Multiracials of Asian Heritage

Dr. Jarryd Willis PhD
48 min readMay 23, 2023

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Celebrating those with both Multiracial Heritage & Asian Heritage as part of Asian Heritage Month

About 17% of the US Asian population is Multiracial, with 57.65% of them being Wasian (half Asian — half White), about 17.65% of them being Latinasian (half-Asian — half-Hispanic), & 7% of them being Blasian (half-Asian — half-Black; predominantly Filipino women with Black men; Yamane, 2018).

About 13.10% of the US Black population is Multiracial, with 3.59% of them being Blasian (part-Asian — part-Black; 3.4% half-Asian) (Tamir, 2021).

About 62% of Wasians are 1st-generation Multiracials (no Multiracial parent), compared to 36% of Whitinos (half Hispanic — half White) & 27% of Blatinos (half Black — half Hispanic) (Janet Xu et al., 2021).

About 16.7% of Hispanic individuals are Multiracial, with about 79% of them being Whitino (Parker et al., 2015) & about 12% of them being Blatino (Lopez et al., 2022). In addition, about 67% of Hispanic adults count Hispanic as one of their racial backgrounds (Parker et al., 2015).

Wasian Multiracials — Atkin & Yoo, 2019

“More than half of the qualitative Multiracial research is focused on

Black-White Multiracials who only account for 20% of the Multiracial population

according to the 2010 US Census (Jackson et al., 2017, Jones and Bullock, 2010).

Meanwhile,

zero qualitative studies are dedicated to examining Asian-White mixed race individuals, who account for 18% of the Multiracial population,

or

American Indian/Alaska Native-White Multiracial individuals, who account for 16% of the Multiracial population.”

Multiracial Marriages — Alba, 2021

Over 70% of Wasian women (64% of Wasian men) have White spouses. About 60% of Whitino women (and 57% of Whitino men) have White spouses, and about 30% have a monoracial or Multiracial Hispanic spouse. About 33% of Black-White women (and 40% of Black-White men) have a White spouse.

Interracial Couples

Interracial marriages accounted for 15.1% of all new marriages in the USA in 2010,

& 70% of all interracial marriages involve a White spouse (Taylor et al., 2012).

Some interracial couples are more common than others (Brooks & Lynch, 2019).

Most are interracial couples are Hispanic-White & Asian-White couples

(Bonilla-Silva, 2001; Brooks, 2021; Brooks & Lynch, 2019; Rosenblatt et al., 1995; Taylor et al., 2006; Taylor et al., 2011; Taylor et al., 2010; Tucker & Mitchell-Kernan, 1990).

The rarest couples are Black-White, especially Black male-White female couples, & they confront the most criticism (Davidson, 1992; Rightler-McDaniels, 2014; Scott, 1987; Walker, 2005).

Interracial Couples — Brooks, 2021

“The most common interracial couple is Hispanic-White (42%), followed by Asian-White couples (15%),

Black-White couples (11%), Black-Hispanic couples (5%), & Asian-Hispanic couples (3%) (Livingston & Brown, 2017), [though Black-White remains] the most sensationalized and stigmatized of pairings.”

Asian-White Interracial Couples (SoCal Lab Data)

Among East Asian-White interracial couples, a significantly higher proportion of East Asian women had White boyfriends (85.8%) than East Asian men had White girlfriends (61.7%), χ2(1, N = 167) = 11.87, p < .001.

This is consistent with research indicating that East Asian woman — White man couples are more common than East Asian man — White woman couples (Chen & Liu, 2021; Cheng & Choo, 2015; Ding & Xu, 2015; Farrer, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014; Hu, 2016; Hyun-joo Lim, 2018; Kitano et al., 1984; Liang and Ito, 1999; Liu, 2017; Min, 1993; Nehring & Wang, 2016; Pan, 2015; Seong-kya Ha, 2002; Wang, 2015, 2019; Zurndorfer, 2018).

— Asian men have consistently been portrayed as asexual or sexually unattractive (Han, 2008; Nemoto, 2009).

— Asian women have traditionally been portrayed as hyperfeminine and hypersexual, that is to say, sexually available (Koshy, 2004; Shimizu, 2007).

Table of Contents

Ann Curry (Wasian: Japanese-White)
· Shadow & Bone (Netflix)
Chandreyee Ray, 2021 (Vogue — May 5)
· Ginny & Georgia (and Norah) (also Netflix)
Chloe Bennett (Wasian) — ∘ Nicki Minaj (Blasian)

· Interminority Multiracials: Latinasian & Blasian
· Latinasian — Thananopavarn, 2015
· Blasian Women — Kalya Castillo, 2022

· Multiracial Asian Identity — Erika Gutierrez et al., 2022
The E-Word (Microaggressions)
· 불꽃으로 — Hannah Stohry, 2022

Wasian Labor Market — Yamane, 2018
Zhang et al., 2021
Adopting a Western Nickname — ∘ Social Utilitarianism
Marital Last Name Change & Identity Appropriation

Senator Tammy Duckworth (Wasian: Thai-White)
🏈· Superbowl MVP Hines Ward (Blasian) — Museus et al., 2011
⚾· Yu Darvish

AAPI Meaning — Samantha Vincenty, 2022 (April 28 — Oprah Daily)

· Name Discrimination & Games: Life is Strange🎮
Asian Heritage Month & GamerGirl (Ada Duan & XBox, 2022)
Anna May Wong Doll (by Barbie)
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Related Articles

· Asian Women’s Interracial Marriages — Mishra, 2018
Asian American Hypergamy & Interracial Eurogamy
Korean Wife & White Husband — Seong-kya Ha et al., 2002
Japanese-British Couples — Sonia Wilson, 2021
· Asian Interminority Marriage (1924–1933) — Allison Varzally, 2003
Interracial Marriages in AZ — Sal Acosta, 2014

· Conception Marriage — Li & Rizzi, 2017

· Waves of Immigration
Immigration Generations
· USA Demographic History
1840s

· Indian Immigration & Naturalization
1st Wave — ∘ 2nd Wave — ∘ 3rd Wave
South Asian Indian Immigration & The Thind Decision — Feb 19, 1923
· US v. Thind (1923) — Erika Lee, 2023 (February 19)
· The Gilded Cage — SAADA, 2020 (May 28)
· East Asian & South Asian

· Multilingual Immigrants
· Bilingual Womanhood in Korea — Sohn & Kang, 2020
Foreign Mothers’ Linguistic Commodification in Globalization’s NeoLiberal Marketplace
· Multicultural Students — Lee Jin Choi, 2021
Nationalism — ∘ Globalization — ∘ Mixed-Korean Students
· Language Brokers & Intl’ Students — Liu, 2009 (1/2)
Language Barriers
· Marriage Migrants in Korea & Japan — Zeljana Zmire, 2022

Ethnogenesis in New Zealand — Wasana Handapangoda, 2015
Cross-Cultural Experience — Pidduck et al., 2020
Hukou in China — Rural/ Urban/ Suburban (Liu et al., 2017)

· ImagiNation — The Infinite Nation(Ocean Vuong, 2023)
Elaine Chou, 2022 (3.24 — Tweet)

The Model Minority Myth (Kim Saira)
· Asian Americans & Air Injustice — Grineski et al., 2017
· Face & Mental Health Stigma — Liu, 2009 (2/2)

· Sidenotes
Collectivism & Individualism — Choi et al., 2015
DNA🧬 + Environemnt = Personality — Tychmanowicz et al., 2021
Black-Mexican Interracial Marriage (Pre-Loving) — Fox, 2012
· African & Chinese Martial Arts

· Asian Ethnic Groups in the US — Van C. Tran et al., 2019
· SoCal Lab Data On Multiracial Athletes

· Unrelated Sidenotes
Social Media
Controllability of Mate Preference Traits — Laura Botzet (Tweets)
Howdy 🤠 — Regions of the US

· UC-Wide Mixed Mixer
Cosmetic Surgery — Wu et al., 2022

Ann Curry (Wasian: Japanese-White)

“If you’re of mixed race in this country, it’s hard to embrace the idea of being beautiful. [But] what I love about how I look today is that so many people from all different races think I’m part of their group.”
@AnnCurry, @People Magazine (1998).

