👨🏿👩🏻👧🏼👦🏽 Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage (30-Year Anniversary)
Drafted in 1993 by Dr. Maria Primitiva Paz Root, PhD
Dr. Maria Primitiva Paz Root, PhD drafted the “Bill of Rights for People of Mixed-Heritage” 30 years ago (Root, 1993).
Bill of Rights for People of Mixed-Heritage
I HAVE THE RIGHT…
— Not to justify my existence in this world.
— Not to keep the races separate within me.
— Not to justify my ethnic legitimacy.
— Not to be responsible for people’s discomfort with my physical or ethnic ambiguity.
I HAVE THE RIGHT…
— To identify myself differently than strangers expect me to identify.
— To identify myself differently than how my parents identify me.
— To identify myself differently than my brothers and sisters.
— To identify myself differently in different situations.
I HAVE THE RIGHT…
— To create a vocabulary to communicate about being Multiracial or multiethnic.
— To change my identity over my lifetime–and more than once.
— To have loyalties and identification with more than one group of people.
— To freely choose whom I befriend and love.
.
Mixed Bill of Rights — Michelle Remoreras, 2023 [LinkedIn Post — March 23]
“Happy 30 years of existence to the Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage by Dr. Maria Root which I *LOVE*.
I have it printed out and posted outside my daughters’ bedrooms so they (we) as Mixed Race individuals know we have the right of self identification, even if people may perceive us to “look” differently than the races and ethnicities that comprise our heritage.
We have the right to belong.”
Su-Russell & Finan, 2022
Multiracial children do not share the same racial status as either side of their parents.
Growing up in a Multiracial family, children may not have a similar physical appearance as either their parents or their relatives.
Ainsley Lambert-Swain, 2023
“Scholars find that
Multiracial individuals often recognize and emphasize “their ability to adapt to the cultural norms or demands of the situation” (Miville et al., 2005, 512).
Though motivations vary, enacting different ethnoracial identities is often tied to signaling authentic group membership, establishing belonging, disrupting racial discourses, and challenging stereotypes (Mahtani, 2002; DaCosta, 2007; Cross et al., 2017).
Multiracials’ Cultural Competence — Siddiqui et al., 2018
“Multiracials have unique strengths stemming from their mixedness (Shih & Sanchez, 2005; Salahuddin & O’Brien, 2011). For example,
Multiracials have been found to show greater appreciation, tolerance, and empathy in relation to cultural alterity
(Shih & Sanchez, 2005; Caverley, 2013).”
Globalization’s Commodification of Multiracials’ Bodies
“Mixed-race bodies are popular commodified images used by global capital to sell both products & ideas of cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism, & globality” (King-O’Riain, 2014, 271).
Table of Contents
· Bill of Rights for People of Mixed-Heritage
· Terminology
Multiracial or Mixed (not Biracial) Kelly Jackson, 2021
· Multiracial Proportions
∘ Native American Multiracials — Chavez & Kaur [CNN], 2021
∘ Hispanic Multiracials — Kim Parker, PEW, et al., 2015
∘ Asian Multiracials
∘ Black Multiracials — Christine Tamir, Pew Research, 2021 (Pew Data)
· Multiracial Generations
➡️ ∘ Sex & Identity Validation — Xu et al., 2021
∘ 1st Generation Multiracials — Morning & Saperstein, 2018
· Erasure of Half-Hispanic Multiracials in Academia
∘ Multiracials in Britain — Miri Song, 2010
∘ Nicki Minaj & ∘ Chloe Bennet — By Carla Herreria, Aug 31, 2017
· Data from SoCal Lab with Jarryd Willis PhD (UCSD)
🧬 ∘ Minimum Genetic Percentage [PrePrint Excerpts]
∘ Phenotypic Ambiguity, ∘ Eye Color
· Proportion of _____ Friends
🏈 ∘ Superbowl LVII
· Quick Notes
∘ Tarah Midy (2018), ∘ Manisha Gupta, 2012
∘ Maldonado, 2017, ∘ Chindians & Malaysia — Reddy & Selvanathan, 2020
∘ Singapore: Eurasians & Transnational Marriages — Rocha & Yeoh, 2020
· · Multiracial Culture — Nicole Leopardo, 2016
Phenotypic Ambiguity, Identity, & Microaggressions
· Identity Microaggressions — Diana Sanchez et al., 2020
· Ambiguity & Cognitive Disfluency
· Identity Incongruent Discrimination — Franco et al., 2021
· Embodiment Narratives of Fusion & Hybridity — Haritaworn, 2009
· Preference For Multiracial Models (Stephy Chung & Junko Ogura, 2018)
· Going Through an Identity Phase — Stanley, 2004
∘ Wasians: Forging A New Identity — Erika Gutierrez et al., 2022
· Embodied Resistance — Gabrielle Gonzales, 2019
· Commodification of Otherness — Oluyadi & Dai, 2023
· Phenotypic Ambiguity — Via ChatGPT
∘ Multiracial Kids Books — Kiana Foster-Mauro, 2020
· Interminority Multiracial — Lauren Davenport, 2018
· Blasian Women — Kalya Castillo, 2022
· Multiracial Bisexual Women — Ghabrial, 2019
∘ Microaggression of Mislabeling
∘ Lack of heritage language increases invisibility
· Multiracial Socialization: ∘ Ortiz, 2017, ∘ Stokes et al., 2021
➡️➡️ ∘ Janet Xu et al., 2021 (2/3): The Feminization of Family Tree Keeping
➡️➡️➡️ · This part — Janet Xu et al., 2021 (3/3)
∘ Tribal Affiliation or Community Attachment — Carolyn Liebler, 2018
· Racial Socialization — Atkin & Yoo, 2019
∘ Exposure to Extended Family & Neighborhood Diversity
∘ Ignore Black-White
· Cultural Socialization — Roberto Villegas-Gold, 2016
∘ White Heritage & ∘ Asian Heritage
· Asian Non-Hispanic ∘ (and fixing Hispanic data collection by utilizing a single ethnoracial category)
💘· Sidenotes💘
· Interracial Preferences
∘ Rodriguez et al., 2022, ∘ Tarah Midy (2018)
∘ Interracial Courtship — Beenna Han, 2021
∘ Interracial Competition — Roxie Chuang et al., 2021
∘ Colorism & Multiracial Courtship
∘ Keon West, 2019; ∘ Online Dating — Hergovich & Ortega, 2018
∘ Shantel Buggs, 2019
🏡· Interracial Home Ownership — Seong-kya Ha et al., 2002
· Interminority Allyship (article coming soon)
∘ United States v. Thind (1923) — Erika Lee, 2023
· UC-Wide Mixed Mixer of 2023 (February 16)
🎈· Mixed Student Union at UCSD 🎈
🎶🎼· For Future Articles
🎼· Brazilian-Japanese in Japan — Zelideth Rivas, 2015
🎵 ∘ Multiracials’ Global Identities, ∘ B-Pop
🎵 ∘ Multiracial Commodification
🎼 ∘ Linda Sansei — “World Cup 2014" Music Video
∘ Ainsley Lambert-Swain, 2023 (2/2)
∘ Multiracial Mental Health in Canada — Siddiqui et al., 2018
∘ Linguistic Racialization (Buggs, 2017; Chun & Lo, 2016; Funderburgs, 1995)
· Multiracial Bridges
∘ Multiracial Friends in Cross-Race Friendships — Echols & Graham, 2020
∘ Open SoCal Lab Questions
Terminology
Interminority = multiple-minority (and sometimes = majority-minority if less than 50% White)
Blasian = East/Southeast Asian & Black (may also include South Asian)
Wasian = East/Southeast Asian & White (may also include South Asian)
LatinAsian = East/Southeast Asian & Hispanic (may also include South Asian)
Blatino = Hispanic & Black
Whitino = Hispanic & White
Chindian = South Asian & East Asian (particularly Chinese)
“I saw the need to situate dual-minority Multiracial individuals in the conversations about multiraciality, which typically revolve solely around white/[minority] identity formations” (Blaxican — Rebecca Romo, 2011).
(Same girl. Same)
Multiracial or Mixed (not Biracial) Kelly Jackson, 2021
“According to Root and Kelley (2003), the term Multiracial describes people who are more than one racial group (e.g., White, Black, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian, and Latinx).
