Identity Choice / Biracial: A Border Identity / Singular Identity / Protean Identity / Transcendent Identity / Discussion / PART FIVE: THE COLOR COMPLEX: APPEARANCES AND BIRACIAL IDENTITY / Research on Phenotype and Racial Identity / The Situated Self: Stone and Appearance / Expanding the Appearance-Identity Model / Sample Variation in Appearances / The Relationship between Phenotype, Appearance and Racial Identity among Biracial Individuals / How Do Appearances Influence the Development of Differential Understandings of Biracial Identity? / Phenotype and Appearance in Racial Identification under Differing Contextual Experiences of Race / Discussion / PART SIX: WHO IS BLACK TODAY AND WHO WILL BE BLACK TOMORROW? / The Tensions Revisited / Who Is Black Today? / Who Will Be Black Tomorrow? / Who Will Be Black in 2010?