Shadow & Bone (Netflix)

Most couples in #ShadowAndBone are interracial 💘

— Alina Starkov (half Asian-half White Multiracial; Wasian) & Malyen (Mixed with Indian Heritage)
— Wylan (White) & Jesper (half Black-half White Multiracial)
— Nadia (Black) & Tamar (Wasian)
— Inej (Indian) & Kaz (White)
— Genya & David [Interethnic couple]

https://twitter.com/DrJarryd/status/1640847800236904448?s=20

Chandreyee Ray, 2021 (Vogue — May 5)

“Jessie Mei Li of #ShadowAndBone was “Born in Brighton to a Chinese father and an English mother, she craves a deeper connection to her heritage.

“I’m not as in touch with my Chinese heritage as I’d like to be. My dad came here when he was a teenager for school, and because of the bullying he experienced, he became the most English gentleman. Similarly for me, having grown up in the UK and having gone to school in a predominantly white area, I was always the Asian one, the Chinese one, but I don’t have ties to Hong Kong in the way that I would want to.”

Li’s backstory is strikingly similar to Starkov’s. The commonalities in their respective relationships with their heritage immediately stand out.

“Alina is half Ravkan and half Shu.”

I was lucky in the way that Alina is written because the character feels so real to me. For example, if Alina were to meet someone from her mother’s home country, she wouldn’t know what to say, she wouldn’t be able to speak the language. Little things like those resonate with me, so it was super easy to step into her shoes.”

Ginny & Georgia (and Norah) (also Netflix)

Norah is Filipino & White Multiracial
Maxine is White
Ginny is Black & White Multiracial

All 3 of them share a White ethnoracial background.

So whose perception of their social circle would rate it the highest on diversity?

Also, it’s unfortunate that Norah’s character doesn’t have more development as it’d be interesting to see how she relates her Multiracial experience to Ginny’s.

From Left to Right: Maxine, Ginny, Norah

Interminority Multiracials: Latinasian & Blasian

Interminority Multiracials “have uniquely different racialized experiences to part-White Multiracials in the United States.

San Diego has the 2nd-largest enclave of Filipinxs worldwide and Mexicans constitute the largest group of Latinxs in San Diego” (Kandamby, 2023).

Latinasian — Thananopavarn, 2015

“María DeGuzmán (2005) coined the term “Latinasia”

to describe the “enormous influx of Asian immigrants and the movement of Latina/o peoples across the Americas, south to north and west to east” over the course of the last three centuries.

It is another way of rethinking the border, opening up the idea of borderlands to encompass not only the U.S.-Mexico border but also the East-West border that separates the Americas from Asia.”

California has the largest Latinasian population in the United States (Mejia et al., 2022),

with San Diego being home to the second largest population of Filipino Latinasians in the world (Guevarra, 2012).

Blasian Women — Kalya Castillo, 2022

“…dual-minority [Mult]iracial individuals, or individuals whose parents’ racial backgrounds are from two different minority ethnic groups (Tamai, 2017).

[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).

Chindian (Chinese-Indian) Multiracials

— Interracial Chinese-Indian marriages are common in West Malaysia (Reddy & Selvanathan, 2020) & Multiracial individuals of Chinese & Indian heritage have adopted the term Chindian (Reddy, 2012).

Multiracial Asian Identity — Erika Gutierrez et al., 2022

An example of fusion/amalgamation which is where racial or ethnic groups combine to form a new group, is the case of “Hapas”, or those that have one Asian parent and one non-Asian parent.

Traditionally, Multiracial Asian Americans, like many other Multiracial individuals, have been looked upon with curiosity and/or suspicion by the both sides of their ancestry and the rest of society.

Multiracial Asian Americans report the most happiness and the least stress when they create their own unique racial/ethnic identities that combine all of their ancestries.

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 monoracial groups. As it turns out,

monoracial 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, monoracial Asian Americans and Multiracial Americans share a common process of actively shaping their identities through combining elements from diverse cultures which can help these communities connect with one other and bridge cultural differences.”

The E-Word (Microaggressions)

It’s important to avoid using the E-word (‘exotic’) in reference to Multiracial individuals.

불꽃으로 — Hannah Stohry, 2022

— Sundown towns were White towns where there were (un)spoken rules that minorities were in danger for their lives in those towns after the sun went down (Loewen, 2018).

— Too often we are asked to dis-embody & dis-member to accommodate monoracial standards. I personally struggle to look around the room and experience group reference, or microaffirmations, where we are acknowledging one another (Solórzano & Huber, 2021).

Microaggressions & Monoracism

— Microaggressions are ‘‘brief & commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights & insults to the target person or group” (Sue et al., 2007, p. 273).

— Monoracism is “a social system of psychological inequality where people who don’t fit monoracial categories may be oppressed on systemic & interpersonal levels because of underlying assumptions & beliefs in singular, discrete racial categories” (Johnston & Nadal, 2010, p. 125).

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#Multiracial Erasure

— “Students who check more than one ethnicity are assigned a single ethnicity by the university. The university uses a mathematical algorithm to assign the students to the least-represented ethnicity among those that they check.

Wasian Labor Market — Yamane, 2018

Asian-White Multiracials (Wasians) have better labor market outcomes than Asian Americans. Moreover, there is no evidence of a glass ceiling for Wasians as there is for Asian Americans.

Contemporary mainstream Western ethnoracial discourse presumes that Asian Americans experience less social & economic hardship than other racial/ethnic minority groups (Brand, Hull, Park, & Willwerth, 1987; Cheng, 1997; Committee of 100, 2009; Gee, Ro, Shariff-Marco, & Chae, 2009; Sue & Okazaki, 1990; Wong & Halgin, 2006).

Zhang et al., 2021

Asians experience the most interminority prejudice. Asians are more likely to experience hate crimes by non-White offenders (25.5%) than Blacks (1%) or Hispanics (18.9%).

Adopting a Western Nickname

East & South Asian applicants “Americanized” their interests by adding outdoorsy activities like hiking, snowboarding, and kayaking that are common in white western culture.

One Asian applicant said she put her “very Chinese-sounding” name on her resume in her freshman year, but only got noticed after subbing in her American nickname later:

“Before I changed it, I didn’t really get any interviews, but after that I got interviews,” she said.

Some Asians covered up their race because they worried employers might be concerned about a possible language barrier.

“You can’t prove your English is good in a resume scan, but you can if you can get to the interview,” DeCelles says.”

Social Utilitarianism

Individuals’ socially utilitarian impression management tactics may confer sufficient social capital such that they succeed in

1 = elevating their favorability to a level that outweighs perceivers’ intergroup bias or
2 = neutralizing the risk of bias

Marital Last Name Change & Identity Appropriation

When scholars in interracial marriages consciously use their spouse’s last name to get ahead, get grants, & other opportunities typically reserved for scholars of their spouse’s ethnoracial background.

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Multiracial people are inherently multiethnic (Helms & Talleyrand, 1997; Nishina & Witkow, 2020).

Seider et al., 2023

— “More than 1 in 7 children born in the US today have parents from different racial or ethnic backgrounds (Alba et al., 2018) & multiethnic and #Multiracial youth represent the fastest-growing demographic in America (Csizmadia & Atkin, 2022).”