The term Multiracial is preferred since it does not give preference to implied assumptions of biological racial “purity” like other terms that quantify ratios or levels of mixedness (e.g., biracial, triracial, etc.; Jackson & Samuels, 2019, p. 16).
A derivative of the term Multiracial, commonly used by Multiracial people to describe their identities is mixed. Both terms are used interchangeably throughout this teaching note. People of mixed Latinx and non-Latinx heritage (e.g., one biological parent who is of Latin American origin and another who is not of Latin American origin) are included as Multiracial because research consistently reports that mixed Latinx individuals share similar processes of identity development and experiences of racial discrimination as those of other Multiracial groups (Jackson, Wolven, & Crudup, 2019; Jiménez, 2004; Romo, 2011; Vasquez, 2010).”
Capitalize Multiracial — Payton Small, 2022
“In 2020, the APA Publication Manual recommended that “If people belong to multiple racial or ethnic groups, the names of the specific groups are capitalized, but the terms ‘multiracial’, ‘biracial’ … are lowercase”.
I disagree with this recommendation as it runs contrary to their earlier recommendation that “Racial and ethnic groups are designated by proper nouns and are capitalized” (APA, 2010, p. 75). Because Multiracial is a racial group, I will capitalize it throughout this dissertation in recognition of the legitimacy of this racial group.”
Multiracial Proportions
Native American Multiracials — Nicole Chavez & Harmeet Kaur [CNN], 2021
— About 61% of American Indians & Alaska Natives are #Multiracial (US Census, 2020), meaning that Native Americans are a majority mixed group.
— About 31% of the total Native American population is part-Hispanic.
Hispanic Multiracials — Kim Parker, PEW, et al., 2015
— About 16.7% of Hispanic individuals are Multiracial, with 79% of them being Whitino (part-White).
‘In 2020, Pew Research Center estimates found that Blatino adults were about 2% of the U.S. adult population and 12% of the adult Hispanic population’ (Mark Hugo Lopez et al., 2022).
Asian Multiracials
— About 17% of the US Asian population is Multiracial, with 17.65% of them being Latinasian (part-Hispanic).
Black Multiracials — Christine Tamir, Pew Research, 2021 (Pew Data)
— About 13.104% of the US Black population is Multiracial, with 3.59% of them being Blasian (3.4% part Asian only), 39.07% of them being Blatino (22.71% part Hispanic only), & 53.44% of them being part-White (44.43% of them being part White only).
— In addition, 23.42% of Black Multiracials are 2nd-generation, with 69.87% of them being Blatino (with 38.47% being part Hispanic, Part Black, and part White).
Multiracial Generations
Sex & Identity Validation — Xu et al., 2021
“First-generation Multiracials are more likely to be aware of and identify with their mixed ancestry, given that the members of the first interracial union in their family tree are immediate kin (Song & Gutierrez, 2015).
Men & women experience different degrees of validation (legitimation or acceptance by others) of their asserted Multiracial identities (Brunsma, 2006; Rockquemore and Brunsma, 2002).
Rockquemore (2002) & Strmic-Pawl (2016) found that Black-White Multiracial women experience rejection & negative comments from monoracial Black women, but men do not pay an interpersonal penalty for identifying as mixed.”
1st Generation Multiracials — Morning & Saperstein, 2018
62% of individuals reporting Asian-White ancestry
36% of people reporting Hispanic-White ancestry
27% of those reporting Black-Hispanic ancestry
13% of people reporting Black-White ancestry
8% of people reporting White-Indian ancestry
2% of those reporting Black-Indian ancestry
Erasure of Half-Hispanic Multiracials in Academia
Claudia García-Louis, 2016
“Federal standards require educational institutions to report only the “Hispanic” identity and not the racial classification reported by the students (Aud et al., 2010). The implications could be monumental given institutions utilize demographic data in order to assess what types of student services to provide” (Claudia García-Louis, 2016).
Marta I. Cruz-Janzen, 2002
The US Govt policy is that Multiracials are relegated to the status of their most subordinate group, whether they are half-White Multiracials or interminority Multiracials. “As recently as the l986 “Phipps Decision,” the court affirmed the popular application of these rules through “judicial notice,” or acceptance that they are indeed a matter of “common knowledge” (Davis, 1998). While many question the ongoing application of these rules in “modern” U.S society, they indeed continue to be employed by the U.S. Census Bureau (Davis, 1998)” (Marta I. Cruz-Janzen, 2002).
Black Multiracials — Christine Tamir, Pew Research, 2021 (Pew Data)
— About 13.104% of the US Black population is Multiracial, with 3.59% of them being Blasian (3.4% part Asian only), 39.07% of them being Blatino (22.71% part Hispanic only), & 53.44% of them being part-White (44.43% of them being part White only).
— In addition, 23.42% of Black Multiracials are 2nd-generation, with 69.87% of them being Blatino (with 38.47% being part Hispanic, Part Black, and part White).
Multiracials in Britain — Miri Song, 2010
In Britain, Black Caribbean or Black African (and White) heritage constitutes almost 48% of the total Multiracial population, while almost 29% are Asian/White.
Multiracials Sweden & Japan — Sayaka Torngren, 2022
Approximately 7% of the Swedish population and 2% of the Japanese population are Multiracial and multiethnic today.
Nicki Minaj
Nicki Minaj is 2nd-Generation #Multiracial given that her dad is 1st-generation (Indian-Black).
She has a Japanese Great Grandfather but unsure if it’s on her mother’s or father’s side. Thus, she could be 3rd or 4th-generation Multiracial.
Chloe Bennet — By Carla Herreria, Aug 31, 2017
.The actress, who is half Chinese and half white, snapped back at people on social media who criticized Bennet for changing her original surname, Wang.
.
.
.
.
Data from SoCal Lab with Jarryd Willis PhD (UCSD)
[Note, please see our PrePrint for additional findings]
Whitinos (p = .064): more likely to be multilingual when mom is Hispanic than when mom is White
Wasians: sex of East Asian parent doesn’t matter
Minimum Genetic Percentage For Intragroup Diversity [PrePrint Excerpts]
We asked participants what they believe the minimum percentage of an ethnoracial identity should be for someone to identify as a Multiracial member of an ethnoracial group. A univariate ANOVA found a main effect of ethnoracial background on the minimum genetic percentage necessary for Multiracials to identify as one of their racial backgrounds, F(6, 447) = 8.55, p < .001. East Asians have a higher minimum threshold for ethnoracial group identification (M = 38.02) than White subjects (M = 19.21; p < .001), half-White Multiracials (M = 24.82; p < .001), & interminority Multiracials (M = 26.87; p = .002). In addition, Middle Eastern respondents (M = 44.17) have a higher minimum threshold than half-White Multiracials (p = .025) and White monoracials (p = .006).
We also found an effect of nationality on the minimum genetic percentage required for Hispanic individuals, F(1, 27) = 4.22, p = .050, and East Asian individuals, F(1, 139) = 7.22, p = .008. A higher genetic percentage requirement was reported for International Hispanic students (M = 52) compared to domestic Hispanic students (M = 26.92), and for international East Asian students (M = 43.64) compared to domestic East Asian students (M = 33.52). This suggests that individuals with stronger ties to their heritage culture may require a higher genetic percentage for a Multiracial ingroup member to be considered a member of their ethnoracial group.
Moreover, there was no significant difference between the minimum genetic percentage reported by monoethnic monoracials (M = 35.43; n = 197) and multiethnic monoracials (M = 30.57; n = 21).
Phenotypic Ambiguity
Among half-White Multiracials, those who indicated that they look phenotypically ambiguous were the most likely to report that people overlook an aspect of their identity (53.5%), those who indicated that they phenotypically look like a combination of both parents were the most likely to report that people correctly guess their minority background (48.1%), and those who indicated that they phenotypically look distinctly like one of their ethnoracial backgrounds were the most likely to report that people assume they are only White (66.7%), χ2(6, N = 97) = 48.06, p < .001. In addition, half-White Multiracials who indicated that they look phenotypically ambiguous were the most likely to report that people did not guess anything right at all about their ethnoracial background (34.9%; nothing correct), whereas those who indicated looking like one or a combination of both parents were far less likely to report that people did not guess anything correct (3.7% and 14.3%, respectively), χ2(2, N = 98) = 10.82, p = .004.