Senator Tammy Duckworth (Wasian: Thai-White)

“My mom is an immigrant and my dad and his family have served this nation in uniform since the Revolution.” (2016, October 27)

https://twitter.com/TammyDuckworth/status/791818739222274048
https://twitter.com/SenDuckworth/status/1653074853488992256?s=20

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“Plessy v. Ferguson (SCOTUS, 1896) served as the legal basis for segregation for half a century” (Street Law, 2019)

Superbowl MVP Hines Ward (Blasian: Korean-Black) — Museus et al., 2011

‘Hines Ward’s Korean mother chose to emigrate to the US because of her fear of the discrimination he would face as a Multiracial person in South Korea; however, their move to the US didn’t prevent Ward from experiencing mistreatment.’

‘Black kids teased me because I was Korean,
Korean kids teased me because I was Black
White kids teased me because I was Black & Korean’

— Hines Ward

“College administrators and faculty members should work together to make connections between courses that address racial issues and cocurricular racial dialogues on campus.

The participants suggest that the avoidance of racial issues on their campuses is, at least in part, a function of people’s desires to be seen as highly knowledgeable, culturally sophisticated, and racially enlightened.”

Yu Darvish

In honor of National Arab American Heritage Month, & as faculty advisor of UC San Diego’s Mixed Student Union @ UCSD, I’d like to highlight Yu Darvish (#Multiracial: Japanese-Iranian), star pitcher for the San Diego Padres ⚾

Born in Japan to a Japanese mom & Iranian dad, Yu has played Baseball in the US since 2012, recently won the 2023 World Baseball Championship with Japan in the Final against the US, and was back at San Diego Petco Park on April 4th pitching for the #Padres against Arizona.

Yu Darvish’s story exemplifies America’s cultural pluralism, & in recognizing his achievements we honor the rich cultural diversity that makes up the Arab community.

Josh Jacobs (Top Running Back in 2022)

— The NFL’s 2022 Rushing Leader is #Blasian running back Josh Jacobs

AAPI Meaning — Samantha Vincenty, 2022 (April 28 — Oprah Daily)

“In 1968, students of Asian heritage first coined the term Asian American

in Berkeley, CA, with the intent to unify their efforts for political and social recognition — and command respect.

“Historically, we’d been called racial slurs. This ability to name oneself was really important,” says Catherine Ceniza Choy, professor of ethnic studies at UC Berkeley, and the author of Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History.

AAPI stands for Asian American and Pacific Islander. The term is used to describe a diverse and fast-growing population of 23 million Americans that includes roughly 50 ethnic groups with roots in more than 40 countries.

Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month (or AAPIHM for short) was first created by Congress in 1992, & falls in May due to several historical milestones, including:
- the May 1843 arrival of the first Japanese immigrants,
- Chinese laborers’ enormous contributions to building the transcontinental railroad, which was finished in May 1869.

As summarized by the Asian Pacific Institute for Gender-Based Violence, the federal government defines the term AAPI to include “all people of Asian, Asian American, or Pacific Islander ancestry who trace their origins to the countries, states, jurisdictions and/or the diasporic communities of these geographic regions.”

As of 2000, “Asian” and “Pacific Islander” became two separate ethnoracial categories on the U.S. Census, replacing “Asian Pacific Islander.”

The Census Bureau identifies

Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (NHPI) as “a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.”

This map of Micronesian, Polynesian, and Melanesian groups, courtesy of L.A-based organization Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC), reflects who is considered Pacific Islander per federal guidelines.

Some Pacific Islander community leaders take issue with the term AAPI, however. “There are native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander scholars who think it’s really important to distinguish Pacific Islanders from Asian Americans, and to not lump these very diverse groups under some kind of pan-ethnic racial umbrella [potentially creating “a culturally flattening effect” that risks] the erasure of various individual ethnic groups, the diversity of languages and other parts the culture, and their different contemporary political issues,” Choy says.”

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Name Discrimination — Chowdhury et al., 2020

East Asian applicants who adopt Westernized names experience more success in majority White labor markets (Chowdhury et al., 2020).

Name Discrimination — Ooi, 2016

Multiracial Asian-White individuals with a Chinese father (Chinese last name) make 11% less than those with a Chinese mother (White last name).

“White women married to Asian men earn approximately 10% less than Asian women married to White men.”

Thus, White women marrying interracially may want to keep their last name to avoid hiring & wage discrimination due to taking the last name of her minority husband. Moreover, the minority husband may benefit from taking his White wife’s last name because John Smith will be paid more than John Ruiz Nguyen-Singh.

Name Discrimination & Games: Life is Strange🎮

In the videogame Life is Strange: True Colors, the parents of protagonist Alex Chen are Wendy Chen & John Chen. In reality, her parents’ names are Giang Chen & Jun Chen.

Superbly subtle point by Life is Strange to add that detail to Alex’s parents.

Asian Heritage Month & GamerGirl (Ada Duan & XBox, 2022)

“Why does increased API representation matter? Nearly half of the 3B+ gamers on the planet are in Asia (Nestor Gilbert, 2022). When it comes to gaming, the Asian and Pacific Islander community is influential, playing an impactful role as players, creators, and spectators. Asian American households own more video game-related products than the entire US population (Nielsen, 2020).”

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Gilbert, 2022

“The global games market had $159.3 billion in revenues for 2020, almost half of which came from the Asia Pacific market.”

Nielsen, 2020

“As early adopters of technology, Asian Americans are more digitally connected and trying new platforms and services, making them a valuable audience segment to content creators and distributors alike. Asian influence is also particularly strong in the U.S. gaming industry, which is experiencing exponential growth as so many Americans are sheltered in place, hungry for sports and entertainment. The U.S. saw a 45% increase in time spent playing video games over a week in late March 2020 when most of the country was shut down.”

Anna May Wong Doll (by Barbie)

“Anna May Wong is considered the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood, the Mint explained. Born in Los Angeles in 1905, Wong, who was born Wong Liu Tsong, was one of seven children, and her parents owned a laundry outside of Los Angeles’ Chinatown, according to the New York Historical Society. She started acting in her teens and quickly became a big star, with roles in movies, TV, and theater.

Wong adopted a glamorous flapper lifestyle in her adult life and broke all kinds of barriers as both a woman and an Asian American. She was even featured in one of the first movies made in Technicolor and was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, just before her death in 1961” (Korin Miller, 2022, October 19 — Women’s Health Mag).

“In 1935, Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role of the Chinese character O-Lan in the film version of Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth. MGM instead cast Luise Rainer to play the leading role in yellowface. One biographer believes that the choice was due to the Hays Code anti-miscegenation rules requiring the wife of a White actor, Paul Muni (ironically playing a Chinese character in yellowface) to be played by a White actress. But the 1930–1934 Hays Code of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America insisted only that “miscegenation (sex relationship between the White and Black races) was forbidden” and said nothing about other interracial marriages. No mention is made of miscegenation between Whites and any race other than Black Americans” (Wikipedia).

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a41711011/who-is-anna-may-wong-asian-american-quarter/

Asian Women’s Interracial Marriages — Mishra, 2018

Mate selection processes also affect the socioeconomic status of Asian American women as reflected in traditional patterns of upward marriage mobility (i.e., women tend to marry partners with similar or higher socioeconomic status than themselves) and the continuing tendency for women to assume the socioeconomic status of their husbands (Blackwell & Lichter, 2004; Fu & Heaton, 2000).

As early as 1785…

As early as 1785, we see the arrival of Asians in America (Perrault, 2008).

Though historically the discriminatory Acts such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882; the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1908; the National Origin Quota Act of 1921, and the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 restricted the entry of Asian Americans in the United States. It was only post 1965 when such laws were abolished that enabled Asians to immigrate more freely to the United States. Since then, they have been arriving in unprecedented numbers from 1.5 million in 1970 to almost 13 million Asian Americans in the year 2000 (Okamoto, 2007).

The new-age Asian American woman is therefore, in order to embrace the “Americanized” within themselves, becoming the new customer force in America. They embrace new products, trends, and experiences easily, unlike other counterparts. Differing from multicultural, which refers to a society that contains several cultural or ethnic groups, Asian American women are intercultural, which describes a deep understanding and affinity for all cultures (Holland, 2017). With 26% of Asian American women marrying outside the Asian community, they are creating biracial families and showing new preferences for what they eat, watch on TV, and how they use technology (“Asian American Women,” 2017).