Among interminority Multiracials, those who indicated that they look phenotypically ambiguous were the ONLY participants to report that people failed to correctly guess anything about their ethnoracial background (19.2% vs. 0% for those who did not report that they look ambiguous), χ2(2, N = 60) = 7.13, p = .028.
Eye Color
Finally, half-White Multiracials with non-brown/black eye colors reported that people are more likely to correctly guess that they are part-White (70.6%) whereas half-White Multiracials with brown or black eye colors reported that people are more likely to overlook that they are part-White (56.6%), χ2(1, N = 100) = 4.19, p = .041.
Finally, half-White Multiracials are more likely to be in partial-racial couples (e.g., former President of the United States Barack Obama is Black-White Multiracial and the former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, is Black) whereas interminority Multiracials are more likely to be in 100% interracial/non-overlapping couples (e.g., Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris is interminority Tamil Indian and Black whereas the Second Gentleman of the United States, Doug Emhoff, is White).”
Proportion of _____ Friends
— Monoracial East Asians & part-East Asian Multiracials had the highest proportion of East Asian friends.
— Monoracial Hispanics & part-Hispanic Multiracials had the highest proportion of Hispanic friends.
— Monoracial Whites & part-White Multiracials had the highest proportion of White friends.
Yellow bars indicate friendships that are monoracial or partial-racial
Blue bars indicate 100% interracial friendships (and these are generally higher for Multiracials)
Proportion of White Friends (Full Analysis)
— A univariate ANOVA found a significant main effect of identity on proportion of White friends, F(3, 366) = 20.50, p < .001, n² = 14.4%. Bonferroni pairwise comparisons found that White monoracials had the highest proportion of White friends (M = 40.53%, SE = 3.17, all ps < .002), and half-White Multiracials (M = 27.94%, SE = 1.37) had a higher proportion of White friends than monoracial minorities (M = 17.45%, SE = 1.36, p < .001) and interminority Multiracials (M = 20.34%, SE = 2.02, p = .012).
This is consistent with other research (Vezaldenos et al., 2023; Richard Alba, 2021).
Superbowl LVII
Superbowl LVII was the first with one Black quarterback & one Multiracial Black-White quarterback.
Multiracial individuals like Patrick Mahomes are more likely to have been varsity athletes in high school (80.1%) than monoracials (58.8%), χ2(1, N = 2511) = 64.05, p < .001.
The fact that monoracials regularly misperceive Multiracials means that monoracials with Multiracial friends may have more 100% interracial friendships than they’re aware of.
Quick Notes
Tarah Midy (2018)
Rather than considering interracial couples a homogeneous group, future studies should account for the different types of these couples as it may have implications on results. Research involving the different types of interracial couples is limited.
Manisha Gupta, 2012
The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that non-White ethnic group members will become the majority in the U.S. in the next few decades.
Despite this changing landscape, the discourse on race relations in the U.S. continues to be dominated by a focus on White-ethnic minority relations 🤦🏻♀️
(with a particular emphasis on White-Black relations)
Maldonado, 2017
The majority of American Indians (58%) marry out, primarily with Whites.
Chindians & Malaysia — Reddy & Selvanathan, 2020
“Interracial marriages have led to the development of new informal labels for Multiracial people (Ang and Shik 2013; Chong 2009). For example, marriages between Chinese and Indians are common in West Malaysia and have resulted in their children being popularly referred to as
‘Chindians’ — [a label] also adopted by Multiracial individuals of Chinese and Indian parents to celebrate both heritages (Chandran 2016).
In East Malaysia, frequent intermarriages between individuals from indigenous tribes and the Chinese community have also led to distinguishing labels: a mix between Iban and Chinese are referred to as ‘Chibans’; Chinese and Kadazans are called ‘Sino-Kadazans’.
These new labels effectively capture the unique cultural identities of ‘mixedness’. In a country where there is state-sanctioned control over racial categorization, the popular use & embodiment of these labels may be viewed as efforts of ‘everyday resistance’ that disrupt rigid racial boundaries.”
Singapore: Eurasians & Transnational Marriages — Rocha & Yeoh, 2020
“The ‘mixed’ category of Eurasian was included from 1871, and found an official place as an overarching category from 1881 onwards.
Being Eurasian became more strictly defined, based around mixed European/Asian descent (along patrilineal European lines), higher socioeconomic class markers, identification with Christianity, and speaking English, and the community had a focal point in the Eurasian Association from 1919 onwards (Braga-Blake 1992; Pereira 1997). Eurasian identity became an accepted and measurable form of mixedness as a result, seen less as mixed, and more as a new form of racial category (Rocha 2011).
Eurasians were among the earliest immigrants to Singapore after 1819, arriving from regions with a European presence, such as Goa, Malacca, and Macau (Braga-Blake 1992; Pereira 2006). They made up a small percentage of the population, with their numbers including immigrants and later individuals of mixed European and Asian descent born in Singapore.
Creation of Eurasian
The Eurasian community worked for increased state and social recognition, seeking to recreate Eurasian as a defined ethnic group in order to fit better within the multiracial framework. This was done by consolidating (and in some cases inventing) unique cultural markers which could be labelled as traditionally Eurasian, including ‘devil’s curry’ and the hybrid language of Kristang (a patois of Portuguese and Malay) (Pereira 1997, 2006).”
.
Multiracial Culture — Nicole Leopardo, 2016
— Multiracials possess “insight & knowledge of two or more distinct and often antagonistic worlds, which enables [them] to lead the parent societies into transcending their differences” (Maria Root, 1992, p.282). This insight and knowledge of multiple cultural worlds is understood as a “third culture”.
— Nikki Khanna (2011) states that “some of the ethnic symbols Multiracials use to express their identities include food, clothing, national symbols, sports, music, & language” (Khanna, 2011).
Identity Microaggressions — Diana Sanchez et al., 2020
“Multiracial-specific microaggressions include being told that they cannot identify with certain racial identities or that they are not full members of their racial communities (i.e., identity denial; Albuja et al., 2019b; Tran et al., 2016). Multiracial individuals who are denied one of their racial identities interpret these experiences as signals that they do not belong and that their Multiracial identity is devalued, which impairs psychological health (Albuja et al., 2018).”
Ambiguity & Cognitive Disfluency
Research finds that people are slower to categorize ethnoracially ambiguous faces (Halberstadt & Winkielman, 2014) as they require more effortful processing (Lick & Johnson, 2015) and this cognitive disfluency may decrease the likelihood that perceivers will engage in stereotype-driven social processing (Alter, 2013). Other research suggests that the cognitive challenge of perceiving ambiguous Multiracials may lead to more negative perceptions (Freeman et al., 2016).
Identity Incongruent Discrimination — Franco et al., 2021
“One form of discrimination specific to Multiracial people is termed identity incongruent discrimination — discrimination based on a perceived identity that does not match self-identity (Franco & O’Brien, 2018). According to minority stress theory, perceived experiences of discrimination (distal stressors) may affect the racial identity, health, and well-being of stigmatized groups, and contribute to health disparities (Meyer, 2003).
We chose self-definition as Multiracial, rather than race of parents, because it represents one’s subjective sense of racial identity, which is relevant for how one processes perceived discriminatory experiences (Jackson et al., 2012; Meyer, 2003). One requisite for identity incongruent discrimination is racial miscategorization. Given that Multiracial people are more likely to be miscategorized than any other racial group (Chen, Moons, Gaither, Hamilton, & Sherman, 2014; Chen, Pauker, Gaither, Hamilton, & Sherman, 2018; Feliciano, 2015), it may be that identity incongruent discrimination is particularly salient for Multiracial people, compared to other groups.
All mixed-race household types are more likely to live in diverse neighborhood settings than same-race households (Holloway et al., 2005).”
Embodiment Narratives of Fusion & Hybridity — Haritaworn, 2009
“Narratives of multi-racialized embodiment brim with racism, as the ‘valuable’ or ‘pathological’, ‘good’ or ‘bad mixes’ of unlike body parts grafted onto each other.
This necessitates a critical re-evaluation of ‘hybridity’ debates which treat biological racism as a past phenomenon that can be metaphorized for cultural processes of identification.”
Preference For Multiracial Models (Stephy Chung & Junko Ogura, 2018)
When Asian/ Black/ Hispanic minorities are featured on cover spreads or used in marketing campaigns they’re more likely to be half White than White models on the cover are to be half minority.
N = 100 covers
80 = monoracial White models
10 = monoracial minority models
10 = half minority — half White models
Of 20 minority models, 10 were monoracial minorities (50% Multiracial)
Of 90 White models, 80 were White monoracials (11.11% Multiracial)
—
“Editorial director of Numéro Tokyo, Sayumi Gunji, said in a phone interview that
“Almost all top models in the their 20s are Hafu [Multiracial], especially the top models of popular fashion magazines.”
Director Sayumi estimates that 30% to 40% of runway models in Japanese fashion shows now identify as Hafu, and he added
“(In) the Japanese media and market, a foreigner’s flawless looks aren’t as readily accepted — they feel a little distant. But Multiracial models, who are taller, have bigger eyes, higher noses (and) Barbie-doll-like looks, are admired because they are dreamy looking but not totally different from Japanese. That’s the key to their popularity.”
Going Through an Identity Phase — Stanley, 2004
People will describe her as “going through a phase” or that “she must be either African American or Latina.” It is the lack of comfort with the concept of “both/and” that pushes individuals to place the Multiracial person in a definitive racial group, which is usually the same group as that of the more noticeable parent of color (Kerwin & Ponterotto, 1995).
Wasians: Forging A New Identity — Erika Gutierrez et al., 2022
“Research suggests that, rather than trying to fit themselves into just an Asian identity or just a White identity, Multiracial Asian Americans report the most happiness and the least stress when they create their own unique ethnoracial identities that combine all of their ancestries.
In other words, instead of trying to “pass” as a member of a single racial group, they may be better off when they actively create their own definition of fitting in that is based on synthesizing their unique and multiple characteristics. In doing so, Multiracial Asian Americans develop a sense of ownership and pride in their new identity, rather than trying to seek acceptance into the preexisting racial groups.
As it turns out, monoethnic Asian Americans have been doing something like this for many generations, as they reconcile and negotiate their own identities as both Asian and American. In this sense, we might say that Multiracial Americans are now going through the same process that Asian Americans have been going through for years.
In other words, monoethnic Asian Americans and Multiracial Americans share a common process of actively shaping their identities through combining elements from diverse cultures can help these communities connect with one other and bridge cultural differences.”
Embodied Resistance — Gabrielle Gonzales, 2019
“Romo (2011) showed how her participants performed race and asserted a Blaxican identity as tactics of resistance. In order to be seen as legitimately Black or Mexican by both outsiders including the Black and Mexican community, the respondents had to choose one of the sides, not both. The majority of Romo’s participants rejected forced monoracial identification by embracing and asserting a mixed Blaxican identity.
“I have written that Multiracial people, by their very choice to assert a Multiracial identity, are ‘undermining the very basis of racism, its categories” (Spickard 2003) (p. 291).
Therefore, similar to Romo, those asserting Multiracial identities resist the dominant racial order.
Warin defined material feminism as “attending to the ways in which bodies interact with and are radically open to other bodies, different spaces, histories, technologies, and environments … It argues for a redefinition of how we come to understand embodied relationships between the natural and social” (p. 52).
Historical representations of Black women are strongly linked to gluttony and sexuality (Beauboeuf-Lafontant 2003; Strings 2015; Collins 2000; Townsend Gilkes 2001; Schott 2016) and common historical stereotypes of Black women often revolve around the shape of the physical body. For example, the stereotype of the Black matriarch is often depicted as a large, effeminate and unattractive Black woman.
The pursuit of thinness is an embodied way to gain status and increase mobility (Bordo 1993; Cheney 2011). Thinness is connected to privilege and whiteness. For [minority] women, the achievement of thinness can be used as a step up in a society where they face both racism and sexism. Through the pursuit of thinness through exercise, Black women have historically attempted to distance themselves from common stereotypes and the legacies of slavery (Purkiss 2017).
[One participant] exemplifies the connection between physical appearance and Multiracial identity. When it comes to her body she explains how she feels in an either/or monoracial framework, “*If I was actually Mexican I could have big boobs and hips, and it would be good and sexy but if I’m White then I have to be skinny, very consistently that goes through my head.*” Because she does not fit neatly into specific phenotypical racial categories she is ambivalent about how her physical body fits into the framework.
Patricia Williams (1991) challenged the dominant white feminist perspective on the body and “have called on feminists to see that the ability to ignore the body in theorizing positive agency rests on the ignorance and privilege of these bodies that have not been marked by modes of oppression other than gender” (p. 10).”
Commodification of Otherness — Oluyadi & Dai, 2023
“The managers expect employees of East Asian heritage to speak a foreign language, whereas there are no such expectations for White & other minority employees.
Tai, as a native English speaker and British-born citizen, had never learned to speak Mandarin. To management, Tai did not meet their aesthetic demands of Asian workers like Hye-Jin, Amporn, and Joon. Therefore, Tai became a liability for Orchards, as they could not fully harness her aesthetic labor and make her sound “exotic enough” (Ramjattan, 2019; 2021)… and eventually was fired.
Although Tai “looked right” being of Asian descent, her inability to sound exotic or foreign failed to meet the expectations of management, and she was fired after 2 weeks because she could not speak her heritage language (Delgado and Stefancic, 2012; Ramjattan, 2019; 2021).
In contrast, Hye-Jin was regarded as more valuable because she speaks Mandarin & Korean.
Tai’s story illustrates how Asian employees were fired for not speaking the “expected-native” language. Specific ethnicities are sought after as the managers hold implicit racial expectations and believe that foreign language skills can be harnessed to benefit corporate sales — at the cost of increasing aesthetic labor for Asian employees.
Management builds up a vision, or a fantasy of aesthetic labor which is rooted in the idea of
“commodification of otherness” (hooks, 1992) that dictates how minority women should look, act, & sound.”
Phenotypic Ambiguity — Via ChatGPT
Why do people have difficulty perceiving the ethnoracial background of phenotypically ambiguous Multiracials?
🤖 “People may have difficulty perceiving the ethnoracial background of phenotypically ambiguous Multiracials due to their assumptions and biases about race and ethnicity. In many societies, people tend to categorize others into racial and ethnic groups based on physical appearance, such as skin color, hair texture, and facial features.
However, Multiracial people may have physical characteristics that do not fit neatly into these racial and ethnic categories, which can make it difficult for others to accurately perceive their ethnoracial background.
Additionally, people’s assumptions and biases about race and ethnicity may lead them to make incorrect assumptions about a person’s background based on limited information, such as their name, accent, or the way they dress. These assumptions and biases may also be influenced by cultural stereotypes and the social and historical context in which the person is being perceived.
It is important to recognize and respect the diversity within the Multiracial population and the unique experiences and challenges faced by people who are phenotypically ambiguous. It is also important to challenge our assumptions and biases about race and ethnicity and to approach others with an open mind and a willingness to learn about their experiences and identity.”
Multiracial Kids Books — Kiana Foster-Mauro, 2020
“The 9 million Americans who identified as Multiracial on the 2010 census are not seeing themselves represented, in diverse, authentic, and varied ways, in children’s picture books.
In the 90 books that Chaudhri and Teale (2013) analyzed in their study, the most frequent depiction was that of a teenage, female, African American-White Miracial protagonist. The 9 million Americans that self-reported as Multiracial on the 2010 census identified with a broad range of multiple-race combinations, African American-White was not the only one (Jones & Smith, 2001).
Similarly, Sands-O’Connor found that books depicting Multiracial characters had many of the same characteristics (Sands-O’Connor, 2001). In this case, Sands-O’Conner specifically found that the majority of picture books depicting Multiracial characters focused on difference and physical space between the character’s racially different parents (Sands-O’Connor, 2001).
Books often serve as artifacts of the society, culture, and time that they were written in. For children, books, particularly picture books, can be tools for identity exploration and formation, as well keys to understanding their world (Pires, 2011).”