Some of the reasons that are listed by Asian American women for dating: White men exclusively are due to their height, attitude, culture, and the fact that American men are more expressive (Kim, 2013). The physical attributes of Caucasian and Asian are very different from each other. Asian American women guided by media and common assumptions that Euro-Americans are superior, also see such interracial coupling as a means of immediately losing their minority status. Such interracial couples’ children would consequently get the superior color and features (White skin, blue eyes, light hair, etc.).

As pertains to Asian American women, there might be a considerable role of Western popular culture operating in the portrayal of Asian women as feminine and exotic, traits that may enhance their attractiveness as partners for non-Asian men (Mullings, 1994). From the stereotype of sexual or domesticated image (Chan, 1988; Kitano & Chai, 1982; Louie, 1993; Okazaki, 1998; Ranard & Gilzow, 1989; Ratliff, Moon, & Bonacci, 1978) to a more masculine images of Asian American women, the cultural categories themselves may change over time (Espiritu, 1997).

About 36% of newlywed Asian women in 2015 married interracially, compared with 21% of newlywed Asian men (Passel, Wang, & Taylor, 2010). The White and Asian spouse marriage rate was 15% which is the second-largest interracial marriage rate (after Hispanic and White couples) for the given year (Livingston & Brown, 2017).

Asian American Hypergamy & Interracial Eurogamy

In the 1980’s, Japanese Americans held the highest rate of exogamy, which was 34.2% for both male and female Asians, & 77.7% married White Americans.
In 1990, the total exogamous rate of Japanese Americans was 25.6% (64.9% with White Americans).

Similarly, in 1980, 31.8% of Korean Americans married interracially, with 79.3% marrying White Americans.
However, in 1990, only 6.5% of Korean Americans married interracially, with 67.9% marrying White Americans.

In 1980, 30% of Filipino American men & women married interracially, with 74.8% marrying White Americans.
By 1990, 18.9% of Filipinos married interracially, with 61% marrying White Americans.

In 1980, 19.8% of Vietnamese Americans 19.8% married interracially, with 84.4% marrying White Americans.
In 1990, only 8% of Vietnamese Americans married interracially, with 47.2% marrying White Americans.

In 1980, 15.7% of Chinese Americans married interracially, with 66.5% marrying White Americans.
In 1990, 12.1% of Chinese Americans married interracially, with 53.7% marrying White Americans.

In the 1980s, 15.5% of Indian Asian Americans married interracially, with 86.8% marrying White Americans.
In 1990, 12.1% of Indian Americans married interracially, with 69.3% marrying White Americans.

Overall, “this clearly shows a pattern of eurogamy and both the genders are equally keen on choosing lighter skinned, European American partners for themselves.”

Korean Wife & White Husband — Seong-kya Ha et al., 2002

“Asians tend to be more tolerant of living in small spaces than Americans (Myers et al., 1996).”

Korean women with White husbands are less likely to live in overcrowded houses (2.5%) than those in monoracial marriages (54.2%).

Japanese-British Couples — Sonia Wilson, 2021

“Okita’s (2002) notable work on Japanese-English intermarried couples in the UK gives an authentic insight into the difficult and ‘invisible work’ of mothers trying to raise their children bilingually.

Mothers are more likely than fathers to give up full-time employment in order to provide childcare (Lyon, 1996; Okita, 2002). As in many sociolinguistic studies, most (86%) respondents were female, reflecting the traditional role of mothers as primary caregivers (Tannen, 2003).”

Asian Interminority Marriage (1924–1933) — Allison Varzally, 2003

“…minorities had strong incentives to select nonwhite rather than White partners. In fact, over 95% of Chinese intermarriages in Los Angeles between 1924 & 1933, 74% of Japanese, 93% of Black, and slightly fewer than 50% of Filipino were contracted with other non-Whites.

In fact, unlike Chinese and Japanese men who favored Asian women when selecting mates, Filipinos favored Mexicans. In Los Angeles County between 1924 and 1933, 26 of 29 (89.66%) chose Mexican brides & 3 East Asians (2 Japanese and 1 Chinese). Later studies confirmed the continuity of this preference.

“Bernicio Catapusan concluded in the early 1930s that “most of the Filipino mixed unions are Filipino-Mexican; some are Filipino-White, Filipino-Black, & Filipino-Black/White unions.”

A study based upon Los Angeles County marital licenses, concurred, indicating that 66% of Filipino men who married between 1949 and 1959 chose Mexican American women.”

“By 1933, further amendments had also blocked ‘Malays’ (Filipinos) & Japanese from legal unions with Whites (Pascoe, 1996; Naah, 1995; Yu, 1998, 2001).”

Interracial Marriages in southern Arizona from (1980–1930) — Sal Acosta, 2014

Groom listed first:

19 East Asian-Mexican,
5 Chinese-White,
4 Black-Mexican,
1 Mexican-Multiracial (LatinAsian)
1 White-LatinAsian

Nevada’s Marriage Ban — Deenesh Sohoni, 2007

‘In 1861, Nevada became the 1st of 14 states to ban interracial marriages between Whites & Asians (Pascoe, 1996).’

About 14–20 Filipino men per Filipino woman were allowed to immigrate.

Most Multiracials prior to Loving 1967 were interminority because

White Americans didn’t have the right to marry anyone who wasn’t White until 1967.

Conception Marriage — Li & Rizzi, 2017

— Since 2000, about 35–40% of all newlywed women in China have been pregnant on their wedding day. “The rise of conception marriage in Korea, Taiwan, and Malaysia reflects a shift away from arranged marriage towards marriage based on individual choice.”

Waves of Immigration

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Immigration Generations

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USA Demographic History

1840s

In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, concluding the Mexican War, extended U.S. citizenship to approximately 60,000 Mexican residents of the New Mexico Territory and 10,000 living in California. However, much like Texas, the Mexican government had encouraged immigration and settlement of these regions from groups in the United States and Europe.

In 1849, the California Gold Rush spurred significant immigration from Mexico, South America, China, Australia, Europe and caused a mass migration within the US, resulting in California gaining statehood in 1850, with a population of about 90,000.

Indian Immigration & Naturalization

Immigration literature references three main waves of South Asian migration to the United States (Kibria, 2007).

1st Wave

The first wave occurred in the 1920s with the arrival of Punjabi Sikh migrant workers. However, due to the enactment of a series of restrictive U.S. immigration laws, immigration from Asia largely ceased soon after for several decades.

2nd Wave

Then in 1965 with the passing of the Hart-Cellar Act, the second wave of South Asian immigrants arrived in the United States. Initially, this wave was characteristically Indian-born (but also Pakistani), male, highly educated, and with a professional background. Under the family unification policy, second-wave South Asian immigrants were able to sponsor their spouses, children, and siblings.

3rd Wave

The third wave began in the 1980s with the arrival of immigrants from other South Asian countries such as Bangladesh. This wave tended to have lower educational attainment than the earlier wave. As a result of the recent migration to the United States., a majority of Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis are foreign-born. Nonetheless, there is a growing second generation (parent(s) is foreign-born but their child is native-born) and the nascency of a third generation (both parent(s) and child are native-born) particularly for Indians and Pakistanis, who came in the 1960s and 1970s. Bangladeshis, on the other hand, are more likely to be foreign-born since most arrived after 1980 (Kibria, 2007).

South Asian Indian Immigration & The Thind Decision — February 19, 1923

Indian origin immigrants in employment category in #GCbacklog face wait time of 195 to 436 years (Congressional Research Service) to even become permanent residents, let alone citizens. De-facto Indian Exclusion Act.

It was on this day exactly 100 years ago that the Supreme Court unanimously decided to bar South Asians from becoming American citizens. As @prof_erikalee writes in a new essay, the Thind decision dealt “a devastating blow” to South Asians in the U.S.