Interminority Multiracial — Lauren Davenport, 2018
— Among interminority Multiracials, Blasians (Black & Asian) are among the most prevalent & are “the fastest growing” interminority Multiracials in the US as of the 2010 census, rising by “85% since 2000.”
— “Black is the category most frequently selected by multiple-minority identifiers, with 56% marking it as one of their races; Asian is the second most commonly chosen category, at 48%” (Davenport, 2018).
Blasian Women — Kalya Castillo, 2022
“A history of White racism & oppression against Blacks and Asians distinguishes the developed self-concept of dual-minority [Mult]iracials, or [Multiracials] whose parents’ racial backgrounds are from two different minority ethnic groups (Tamai, 2017).
Research on Black Asian (Blasian) Multiracial identity is still relatively uncommon [as] most literature on Multiracial identity centers on the experiences of [part-White Multiracials (generally assumed to be 50%+ White)] (Charmaraman et al., 2014).
The implications for research are significant when considering that Multiracial identity should encompass growing dual racial minority populations (Liebler, 2016) and that racial identity construction is a gendered process; for Multiracial women in particular, it is a restricted path through which they must negotiate their racial identity (Rockquemore, 2002) [while overcoming] themes of exoticization and fetishization (Castillo et al., 2020).
[Blasians] are forced to negotiate polarized racial minority statuses in a country where Blacks have long been vilified and Asian Americans are perceived as “docile honorary White people whose very existence proves that other people of color are lazy and stupid and that racism does not exist” (E. H. Kim, 1998, p. 4).”
Multiracial Bisexual Women — Ghabrial, 2019
— “Multiracial bisexual women in the Collins (2000) study evolved from confusion to resolution in their identity development, using different mechanisms, including moving to more inclusive cities (relocation) or finding similar others (selection).
.
— Stereotypes associated with bisexuality include promiscuity, indecisiveness, attention seeking, and untrustworthiness (Eisner, 2013; Mohr & Israel, 2004; Morrison et al., 2010). Such negative stereotypes make bisexual women unwelcome and yet fetishized among monosexual gay and lesbian circles as well as by heterosexual people (Flanders et al., 2015; Lehavot et al., 2009). [Such binegativity] may deter identity disclosure (Li et al., 2013; McLean, 2008).
Bisexual women are assumed to eventually choose men over women (Taylor, 2016) …half-White Multiracials are assumed to eventually choose a White lover.
“Passing” as a term and a concept is potentially problematic, as it positions the person as deceptive and duplicitous; a person falsely claiming membership to a socially privileged identity (Billard, 2018). [At the same time, straight-presenting may protect bisexuals] from discrimination and violence (Frost, 2011) and has been reported as a tactic employed by bisexual women (McClelland et al., 2016).
Microaggression of Mislabeling
Racial mislabeling and invalidation from others have been noted as stressors for Multiracial people in past research, negatively affecting self-esteem and mental health (Franco, Katz, & O’Brien, 2016; Townsend, Markus, & Bergsieker, 2009).
As a Multiracial, bisexual woman, Participant 22, expanded this narrative: “not straight enough, not gay enough, or not white enough, not Chinese enough” (bisexual woman, East Asian-White, age 23).
Participant 504 spoke of her passing in a positive light, saying that a life of code-switching (Cross, 2012; Frost, 2011) has enabled her to connect with others & detach from the concept of identity:
“Being bisexual & an Indian American has given me a unique perspective on multiple identities and the ability to adapt between both of them. I also think they have many parallels. For example, I am often code-switching between gay and straight spaces, and between Indian and American spaces. I think that this has been a challenge for me while growing up … but ultimately gives me a greater ability to empathize with minorities & has led me to challenge the idea of identity altogether and think about the ways that identity politics and hierarchies can be disrupted”
(Bisexual woman, Indian-American, age 24, ID 504).
Lack of heritage language increases invisibility
Language was a notable factor that interacted with the (in)visibility of these identity categories. Some participants discussed their inability to speak the language of their ethnoracial culture (i.e. their heritage language) and how this exacerbates stress and isolation.
According to De Vries (1990), the maintenance of heritage language is necessary for ethnic identity maintenance. Past research has indeed shown that people who have maintained their heritage language have a stronger sense of ethnic identity (Oh & Fuligni, 2010; Phinney, Romero, Nava, & Huang, 2001).
Research by Tsuda (2015) with 4th-generation Japanese American people who don’t speak Japanese revealed that language can be a contentious topic, and that they felt frustration when others assumed, based on their phenotypic appearance, that they could speak Japanese.
Shared language has been noted by gay Latino men as vehicle for connectedness to their community (Gray, Mendelsohn, & Omoto, 2015).
Participant 448, a bisexual nonbinary, East Asian person (age 23),
reported that not speaking their heritage language creates a barrier to participation with their ethnic community
and described this in addition to the barriers they already face as a bisexual nonbinary person in a seemingly heterosexual relationship.”
Multiracial Socialization
Ortiz, 2017
“1) Parents assess their children’s appearance based on how others will, or will not, racialize them;
2) When parents determine that their child will be viewed as a racial minority, they select a general non-race specific “minority” socialization; and
3) When parents determine their child will be viewed specifically as Black, they select a race-specific Black socialization that is further informed by the child’s gender.
Multiracial children not only have two distinct racial minority backgrounds that parents can teach them about, but they also have a third racial background — a Multiracial background — with which neither parent can relate. [As such,] the majority of the parents in this study did not focus on developing their child’s Multiracial identity.
While monoracial minority parents may be more prepared or more aware of the need to racially socialize their children based on each of their backgrounds, there is a 3rd dimension of their child’s racial being that needs to be attended to.”
Stokes et al., 2021
“Multiracial youth feel less supported by their parents than monoracial children (Lorenzo-Blanco et al., 2013; Schlabach, 2013).
Parent-Child relationships in Multiracial families can be supported by racial socialization — the ways that parents and children talk about the meaning and significance of race (Atkin & Jackson, 2020; Hughes et al., 2006; Wilt, 2011).
Soliz et al. (2009) found that Multiracial people felt closer to their parents if they openly talked about race and racial differences with them. The participants in that study also reported stronger parent–child relationships if they felt like their parents respected their mixed racial heritage, which aligns with the importance of cultural humility (e.g., respect for a person’s different cultural background) in Multiracial families (Franco & McElroy-Heltzel, 2019).
···
Multiracial people are inherently multiethnic (Helms & Talleyrand, 1997; Nishina & Witkow, 2020).”
Janet Xu et al., 2021 (2/3): The Feminization of Family Tree Keeping (Gospel)
— “Gender is associated with knowledge of mixed-race ancestry [because] women primarily take on the kin work of documenting and sharing family histories and have been shown to possess more knowledge about them than their male relatives (di Leonardo, 1987; Hackstaff, 2010; Nash, 2002).
…gendered channels of transmission, reinforced through the transmission of genealogical information from mothers to daughters (Brunsma, 2005; Padilla, 2006; Zack, 1994).
The feminization of family tree-keeping…
This part — Janet Xu et al., 2021 (3/3)
“The relative novelty of Asian — and to a lesser extent, Hispanic — mixture in the United States may subject Multiracial Americans with those origins to different racial classification logics and concomitant gender stereotypes. [Consistent with] Gullickson and Morning (2011), [we find] a meaningful divide rooted in U.S. demographic history between this newer mixedness [Asian & Hispanic] & [the older mixedness of] Black, White, or Indigenous multiracialism.
Rather than established classification shaped by early & legally enforced norms of “mulatto” (Black-White) hypodescent and “mixed-blood” (Indian-White) hyperdescent, the treatment of Asian and Hispanic mixture is less clear-cut and more emergent.
There is no part-Asian historical figure comparable to the (tragic) “mulatta” in the U.S. cultural imaginary, and the mestiza of yesteryear is not identical to the half-Latina of today (Bost, 2003; Joseph, 2013; Zackodnik, 2004).
— It is too soon to say what racial classification norms [(if any)] may form for Americans with mixed Asian or Hispanic ancestry.
Yet the distinction we find between their self-identification patterns and those of Americans with mixed African or Indigenous ancestry speaks to the existence of different multiracialisms, with distinct logics and experiences (Strmic-Pawl, 2016), grounded in the history of varied racialized groups’ incorporation in the United States.