US v. Thind (1923) — Erika Lee, 2023 (February 19)

“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).

The Gilded Cage — SAADA, 2020 (May 28)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9ylgBRIFrg

East Asian & South Asian

“South Asians experience more prejudice than East Asians in the United States (mostly phenotypic)” (Lu et al., 2020).

“Do not collapse South Asians with East Asian groups because South Asians often have very different experiences from East Asians” (Mishra, 2013).

Cultural Museumology

Immigrants retain preferred traditions/values from countries of origin (enculturation) & embrace preferred components of their new residence (acculturation) (Doane et al., 2017; Gonzales et al., 2012).

Multilinguals “use the languages at their disposal as a resource in communication” (Cenoz, 2013, p. 11). They “may not have equal or advanced proficiency in all” but usually have “receptive and/or productive skills in their heritage language & English” (Jiménez, 2023).

Multilingual Immigrants

About 55% of 2nd-generation children are bilingual compared to only 5% of children with only US-born parents (Urban Institute, 2017).

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Most Common Language Spoken in Each State (besides English & Spanish)

Bilingual Womanhood in Korea — Sohn & Kang, 2020

Damunhwa = foreign women married to Korean men (aka Foreign women)

NeoLiberalism

The government-devised life trajectory for foreign mothers also functions as a bilingual policy that mobilizes the multilingual competence of the mothers as a resource for national multilingualism.

The government plan also aims to mobilize foreign wives as bilingual instructors at public schools; by teaching their L1 to Korean students, the foreign mothers would prepare Koreans to compete in a globalized, multilingual world. In addition, in their role as foreign spokespersons, the women are expected to continuously monitor and promote desirable multicultural and multilingual behaviors in their communities through their volunteer work.

When foreign mothers are introduced as a means for national advancement, their linguistic and cultural resources are presented as opening the door for a new global connection and allowing the public to imagine Korea’s enhanced status in the new, globalizing world (Ricento, 2005). Therefore, for the Korean government, incorporating foreign mothers as bilingual agents not only contributes to maintaining the internal unity of Korean society and the family, but also ultimately facilitates Korea’s continuous evolution and preparation for its competitive global future.

Foreign Mothers’ Linguistic Commodification in Globalization’s NeoLiberal Marketplace

While much of the work on L1 of (female) migrants emphasizes unregulated or softly managed diversity by individuals (Lan, 2003; Pillar and Takahashi, 2010), private-sector organizations (Duchêne and Heller, 2012; Kraft, 2020), or NGOs (Hassemer 2020), the current study analyzes a case of explicit state management of linguistic diversity through linguistic entrepreneurship.

When the Korean government sends foreign mothers to teach students in public schools or community centers, it may be an attempt to construct a more sophisticated, global understanding of multilingualism and multiculturalism.

It is of great concern that the positions available to foreign mothers are underpaid, contract-based, part-time working arrangements with ambiguous responsibilities and tasks. Furthermore, their positions are continuously audited for the purpose of systematic screening of their teaching rather than improving their professional practices. This creates morally and emotionally-laden precarious subjectivity (Park, 2013, 2014), as the women are willing to sacrifice their time, labor, and emotion for a promise of stable employment that often goes unfulfilled.

Multicultural Students — Lee Jin Choi, 2021

With more than 2 million foreign residents and their children, Korea can no longer claim national and ethnic homogeneity. In fact, more and more scholars argue that Korea is now a multiethnic and multicultural society and needs to appreciate diversity as a social asset (Lee, 2012; Seol, 2007).

Nationalism

Korea has, in general, been looked at as a nation with historical homogeneity, where there is a high emphasis on the same-blood line, a common language, ethnic unity, & centuries of a common history. Indeed, the prevalent ideology of “our country, our language, our ethnicity” (ulinala, ulimal, & uliminjog) and the inherent nationalist discourses have served as a cornerstone for establishing the historical homogeneity of the Korean nation (Lee, 2009; Pai and Tangherlini, 1998; Shin et al., 1999).

Globalization

The landscape of language in Korea has changed dramatically in the last three decades because of the influx of marriage migrants and foreign workers. The estimated number of foreign-born residents in Korea, for example, is more than 2 million. This accounts for about 4.6% of the total population (Ministry of Justice, 2019). The growing number of immigrant and international marriages has led to the emergence of new linguistic minorities in Korea who have multicultural and multilingual backgrounds, and they challenge Korea’s long-lasting tradition of linguistic homogeneity and purity (Lee, 2012).

Mixed-Korean Students

The dropout rate of these students is about two times that of Korean students (Seoul Public News, 2019).

Among language minority students, 80.4% come from multicultural families resulting from international marriages. Most of these children are born in Korea and have a Korean father whose [L1] is Korean and a foreign-born mother who has a non-Korean [heritage] language.

The ethnic background of their foreign-born parents includes:

Vietnamese (29.1%),
Chinese (22.3%),
Filipinos (11.5%),
multiethnic Chinese-Korean (10.2%), and
Japanese (8.5%).

The educational gap between language minority students and mainstream students becomes greater in higher education, showing an attendance rate difference of 14.8%.
In addition, the dropout rate of language minority students in Korean middle schools is 2x the dropout rate of other students.

Language Brokers & Intl’ Students — Liu, 2009 (1/2)

Language Barriers

— Language barriers appear to be one of the most challenging issues for international students (Mori, 2000). In addition, Asian international students appear to have the greatest difficulty in the use of the English language among international students (AbuEin, 1993; Stafford, Marion, & Salter, 1980).

In Yeh and Inose’s study (2003), higher frequency of use, fluency level, and the degree to which participants felt comfortable speaking English, predicted lower levels of acculturative distress among international students. This finding is associated with the fact that higher English fluency indicates smoother interactions with majority group members (Hayes & Lin, 1994; Pedersen, 1991). Students with higher English fluency are able to more easily interact with people in new cultural settings, and this leads to greater feelings of adjustment. International students also may be less embarrassed and less self-conscious about their accent or ethnic background (Barratt & Huba, 1994).

— Higher levels of English language fluency also help international students perform at a higher level in some academic classes, because they may feel more comfortable in articulating their knowledge in classrooms and on essay exams or research papers (Kao & Gansneder, 1995; Lin & Yi, 1997). In contrast, low English language fluency is likely to affect international students’ academic performance, which in turn negatively affects their psychological well-being (Lin & Yi, 1997; Mori, 2000). Finally, international students with few English language skills might not be eligible for receiving teaching assistantships in universities because students complain about their foreign accents.”

Marriage Migrants in Korea & Japan — Zeljana Zmire, 2022

— Legal citizenship in both Korea and Japan is connected with family registry as well.

➡️ Since 1985 in Japan, women can technically become house heads in the registry; however, this is rarely exercised.
➡️ In 2001, this right was given to women in Korea.

In 1984, Japan’s legal reforms provided blood-right citizenship via mothers (Chung & kim, 2012).
In 1997, Korean legal reforms allowed blood-right citizenship via mothers (Chung & kim, 2012).

Ethnic Nationalism in Korea and Japan

Korean and Japanese national identities are commonly understood as ethnic.

Korean Nouveau-Riche Nationalism

Nouveau-riche nationalism is deeply embedded in beliefs in cultural/ideological supremacy & is often observed in rapidly developing nations that have undergone fast economic growth, which later serves as a source of pride in comparison with others (Han Gil-soo, 2016). Korea, after decades of remarkable economic growth, was accepted into the OECD (the club of the most developed nations) in 1996. Koreans have also witnessed globalization, and for the first time in history, foreign guest workers were coming in large numbers to earn a better income in Korea. This all served as a source of pride for many Koreans, but this pride in many cases was not benign.