— Our results suggest the Hispanic regime not only differs from the Black and Indigenous regimes but also differs somewhat from the Asian regime. Latinidad today is associated with both the oldest and the newest roots in North America, with both a very long and a very recent experience of racial mixture. This might help to explain why, for example, higher-generation Hispanic Multiracials have the lowest generational attrition in self-identification (whereas those in the Asian regime have the highest).”
Tribal Affiliation or Community Attachment — Carolyn Liebler, 2018
— “Among those who report an American Indian and/or Alaskan Native (AIAN) ethnoracial background, reporting a tribal affiliation is not guaranteed.
Tribal non-response is less common among monoracial respondents (29%) than Multiracial respondents (37%).
— There should be a clear separation between the concepts of race, ancestry, and tribal affiliation.
— People with AIAN ancestry deserve full inclusion in the benefits of census enumeration (e.g., allocated funds) & studies aimed at understanding or improving society.”
.
Racial Socialization — Atkin & Yoo, 2019
“Interestingly, several mothers seemed supportive when their Black-White daughters identified as Latina because of their racial ambiguity.
Racial-ethnic minority fathers were found to provide the most socialization messages, followed by racial-ethnic minority mothers, White mothers, Multiracial mothers, Multiracial fathers, and White fathers (Jackson et al., 2017).
Some of the mothers did express that they would be concerned if their children identified as White, because they knew this identity would be at odds with how society views their children. Some single mothers who did not share their child’s Black heritage identified their children with their own race (i.e., White, Mexican) instead of as Multiracial or Black (Harris et al., 2013).
Exposure to Extended Family & Neighborhood Diversity
One White mother also provided context to her decision to exclusively emphasize an Italian American identity with her daughter, saying that her family lived on the White side of town and her Black husband’s family did not have any close Black friends (O’Donoghue, 2005). Furthermore, their daughter spent a lot of time with her Italian grandparents and did not have much contact with her Black family.
In this example, the significant role of exposure to extended family and the racial composition of one’s neighborhood and community in shaping racial-ethnic identity are illustrated.
Ignore Black-White
Future research needs to address the experiences of other understudied mixed race groups besides Black-White individuals, as racial combinations such as Asian-White Multiracials are equally large and growing populations in the United States (Jones & Bullock, 2010). Furthermore, future research needs to be intentional in including interminority Multiracial groups who do not have White heritage.
There are most certainly Multiracial youth with divorced parents, and the consequences this can have for their racial-ethnic socialization experience is arguably more severe given Multiracial youth could potentially have decreased exposure if not lose all contact with one side of their racial heritage should their parents get divorced. [As such, research should] involve families in which the race of the caregivers [don’t partially genetically overlap with] the Multiracial child, potentially leading to a mismatch in racial heritages.
In other cases, the biological parents of a Multiracial child may never have been married or lived together with the child in the first place.
Jackson et al. (2017) also found a theme of White majority socialization, characterized by parents insisting that their children adhere to White American culture, praising White appearance and White beauty standards (e.g., light skin, blonde hair), and holding up White identity as superior.
Interestingly, these messages were most commonly from Mexican parents. One participant also reported that their Mexican mother hit them for speaking Spanish at school, while another recalled his Mexican father pressuring him to assimilate into White American culture (Jackson et al., 2017). Other examples of White majority socialization included telling their children to only socialize and date White people.
Those reporting less frequent ethnic socialization identified with their White heritage while those reporting the most frequent ethnic socialization identified with their ethnic minority heritage.”
Cultural Socialization — Roberto Villegas-Gold, 2016
White Heritage
Chong (2013) described practices which expose children to the cultural experiences of their White heritage, including traditional events and foods, and instilling pride in one’s White heritage.
Asian Heritage
Umana-Taylor, Bhanot, and Shin (2006) 25 found significant positive associations between family ethnic socialization and ethnic identity across Asian Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Salvadoran adolescents. Studies have found that children whose parents emphasize their ethnic group’s culture, history, and heritage report more knowledge about their ethnic group and more favorable ingroup attitudes (Knight, Bernal, Cota, Garza, & Ocampo, 1993; Marshall, 1995; Stevenson, 1995).
Asian Non-Hispanic
(and fixing Hispanic data collection by utilizing a single ethnoracial category)
The Census currently provides inaccurate counts of
— interracial couples (because Cuban male — Pakistani female couples aren’t counted as interracial)
— Multiracial individuals (because half Mexican — half Chinese individuals aren’t counted as Multiracial).
There was a proposal in 2017–2018 to update US data collection on Hispanic individuals in time for the 2020 census. It would’ve created a new category for ethnoracial identity reflecting what we generally use in the social sciences — basically correcting the 2020 census so Hispanic would be included with all of the racial group options in a single ethnoracial category.
⬆️ This is the correction they wanted for the 2020 Census (full proposal here).
Unfortunately, the 2017–2020 White House failed to implement it before the 2020 Census. Hopefully this correction will be made before the 2030 Census.
.
Sidenotes
Interracial Preferences
“Interminority couples are more likely to form as a result of a panethnic dyadic identity borne out of shared experiences of marginalization than are interracial couples where at least one member has White heritage (Vasquez-Tokos, 2017).
Rodriguez et al., 2022
“Multiracials were more open to interracially dating any monoracial group than monoracials were to interracially dating each other.
In addition, Hispanic-White and East Asian-White Multiracials were more open to interracially dating White individuals than their respective monoracial in-group members, and East Asian-White Multiracials were more open to interracially dating all monoracial minority groups than monoracial East Asian participants.
Finally, half-White Multiracials are more likely to be in partial-racial couples (e.g., former President of the United States Barack Obama is Black-White Multiracial and the former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, is Black) whereas interminority Multiracials are more likely to be in 100% interracial/non-overlapping couples (e.g., Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris is interminority Tamil Indian and Black whereas the Second Gentleman of the United States, Doug Emhoff, is White).”
Tarah Midy (2018)
As other groups are less willing to partner with Blacks than Blacks are willing to partner with them, it is suggestive that higher status groups are less willing to date or marry partners who may be perceived to be in a lower racial status group (Hwang, 2013).
Whites tend to be more opposed to a close family member marrying a Black person than an Asian person (Golebiowska, 2007). This is consistent with Whites having more positive stereotypes of Asians than Blacks or Hispanics (Charles, 2006).
Whites who dated interracially were most likely to choose Hispanics, followed by Asians and Blacks, while Hispanics were most likely to have chosen Whites, followed by Blacks and Asians (Fiebert, Kasdan & Karamol, 2000).
Fujino (1997) found that Whites and Asians who dated interracially were mostly likely to date Whites or other Asians, followed by Hispanics, and were least likely to date Blacks.
Interracial marriages patterns have similar findings, as Black and Whites are less likely to marry interracially than Asians and Hispanics with Whites (Harris and Ono, 2005).
Qian and Lichter (2007) found similar results with Whites being more likely to marry Asians and Hispanics than Blacks.
Interracial Courtship — Beenna Han, 2021
— “Asian man-White woman couples tended to perceive less patriarchal & more egalitarian marital power than monoracial Asian couples”
Marital Power = “the ability to make decisions affecting the life of the family” (Blood and Wolf, 1960).
Interracial Competition — Roxie Chuang et al., 2021
“Black American women might hold more negative attitudes toward Black male–White female couples compared to White male–Black female couples because the former is more common than the latter. Essentially, the greater prevalence of the first pairing means there is stronger competition to single Black men than to single Black women.
Similarly, Asian American men might hold more negative attitudes toward White male–Asian female couples compared to Asian male–White female couples because the former is more common than the latter, and Asian women marry outside their race more frequently than Asian men in the US. In other words, particular interracial couples might be seen by Black American women and Asian American men as increasing the competition for their groups’ potential same-race partners.”
Colorism & Multiracial Courtship
Hispanic-White are the most common interracial couples (Bialik, 2017), accounting for 42% of all interracial couples in the United States (Livingston & Brown, 2017).
Colorism is the “process of discrimination that privileges light-skinned people of color over their dark-skinned counterparts” (Hunter, 2007, p. 239).