Korean ethnic nationalism can also be seen as an answer to forceful Japanese assimilation & to maintain national consciousness as a [sovereign, independent] nation. To achieve this, nationalist scholars revived old traditions, Confucianism, Shamanism, Korean literature, and the script Hangul. According to Shin, this is the era in which the Tan’gun myth was conceived, [associated with] beliefs in ethnic homogeneity, pure-bloodedness, a sense of community-based on common ancestry, & a bloodline descended from a mythical founder, Tan’gun (Shin Gi-wook, 2006). This is also reflected in modern beliefs in a popular saying, “one blood, one nation.”

Japan

Similarly, the Japanese cherish a belief in Japanese uniqueness and ethnic/racial homogeneity. This belief has been widely embraced and maintained without serious challenges. [For example,] Lie (2001) explains that this belief is actually illogical. Japan possesses 3 historic minorities: the Ainu, Okinawans, and Burakumin. There are also postwar Koreans and Chinese who happen to live in Japan as a consequence of Japanese colonialism and World War II. Despite these facts, the Japanese government insists on the notion of a monoethnic, monocultural Japan and does not acknowledge the existence of minorities as different cultural groups.

Ethnogenesis in New Zealand — Wasana Handapangoda, 2015

“Ethnogenesis:
the creation of new identity borders that emerge from the experience of certain shared social and juridical conditions based on pre-existing factors such as skin colour and language (Feixa et al., 2010).

They displayed “selective assimilation” to the host society.

As Hamel (2009) writes, “Immigrants bring a wealth of culturally constructed ideologies with them into the target culture, where they are met by a different set of normative ways.”

Cross-Cultural Experience — Pidduck et al., 2020

“The greater the diversity of foreign cultural exposure one attains, the greater it expands scanning and search, association and connection, and evaluation and judgment schemata salient to the pursuit of new venture opportunities. Specifically, cross-cultural experience is associated with two key seizing capabilities in particular: rule-breaking and risk-taking.
Those who view formal rules and moral codes as culturally fluid and fundamentally subjective become more comfortable in thinking and acting at the edge of business norms.

Experiencing other cultures can be influential in developing action-oriented capabilities central to nascent entrepreneurship — the capacity for developing innovative opportunities.”

Hukou in China — Rural/ Urban/ Suburban (Liu et al., 2017)

The urban-rural divide has been recognized as one of the most important agents of social stratification in China (Hannum, Wang and Adams 2010; Knight and Song 1999).

A household registration (hukou) system was introduced in the PRC in 1958 and categorizes Chinese citizens as either ‘rural’ or ‘urban’: its original purpose was to control labor and limit the movement of people. Since the reforms of the 1980s, the hukou system has been less strictly enforced, allowing labour migration from the countryside to the cities. However, access to state welfare and government services is still determined by hukou status: regardless of their actual residence, rural hukou holders do not enjoy the same level of education, health care, pensions or other support available to those with urban hukou. As a result of this institutionalized segregation, significant socio-economic inequalities have emerged between core urban areas and their rural periphery demonstrating uneven paths to modernity (Liao and Wei 2012).
One consequence is that the income ratio between rural residents and urban residents has reached around 1:4 since the 1990s (Guo 2013).

The gap in educational aspirations between urban and rural residents is also considerable: a recent survey found that while 77.6% of urban children aspired to a college degree, only 58.7% of their rural peers expected to remain in education beyond high school (Chen, Yang, and Ren, 2015). In between urban and rural residents in present-day China are the new rural-urban economic migrants.

ImagiNation — The Infinite Nation

(Ocean Vuong, 2023)

“The imagiNation is the only Nation that I have absolute allegiance to. And it is the only Nation on this planet that will remain unstoppable.

Surviving itself is a creative act.

To the young Asian American makers and dreamers, I want to say this to you. You don’t have anything to prove. We are already proud of you.”
— Ocean Vuong, 2023 Apex for Youth Inspiration Award Honoree

As we kick off AAPI month, we celebrate the words of author and poet Ocean Vuong. Ocean’s acceptance speech last week at our 31st Inspiration Awards Gala truly touched the hearts of over 600 guests in attendance, inspiring us to imagine a world of limitless possibilities — not just for our youth, but for us all. Thank you, Ocean, for reminding us of the power of language.

To watch the rest of Ocean’s speech, visit: https://buff.ly/3FDBeQL

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7059616339962843137/https://apexforyouth.org/31st-inspiration-awards-gala/

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Brandon Ng (@kelticwai17) · Feb 6

My Asian American Psychology students are simply the best. Today we unpacked the model minority myth — how it is abjectly false, and its negative ramifications for Asian Americans. We talked about the pernicious nature of seemingly “positive” stereotypes and how to confront them.”

Lucy Liu & Kate Winslet — Devos & Ma, 2008

Even when conscious knowledge contradicts stereotypes (e.g., “I know that Lucy Liu is American, and Kate Winslet is not”), implicit associations still point to an American=White linkage (Devos & Banaji, 2005).

Elaine Chou, 2022 (3.24 — Tweet)

The Model Minority Myth (Kim Saira)

“The Model Minority Myth was created to directly wedge a divide between AAPI & Black communities, especially when AAPI & Black people were showing up for each other in solidarity” (Kim Saira).

“The MMM was originally coined in 1966 by sociologist William Petersen to explain how Japanese Americans were able to “overcome the discrimination against them” & “achieve success in the US.”

The 1960s-70s was a time for civil rights activism within the Asian American community. AAPI were calling for the end of the Vietnam War & reparations for Japanese Americans forced into intermittent camps during WWII.

During this same time, Black activism played a huge role in the AAPI civil rights movement, and vice versa. MLK spoke out against the Vietnam War in his speech, “Beyond Vietnam”, & a founding member of the Black Panther party, Richard Aoki, was Japanese American.

In short, the Model Minority Myth was created to directly wedge a divide between AAPI & Black communities, especially when AAPI & Black people were showing up for each other in solidarity.”

Asian Americans & Air Injustice — Grineski et al., 2017

“Chinese women face notably high rates of lung cancer, given their low rates of smoking (Torre et al., 2016).

Cancer is the leading cause of death for Asian Americans (CDC, 2010; Chen, 2005).

In 2009, President Obama signed an Executive Order on the Asian community, which included calling for strategies to improve the health of Asian Americans and to redress health disparities impacting them (Obama, 2009).

When Asians are examined, results indicate that they face higher risk from environmental health hazards than Whites (Clark et al., 2014; Cushing et al., 2015; Downey et al., 2008; Houston et al., 2014; Lievanos, 2015; McKelvey et al., 2007; Morello-Frosch and Jesdale, 2006; Payne-Sturges and Gee, 2006)

Cancer is the leading cause of death for Asian Americans (CDC, 2010; Chen, 2005), yet physicians recommend preventative cancer screenings to Asian patients at a lower rate than other groups, in part because of the model minority stereotype (Ibaraki et al., 2014).

Sze (2004) terms “the problem of Asian invisibility” (p. 155).

Face & Mental Health Stigma — Liu, 2009 (2/2)

— “European international students are significantly less likely to experience acculturative distress than are students from the geographic regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin/Central America (Yeh & Inose, 2003). [They posit] that this is because European students experience less acculturative distress associated with racism and discrimination than students from these other regions.

— The stigma of mental health illness, that is, losing face and embarrassment, may also prevent Chinese international students from seeking mental health services. These students may choose to keep their difficulties or emotional problems to themselves because they may imply personal failures, which actually only increases their vulnerability to depression (Heppner, et al., 2006).

Empirical studies have found that although prevalent in all cultures, stigma of mental health illness is much more severe among Asians than among White Europeans and Americans (Fogel & Ford, 2005; Furnham & Chan, 2004).

— Chinese international students report a variety of mental health and personal concerns related to social interaction and communication problems, social connectedness, social support, filial piety, language barriers, homesickness, and academic, financial, and other difficulties (Leong & Chou, 1996; Mallinckrodt & Leong, 1992; Mori, 2000; Pedersen, 1991; Yeh & Inose, 2002).