“Both Latino Whites (Latinos with lighter complexions) and Latino non-Whites (Latinos with darker complexions) being found to marry non-Latino Whites (Qian & Cobas, 2004)” (Westlund, 2020).
Keon West, 2019
“Interracial romantic relationships in predominantly White countries is sometimes seen as the ultimate indicator of a low-prejudice society. Childs (2008, p. 2771) noted that, “In contemporary American society, Black-White couples are often heralded as a sign that racial barriers have disappeared.” Also in the US, Alba and Nee (2009, p. 90) claimed that “[interethnic marriage] is generally regarded, with justification, as the litmus test of assimilation. A high rate of intermarriage signals that the social distance between the groups involved is small.”
Online Dating — Hergovich & Ortega, 2018
“We used to marry people to whom we were somehow connected. Since we were more connected to people similar to us, we were also likely to marry someone from our own race. However, online dating has changed this pattern; people who meet online tend to be complete strangers.
We find that social integration occurs rapidly when a society benefits from new connections. State-level data on interracial marriage and broadband adoption (a proxy for online dating) suggests that this integration process is significant and ongoing.
Interracial marriage in the US has increased since 1970, but it remains rare (Arrow, 1998; Kalmijn, 1998; Fryer, 2007; Furtado, 2015; Chiappori, Oreffice and Quintana-Domeque, 2016), & occurs far less frequently than interfaith marriages (Qian, 1997).
Shantel Buggs, 2019
Being a non-Black Multiracial dater has been found to be consistent with a preference for White partners (Littlejohn, 2019; McGrath et al., 2016).
Specifically, some self-identified Multiracial groups (Black/Whites, American Indian/Whites, and Asian/Whites) have a greater likelihood of being married to Whites, perhaps signifying that mixed-White Multiracials may be in the process of assimilating into whiteness (Miyawaki, 2015).
Multiracial Women Vet Potential Lovers — Buggs, 2017
Buggs (2017) found the combination of socialization, cultural capital, and skin color privilege to be informative in terms of how some mixed‐race women utilize certain racial incidents in mainstream media (such as the Black Lives Matter movement) as a vetting tool to determine if their partners hold [desirable] political positions around race and gender that are desirable.
The burden of accounting for the racial politics of a given partner — particularly a White partner — was found to fall disproportionately on darker skinned and Black-[Multiracial] women (pp. 10–12).
Dividend Effect: Multiracial daters experience an increase in favorability in comparison to monoracial daters (Curington et al., 2015; Lewis, 2013; McGrath et al., 2016; Rodriguez et al., 2022; Rudder, 2014).
Feliciano (2016) notes how those who are perceived as racially ambiguous are placed in a Hispanic/Latino category, with darker skin tones categorized as Black.
Significant amounts of the research on mixed‐race identity have focused on women, likely due to [women’s] greater tendency to identify as mixed‐race and to perceive the “exotic” label as being applicable to them (Davenport, 2016).
Though a male mixed‐race individual whose racial identities are associated with so‐called undesirable stereotypes (being half‐Asian for instance, which is a feminized sexuality, or half‐Hispanic, which is perceived as misogynistic).
More research is needed that explores the role of phenotype as it impacts Multiracial desirability and whether this differs in any significant way from lighter-skinned people of color. This work should also include Multiracial people who are not part‐ White and who fall outside of stereotypical notions of multiraciality.
Many women described already having conversations about race with their friends and family, so those who did want to bring up race with dating partners often had prior preparation for how to talk about a contentious issue like race with someone they care for.
Multiracials serve as a form of safe diversity bringing “color into the frame without conflict” (Catherine Squires, 2014, p. 7).
As Reece (2016) argues, simply identifying as Multiracial can lead to being perceived as more attractive.
Waring (2013) argues that the exoticism attached to mixed‐race bodies is dependent upon how an individual’s phenotype manages to blur racial categorization.
Interracial Home Ownership — Seong-kya Ha et al., 2002
— How tolerant people are of living in small spaces depends on cultural factors. Asians tend to be more tolerant of living in small spaces than Americans (Myers et al., 1996).
— Korean women in interracial marriages with White husbands are less likely to live in overcrowded houses (2.5%) than Korean women in intraracial marriages with Korean men (54.2%).
— “Homeownership is the most symbolic indicator for achieving the American dream.” Korean women with White husbands are more likely to own a home (64.18%) than Korean women with Korean husbands (48.78%). “…interracial marriage plays a positive role in attaining homeownership”
— In 1990, about 5.46% of Korean American men married interracially compared to 33.74% of Korean American women, consistent with other research (Kitano et al., 1984; Liang and Ito, 1999).
— “Liang & Ito (1999) argue that the gendered pattern is caused by the war-bride phenomenon, i.e., the fascination of American men, especially white men, for East Asian femininity, and the negative image of Asian men in the media.”
Interminority Allyship (article coming soon)
“Allyship” was Dictionary.com’s 2021 Word of the Year — with a focus on vertical allyship, though horizontal allyship is increasingly ne️eded
Horizontal Allyship = minority-to-minority allyship (what we need more of)
Vertical Allyship = White-to-minority allyship (what we usually discuss)
American minorities have more positive interracial attitudes towards White Americans than towards other minority groups (Craig & Richeson, 2012).
“Members of minority groups have often been found to report negative attitudes toward other minorities (e.g., Cummings & Lambert, 1997; Verkuyten, 2007; White & Langer, 1999).
United States v. Thind (1923) — Erika Lee, 2023
Pre-1923, South Asian immigrants were able to naturalize whereas all other “Asian immigrants had already been barred from naturalized citizenship on the grounds that they were not “White” as required by the nation’s naturalization laws dating back to 1790. It would not be until the Supreme Court ruled in the Thind Decision, on February 19, 1923, that South Asians were not considered “White.”
The Thind decision dealt a devastating blow to all South Asians in the United States, especially those who had become naturalized citizens” as many Indian immigrants who had become naturalized citizens were de-naturalized.
The Thind Decision (1923) represents the “U.S. government’s attempt to go after the rights of groups believed to be a threat to White supremacy by claiming that those rights had been “illegally” obtained in the first place. This denaturalization campaign, likely the U.S. government’s first large-scale denaturalization effort, must be viewed alongside the racist land laws limiting the rights of Asian immigrants to purchase or lease land and Jim Crow legislation” against non-White US residents (Lee, 2023).
UC-Wide Mixed Mixer of 2023 (February 16)
An event in which all the Mixed Student Unions get together (started it during the first Zoom year)
Mixed Student Union at UCSD
For Future Articles
Brazilian-Japanese in Japan — Zelideth Rivas, 2015
“Linda SanSei, “comprised of five third-generation, mixed-race Japanese Brazilian schoolgirls who live in the predominantly Brazilian town of Oizumi, Gunma in Japan, this group epitomizes the mixture of Japan’s multiculturalism: the success of this group emphasizes diversity in a manner that highlights a performance of proximity and distance: the group sings in Japanese, linguistically claiming Japaneseness while speaking in Portuguese and dancing samba to bring attention to their Brazilianness. This multicultural performance of identity disavows past depictions of Japanese homogeneity by privileging the mixed-race body in its search for socio-economic mobility.
Linda Sansei’s very presence highlights the changing demographics of Japan’s population, one in which the mixed-race body emerges from the shadow-space of national narratives that privilege ‘pure Japanese’ bodies. Their body, therefore, becomes a site of playfulness to usurp the gaze of those who wish to consume multiculturalism by becoming something that is both local Japanese and global Brazilian; kin and Other; and proximal and distal.
The ‘Brazilian Rhyme’ video opens with the girls peeking out from behind soccer balls and revealing green and yellow soccer jerseys, such as those worn by Brazilian fans; the back of the jersey is blue, suggesting they cheer not only for Brazil but also Japan.
This multiculturalism is a ‘boutique multiculturalism’, described by Fish (1997, 378) as ‘characterized by its superficial or cosmetic relationship to the objects of its affection’. Japanese Brazilian females market ‘boutique multiculturalism’ because they can profit off of their ‘pure Japanese’ fans’ consumption. This suggests that the self-commodification of mixed-race bodies undermines the struggle for their inclusion into Japanese national narratives, as exemplified by the March 2015 controversy of Miss Universe Japan.
Multiracials’ Global Identities
Young, Multiracial Japanese Brazilian women are especially in demand because they visibly perform local Japanese, as well as global identities. Model Karen Ogata says, ‘Depending on the job, I can “be” really foreign. But I can also “be” very Japanese when I want to’ (Yamamoto, 2010).
Hafū personalities in Japanese media typically exemplify European and US American desires, emphasizing English language skills (Becky Official Web Site, 2015).
Fans recognize the models’ identity performance as being both local and global, consuming spaces that celebrate and desire multiculturalism as a means through which to access the economic exchanges encouraged by globalization.
B-Pop
.B-pop is ‘pop made “a lá” K-pop’, and alternates lyrics between languages (oftentimes English and Portuguese) (Putzilla, 2013). Taking its cue from K-pop and J-pop, B-pop emphasizes that the idol is the product, produced by companies to maintain a certain image and sell records.
In Japan, Linda Sansei combines Japanese, Portuguese, and English lyrics while dancing samba alongside funk and hip hop ‘with the goal of creating a truly bi-cultural hi’ (DFR Asia 2014). The multilingual, multicultural platform that the group uses emphasizes globalization more than Multiracial identity.
Multiracial Commodification
The word san in the group represents three. The inclusion of this number forces the audience to stop and reflect how this could be read,
‘mobiliz[ing] an identity at the same time that it confirms its fundamental alterability’ (Butler, 1993, p. 208).
The use of Portuguese exoticizes the girls’ lyrics,
branding their song as something only they can market.
The lyrics make the girls into commodified, cosmopolitan, multicultural, and global desired objects more explicitly by including English, the most global of languages.
Here, English is not a part of the Multiracial Japanese Brazilian girls’ identity construction but, instead, points to a third identitarian category that elevates the girls from stereotypes of differentiated, lower-class children into a global, cosmopolitan category.”
Linda Sansei — “World Cup 2014" Music Video
.
Ainsley Lambert-Swain, 2023 (2/2)
Black employees engage a “working identity” by carefully contemplating and strategically deploying racial cues related to appearance, speech, social and political affiliations, and other racial signifiers in order to successfully navigate White workplaces (Carbado & Gulati, 2013). In doing so, Black employees attempt to manage Whites’ perceptions and signal a racial identity that is “palatable” to White employers — one that is Black, but not too Black.”
Multiracial Mental Health in Canada — Siddiqui et al., 2018
“Multiracial individuals can experience microaggressions within the family setting encompassing isolation, rejection, favoritism, questioning of authenticity, denial of Multiracial identity, and feelings of loss about not learning from family heritage or culture (Nadal et al., 2013).
Multiracial youth reported feeling less supported by parents and reported less satisfactory parent-adolescent relationships than was the case with monoracial youth (Lorenzo-Blanco et al., 2013). Multiracials may experience identity invalidation from family, peers, health providers, and the public. This occurs when their chosen identity is not accepted or doubted by those around them.
Rockquemore (2003) used the term “systematic invalidation” to refer to the cumulative impact that consistent denial by others of chosen identity may have on Multiracial individuals. Double rejection may occur where racism and rejection experienced by Multiracials from both or all their identity groups (Shih & Sanchez, 2005). Similarly, the absence of a natural peer group has been identified as a stressor for both adolescent and older adult Multiracials (Wong et al., 2012; Tashiro, 2012).
Hair Texture & Color, Skin Tone, Phenotype
Siddiqui (2011) pointed out a range of factors that involved in processes of racialization that influence Multiracials in complex and sometimes conflicting ways:
Physical traits
— skin color,
— hair texture and color,
— stature
Social Attributes
— languages spoken,
— geographical and social milieu,
— stereotyped beliefs about specific racial mixes.
[Each of these aspects] plays a role in contributing both to Multiracials’ self-image and others’ response to them.
Further, the same dominant beauty norms that are applied to the bodies of monoracial individuals are applied to Multiracial people, to privilege thinness, youth, able-bodiedness, heterosexuality, and so forth (Haritaworn, 2009). Such emphasis on physical appearance may partially explain why Multiracial women may be more affected by eating disorders. Ivezaj found that the incidence of binge eating disorder was higher among Multiracial women compared to monoracial women (Ivezaj, 2010).
Multiracials also defy and disrupt racial stereotypes-such as stereotyped performance expectations, thus challenging racist power structures (Shih & Sanchez, 2005) [as they] often have nuanced and fluid understandings of racialization that challenge racism and deepen understanding of the socially constructed aspects of race and racial identity.”
Linguistic Racialization (Buggs, 2017; Chun & Lo, 2016; Funderburgs, 1995)
— Multiracials’ social identity may be assembled & reinforced via the cultural capital acquired through the knowledge of & fluency with one’s heritage language(s).
— Wasians are more likely to date someone East Asian if they speak an Asian language (44.4%) than if they are monolingual (31.3%) or (especially) if they speak a Hispanic language (0%), χ2(4, N = 78) = 14.06, p = .007. Moreover, the odds of dating someone White are higher for monolingual Wasians (52.1%) & those who speak a Hispanic language (50%) than for those who speak an Asian language (16.7%). Interestingly, the odds of dating someone Hispanic are higher for multilingual Wasians, whether they speak a Hispanic language (50%) or an Asian language (38.9%), than for monolingual Wasians (16.7%).
— LatinAsians are more likely to date someone East Asian if they speak an Asian language (100%), someone Hispanic if they speak a Hispanic language (70%), and someone White if they are monolingual (46.7%), χ2(4, N = 29) = 16.60, p = .002. Moreover, monolingual Latinasians are more likely to date someone Hispanic (13.3%) than those who spoke an Asian language (0%), and more likely to date someone East Asian (40%) than those who spoke a Hispanic language (10%).
Multiracial Bridges
The Role of Mutual Multiracial Friends in Cross-Race Friendships — Echols & Graham, 2020
“Our results suggest that Multiracial youth serve as social bridges for cross-race friendships.
Multiracial youth have positive intergroup attitudes [&] could function as social referents, facilitating the flow of important information (e.g., knowledge, attitudes) between members of different groups… potentially reducing the anxiety that monoracial peers often experience in intergroup settings (Brown & Hewstone, 2005).
A robust finding in the interracial friendship literature is that cross-race friendships are associated with better attitudes toward the racial groups to which cross-race friends belong (Davies et al., 2011).
In the interracial friendship literature, it is evident that Whites & Asians are most likely to befriend each other and that Black Americans are the least preferred friendship choice among those willing to cross racial boundaries (Chen & Graham, 2015; Doyle & Kao, 2007; Hamm et al., 2005).”
Open SoCal Lab Questions
Are monoracials with Wasian lovers more likely to have East Asian & White friends than monoracials dating unrelated monoracial groups?
Are monoracials with LatinAsian lovers more likely to have East Asian & Hispanic friends?
Are monoracials with Blasian lovers more likely to have East Asian & Black friends?
This may be another way to assess the bridge hypothesis
Bill of Rights for Interfaith People — Susan Katz Miller, 2009 (December 4)
I HAVE THE RIGHT…
— Not to justify my existence in this world.
— Not to keep the religions separate within me.
— Not to justify my religious legitimacy.
— Not to be responsible for people’s discomfort with my religious ambiguity.
I HAVE THE RIGHT…
— To identify myself differently than strangers expect me to identify.
— To identify myself differently than how my parents identify me.
— To identify myself differently than my brothers and sisters.
— To identify myself differently in different situations.
I HAVE THE RIGHT…
— To create a vocabulary to communicate about being interfaith.
— To change my identity over my lifetime–and more than once.
— To have loyalties and identification with more than one group of people.
— To freely choose whom I befriend and love.
(Adapted by Susan Katz Miller, with permission, from the Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Race, copyright Maria P.P. Root, PhD, 1993, 1994)
“博观而约取，厚积而薄发。”
— 《稼说送张琥》宋 苏轼
“Do a lot of reading then distill the wisdom for use; store up affluently then release little by little.”
— By Su Shi • Song Dynasty
Awesome Research Assistant: “Love that line! Little translation error tho.
薄 can mean thin in modern mandarin but it also meant short or quick in a traditional setting.
In the context a more accurate translation may be “then release all at once powerfully.”