Sidenotes

Daughter Preference in China — Shi (2017)

— A daughter preference has emerged in rural China as parents believe they’ll be better carers in their elder years than sons.

Collectivism & Individualism — Choi et al., 2015

Individualism and collectivism represent the deep structure of cultural characteristics that differentiate Western and Eastern countries (Hofstede, 2001).

Collectivism & Individualism — Yang & Lie, 2020

“…the collectivism of Americans is group-based collectivism; the collectivism of East Asians is relational collectivism. East Asians are less concerned with group membership & more concerned about personal relationships within the group (Brewer & Chen, 1997).”

Collectivism & Individualism — Mooradian et al., 2022

Country-level collectivism is actually negatively related to unethical outcomes at the individual level (Chen et al. 2015; Cullen et al. 2004).

Collectivism & Individualism— Mcann, 2022

States with higher racial-ethnic diversity are less individualistic & more collectivistic. The 1965 passing of the Immigration & Naturalization Act increased immigrants from nonwhite & more collectivistic nations (e.g., Hofstede, 2021; Pew Research Center, 2020).

DNA🧬 + Environemnt = Personality — Tychmanowicz et al., 2021

Personality is formed via DNA (Caspi et al. 2005; Krueger & Johnson, 2010; Larsen & Buss, 2010; McCrae et al. 2000) & environment (Kamakura et al. 2007; Krueger & Johnson, 2010; Gosling & Vazire, 2002; Benet-Martínez & Oishi, 2010; Triandis & Suh, 2002).

Black-Mexican Interracial Marriage (Pre-Loving) — Fox, 2012

“In CA, county clerks sometimes refused to issue licenses to Mexicans & Blacks who wanted to marry but had no problem issuing such licenses to Mexicans & South Asians, even though CA’s miscegenation law prohibited marriages between Whites & Asians (Hollinger, 2003).”

“The darkest-skinned Mexican experiences almost the same restrictions as [Black Americans], while a person of medium-dark skin can enter a 2nd-class lunchroom but not a high-class hotel, while a cultured Mexican can, especially if he speaks English fluently” (Gamio, 1930, p. 53)

Fox & Guglielmo, 2012 #BlackHistoryMonth

— “Most Mexican children attended segregated schools, & as many as 25% attended no school at all — more than 4x the rate of White children.

— TX attempted to “desegregate” schools by combining Black & Mexican students while leaving White schools alone; some courts accepted this strategy (Foley, 2004; Gross, 2007).”

Slavery in Brazil — Nicolas Bourcier, 2012

— “Of the 9.5M people captured in Africa & brought to the New World between the 16th & 19th century, nearly 4M landed in Rio (Brazil), 10x more than all those sent to the US.

— Rio represented the largest urban concentration of slaves since the end of the Roman empire, more than 40% of the population, almost a complete city in irons. Brazil was the last American nation to abolish slavery, on May 13th, 1888.”

@queenie4rmnola, 2023

— “White people regularly sold Black body parts after lynchings as souvenirs. Not only did White Americans express anti-Black racism, but they also relished doing so, turning lynchings into mass celebrations, “bring the kids” type of events.”

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Asian Ethnic Groups in the US — Van C. Tran et al., 2019

“5 Asian groups comprise 83% of the Asian American population: Chinese, Indians, Filipinos, Vietnamese, and Koreans.

Unlike Latino immigration, in which Mexico predominates as the single largest source country, Asian immigration is not dominated by a single sending country. Rather, the top source countries — China, India, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Korea — account for 71% of the Asian immigrant population, and 83% of US Asian population.

Chinese, who have the longest migration history in the United States, account for the largest share of the US Asian population, totaling 4.9 million, or 25% (Pew Research Center 2017).
At 4.0 and 3.9 million, Indians and Filipinos are the second and third largest groups, respectively, each accounting for about 20% of the total Asian population.
Vietnamese and Koreans round out the top five, accounting for 2.0 and 1.9 million, respectively. Immigration has not only increased the Asian American population, but has also diversified it.

Prior to 1965, 80% of US Asians were East Asian, but today, they account for only 36% of the US Asian population. The recent growth in the US Asian population is driven primarily by South and Southeast Asians (Lee, Ramakrishnan, and Wong 2018).

Asian Americans comprise 6.4% of the US population, but account for over 20% of the country’s elite Ivy League students.”

SoCal Lab Data On Multiracial Athletes

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.

🏈 #SuperBowlLVII was the first with one Black quarterback & one #Multiracial Black-White quarterback.

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2 #SuperBowl wins in 4 years & 3 appearances in 4 years = #KansasCityChiefs #Dynasty

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East-Asian Multiracials’ parents were more likely to be married (84.4%) whereas non-East Asian Multiracials (69.9% married; 30.1% divorced), χ2(1, N = 318) = 9.29, p = .002.

Note that in this analysis we coded all non-East Asian Multiracial groups together, regardless of whether or not they were part-White. We treated East Asian subjects as the majority group & White subjects as one of the minority groups

Overall, we have n = 371 part-White Multiracials n = 302 part-East Asian Multiracials (205 overlap).

Multiracials with a Multiracial lover are more likely to be in partial-racial relationships (85.7%) than monoracials with a Multiracials lover (55.9%), χ2(1, N = 204) = 19.31, p < .001.

This isn’t surprising given that Multiracials have 2+ chances to match at least one of the identities of a Multiracial lover with 2+ identities. As such, it seems inaccurate to consider this a preference as opposed to a reflection of math.
GamerGirl — 04/13/2023 6:59 PM
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Among half-White Multiracials in partial-racial relationships, their lover is more likely to overlap with their White identity (67.3%) than their minority identity (32.7%), χ2(1, N = 153) = 18.46, p < .001.
GamerGirl — 04/13/2023 7:37 PM
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East-Asian Multiracials’ parents were more likely to be married (84.4%) whereas non-East Asian Multiracials (69.9% married; 30.1% divorced), χ2(1, N = 318) = 9.29, p = .002.

Monoracials are more likely to be in 100% interracial relationships (91.7%) than half-White Multiracials (25.2%) & interminority Multiracials (46.5%), χ2(6, N = 1191) = 583.92, p < .001. That is, when Multiracials date interracially, they are more likely than monoracials to date someone whose identity overlaps with one of their own.

Filipinos are significantly more likely to be monolingual (55.6%) than all other Asian groups (0% — 20%), χ2(6, N = 240) = 41.51, p < .001.

Unrelated Sidenotes

Social Media

“Research shows that 89% of young adults check their social media accounts at least once per day, & women check more frequently than men (Pew Research Center, 2018)” (Hyejung Park, 2020).

Controllability of Mate Preference Traits — Laura Botzet (Tweets)

Hamida et al., 1998 found that men selected partners on the basis of traits that are relatively uncontrollable (e.g., youth, attractiveness), whereas women selected partners on the basis of traits that are more controllable (e.g., status, industriousness).

We replicated this in a German sample in 2020 in a student’s project. But in both studies physical attractiveness was measured relatively broadly (e.g., facially attractive, physically strong,…) and no direct measure of preferred height was used (which es very uncontrollable).

Laura @laura_j_botzet et al., 2021

— “#Contraception has reduced the number of unwanted pregnancies and helped change women’s economic status (Goldin & Katz, 2002).

#ThePill has been called “the most important scientific advance of the 20th century” (Harris, 2010).”

William Costello (Tweets)

Women report experiencing unwanted advances earlier in life than men, worry about repercussions of rejecting advances (e.g., being yelled at) & use strategies (e.g., call friends) to ensure safety. Men more likely to remain friends with rejected person.

Of course. Haven’t read the full thing yet (busy morning). But did you find that women reported feigning romantic interest out of apprehension?

Lora Adair found some qualitative data to show this. What a calamity when we consider men’s over perception bias…

1-Sided Relationships — Jenn Granneman · Feb 8

“It’s easy for sensitive people to get caught up in one-sided relationships. We tend to give our all and put others’ needs before our own. It’s important to remember that in healthy relationships, both people make an effort and give. Don’t let yourself get taken for granted.”

Unpaid Labor — Cynthia Hess et al., 2020

On an average day, women in the United States spend 37% more time on unpaid household and care work than men, with the largest difference between Hispanic women & men.

#GamerGuy: Husbands historically accepted when wives earned less. So you should accept me making less money than you now.

#GamerGirl: Husbands *preferred* that their wives earned less because their egos & patriarchal sexism depended on it. Now men feel intimidated by women with higher incomes whereas women never felt like our femininity was threatened by men with higher incomes.

#GamerGuy: Men historically didn’t value women’s income or careers. #GamerGirl: Given how many ‘waves’ of battles we overcame to reach this point — with plenty of unfinished business to overcome in the future — it’d be nice if men did value it instead of feeling intimidated

LGBTQIA+ Survey (Ipsos)

Appearance Performativity ≠ Movement Performativity

Though men playing as females (M-F) created avatars similar to women playing as women (W-F), M-F “jump an average of 112 more times than W-F” (Martey et al., 2014).

Appearance Performativity ≠ Language Performativity

Men playing as female avatars used more exclamation points & emotional phrases than men playing as male avatars, but fewer than fewer women playing as female avatars (Martey et al., 2014).

Howdy 🤠 — Regions of the US

“Few notions have had more universal acceptance among Americans than that the character of individuals from various regions of the country is distinctive” (Krug and Kulhavy, 1973, p. 74).

Hypothesis

Components of compatibility may be weighed differently in partial-racial interracial couples (Barack is White & Michelle isn’t, but both are Black) vs fully interracial couples (Kamala is Asian & Black and Doug is neither)

NotBuyingIt

New Study on Superbowl Ads by Cooper, Jones, & Caroline Heldman (2023)

Women’s History Month: Mary Edwards Walker

UC-Wide Mixed Mixer

#Multiracial Student Unions across 7 UC campuses came together for our 3rd “Mixed Mixer” on February 16th via Zoom

Cosmetic Surgery — Wu et al., 2022

— Globally, ~90% most cosmetic surgery patients are women (International Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2013; International Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2019; International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2020).

In Western countries, middle-aged women form the main body of cosmetic surgery consumers (e.g., 75% are above 40yrs; American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 2018), whereas about ~76% of Chinese cosmetic surgery patients are high school & college-age women.

Multiracial Erasure in Academia

On Half-Hispanic Multiracials — 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 that institutions utilize demographic data in order to assess what types of student services to provide” (Claudia García-Louis, 2016).

Multiracials Identified By Most Subordinate Group — 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).

Scott Solomon, 2017

— “There are now roughly ~8 billion living humans, but just 100 years ago there were fewer than 2 billion.

— Xenophobia threatens to decrease genetic exchange between populations, stifling our ability to continue evolving and adapting.”

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Senator Elizabeth Warren’s DNA Test — Astead Herndon, 2018 (12.6 — NYTimes)

“Ms. Warren’s claim to Native American heritage first became an issue in her 2012 race for Senate, when The Herald reported that Harvard had once identified her as a member of a minority group when she was a law professor there. The Warren campaign at the time also confirmed she had listed herself as a minority member in a legal directory, but said she had done nothing wrong and said Native American ancestry had been part of her “family lore.”

“Race is a true third rail in American politics, and you can make a lot of mistakes when we don’t have a diverse set of folks who are in the room and empowered to make decisions,” said Eric Lundy, program director of Inclusv, a group that pushes for more diversity in political campaign staffs.

Ms. Warren’s

DNA Test showed strong evidence that Ms. Warren has Native American pedigree “6–10 generations ago.”

“I absolutely respect tribes’ authority to determine who are tribal members,” Ms. Haaland said.

“But I don’t think that’s what Elizabeth Warren was doing. She was merely looking to find a connection to her past and that’s exactly what she did.””

Multiracial Curriculum Perspectives — Janis & Howard, 2021

“Data collected by the US Department of Education: Office of Civil Rights (2016) demonstrates disparities for Multiracial children. Multiracial students represent (at least) 3.1% of school-age children in the United States.

The report found that Multiracial boys were overrepresented in school discipline (suspension and expulsion rates) and had difficulty gaining access to education.

Thus, scholarly work is needed to better understand the unique experiences of Multiracial youth and to address the disparities experienced by Multiracial boys in K-12 schools in the United States.

Howard (2006) proposes an in-depth, personal journey into whiteness and White privilege for classroom teachers who identify as White to develop their capacity to understand the dynamics of teaching in multiracial schools.
Davis (2009) uses a professional development model to present a journey to racial literacy. Her approach references literature in the field of multiracial studies and her own personal experiences with multiracial family members. Through her book, teachers are asked to grapple with difficult questions about race, their own identity, and their perceptions of children. The work includes voices of students and parents and provides practical suggestions for creating more inclusive spaces specifically for multiracial students in school. These resources are available to teachers, teacher educators, and educational leaders looking to enhance an understanding of multiracial curriculum among their faculties, students, and colleagues.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

In 1896, Homer Plessy, a man who was seven-eighths of European descent and one-eighth of African descent was prohibited from riding the “white only” train car in Louisiana (Pascoe, 2010). This ruling legally verified a “one-drop rule” that insisted that a person who had any African heritage was considered Black, even if the person’s European ancestry was dominant or the person appeared phenotypically White (Broyard, 2007; Spencer, 1999).”

An Entree into Multiracial Family Culture — Nicole Leopardo, 2016

“Data from my research project supports Williams’ assertion that multiracials hold on to multiple cultural symbols and actions simultaneously; these symbols and activities are important components of their family cultural identity and lineage. Because of the clear connection to multiple cultures in each participant family, these blended, interlocking cultural practices can be understood as a type of “third culture”

Nikki Khanna (2011) states that, “some of the ethnic symbols respondents use to express their biracial identities include food, clothing, national symbols, sports, music and language” (Khanna, 2011, p. 1056). In a family with a strong culinary tradition, the ethnic symbol of food becomes a strong indication of identity.

Resistance looks like “refusing to fragment, marginalize, or disconnect ourselves from people and from ourselves” (Root, 1996, p. 6). Thus, of our claimed and expressed identities can be forms of resistance.

As multiracial people, our cultural knowledge and pride can show up in multiple and unexpected ways. For example, even though 11-year-old Mari is not “full” Italian, she has a right to love and have pride in her mother’s homemade Italian food.

Culinary Cultural Continuity

Ethnicity is “demonstrated” when individuals act as “heads” of the household or key food decision-makers (Devine et al., 1999, p. 90).

Women were more likely to take on the food decision-maker role (or manager role), but some men also participated by shopping or cooking (Devine et al., 1999, p. 90).

Fathers know that their knowledge is key in continuing on their “portion” of culture. If it is just up to the woman in these cases, important aspects of the multicultural experience would be lost, and it is possible that the children would not know about these key cultural practices.

Thus, parents feel responsible and perform aspects of their culture regularly, regardless of their gender, or the common heteronormative understanding that it is the “woman’s job” to pass on culture.

Assemblages of Multiracial Identity

You pass on the food rituals and patterns established in your childhood from your parents, as they are very tightly engrained into your identity. Thus, food rituals can serve as an ethnoracial symbol that children do not use to deny a minority heritage, but to assert a multiracial identity.

“Some of the [ethnoracial] symbols respondents use to express their biracial identities include food, clothing, national symbols, sports, music and language” (Nikki Khanna, 2011, p. 1056).

In a family with a strong culinary tradition, the ethnic symbol of food becomes a strong indication of identity.”

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Dr. Jarryd Willis PhD
Dr. Jarryd Willis PhD

Written by Dr. Jarryd Willis PhD

I'm passionate about making a tangible difference in the lives of others, & that's something I have the opportunity to do a professor & researcher.

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