As a small child growing up in a home where race was never a discussion, I remember always wondering why my grandfathers skin color was so much darker than mine; after all, my mother was whiter than me. Upon reaching the age of understanding, it was explained that my grandfather was a full blooded Cherokee Indian and grandmother was a white Irish woman, having produced children that shared their combined genes lead to two children with darker skin and one child, my mother, having a much lighter skin color. As a child this made sense up until racial status became a concern for me. Why is it that my mom and aunt say they are white when my uncle claims to be American Indian? Does he have this choice?
Get Help With Your Essay
If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!
When I became an adult I never imagined falling in love with someone of a different race, but I did. Now that I have children who are part white and part black, not to mention some Cherokee Indian and some Irish, I have struggled to explain my children’s identities and many times have been told I have no choice but to list them as being black due to the one-drop rule that states any persons with a drop of blood coming from a black person must be identified as being of the black nationality (Shih and Sanchez 2009). Although, multiracial studies, the examination and learning involving the civil, public, and private lives of people who were born from more than one racial parent (Shih and Sanchez 2009), indicate Black Americans have a hard time accepting individuals who self-identify themselves as being multiracial due to their belief it would eventually disintegrate their population to where they would not have any political power (Shih and Sanchez 2009). Given the complications of the identity of multiracial individuals and the social movement that has been addressed sense the 2000 Census, the main issues addressed here in the United States is the absence of efficient measures to calculate the identity of multiracial people and the diverse backing for their policies (Shih and Sanchez).
According to researchers, there are several ways multiracial people can define their race; they can use the definitions generated by the government such as the categories offered in the census, they can self-identify by developing their own name for their racial identity such as Tiger Woods has done by naming his nationality as Cablinasian replicating his Black, Caucasian, Asian, and Native American heritage, and to elude discrimination many identify themselves by choosing a monoracial label by picking one of their racial make-ups (Shih and Sanchez 2009).
As opposed to monoracial individuals, multiracial people are increasingly becoming the center of attention throughout our world; in our politics, media, sports, academics, and even in our neighborhoods (Shih and Sanchez 2009, Baxley 2008, Ahmann 2005, Pearce-Morris and King 2012, Herman 2009). Prior to the 2000 Census, society did not account for this group of people. There was much debate whether or not to allow multiracial people more than one racial option to choose from. While the resolution to this debate ended, it also shaped a social movement when almost seven million (Glenn 2007) multiracial people were given this option, producing an increase in interracial couples and children under the age of eighteen (Ahmann 2005) and awakening our country to this social movement with the realization this population could increase to twenty-one percent by 2050 (Masuoka 2008). Scholars suggest recognizing and understanding the effects multiracial individuals have upon our society will help us as a nation to better predict the future impact of this fast growing group (Pearce-Morris and King 2012). I will be examining this consideration, by reviewing studies that reflect upon their background, the construction of their racial identity, comparing previous studies and theories, exploring their known accomplishments, gaining insight upon the diversity they encounter versus monoracial individuals, and getting acquainted with the challenges they face in today’s society. In an attempt to better understand what the future holds for my multiracial children and what development challenges they will encounter, I have chosen this as my topic of exploration for my Literature Review during my final studies here at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
Defining the History of Multiracial People
The multiracial culture is developing in large quantities in the United States in comparison to monoracial cultures (Baxley 2008). In an attempt to better understand the complexity of the multiracial culture in our nation, researchers have expressed the need to clearly understand what race is. According to Ahmann (2005), race is a term used to identify or separate a group of people who share the same distinguishing features from another group of people whose features differentiate from that group. Ahmann (2005) describes race to be made up of only one man kind with no sharing physiognomies. When one person from each of these groups come together in union and they decide to have children the product of their combined races would be considered multiracial (Masuoka, Salahuddin 2012). A “multiracial heritage,” also identified as biracial or interracial, can be a makeup but not restricted to the four most popular classifications of Native American, Asian, Latino, African, or white heritage (Baxley 2008 and Masuoka 2008). Multiracial heritage is identified and celebrated in Mexico as “Raza Cosmica” by a famous Mexican philosopher (Nobles 2005). Due to recent “multiracial studies” many believe this culture to be a new era (Shih and Sanchez 2009). In contrary to some beliefs, multiracial individuals have been around for many centuries, and have been an ongoing concern in America and other countries due the belief in ethnic order and conservation of the advantaged white minorities (Baxley 2008).
According to Masuoka’s Flexible Identities Model (2008), in history, it was mandatory for anyone who was born from two different races to classify themselves using only one race, opposite from the white race (2008). This model supports the System of Hydopodescent, which is also known as the one-drop rule that was rooted from the deep South during the times of slavery when masters impregnated their female help and forced them to label the child as a person of mixed-race in order to join the lowest social class of ancestry (Herman 2013).
The one-drop rule was developed with political intentions. To divide all mixed-races from that of the white race it would benefit the slave owners by gaining another servant (Herman 2013). Prior to the 1920’s, the U.S. Census classified anyone non-white as “mulatto” or “pure Negro.” These names were removed and replaced with “black” sometime during the 1920s to the 1960s when the “one drop-rule” was established (Baxley 2008).
In contrast to American history, researchers use Mexico and Latin Americans who encourage racial mixing and are very immodest with in multiracialism, to bring forward the environmental differences within countries, but to emphasize, like America, they too have racial issues. Brazil was among the first Latin American countries to affirm their beliefs in equality within race. Depending upon whether an individual’s skin color is light or dark, Brazilian brothers and sisters are often labeled as different races. Surprisingly, Brazil had more slave owners than half of all other countries and did not gain a two-party state characterized by privileges and equality of rights until 1945 (Nobles 2005). Unlike America, Latin America; Columbia, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic had not utilized a census to organize people by race or skin color, they have used “foreign sources” such as the World Bank or United Nations (Nobles 2005). As of 1990, the Latin American government had successfully begun generating records of ethnicity through racial categorized census collections in Brazil. While, protestors and Blacks Brazilians are demanding they do the same in Columbia in an effort to properly account for the white people that have been claimed prior and to re-count for socioeconomic signs along with racial factors to determine to what degree of monetary stratification is obtained by ethnicity. This is performed due to their beliefs of discrimination through employment, earnings, and educational achievement (Nobles 2005).
Racism
According to the Critical Race Theory, America’s principles and civilization affirms racism (Salahuddin and O’Brien 2011). In Mexico, laws known as the Cae Law was formed in 1989 to punish those who participated in “acts of prejudice” by sentencing them to mandatory imprisonment (Nobles 2005). Racism against multiracial individuals is very common in that multiracials experience racism through people expressing their dislikes about their multiethnic status as well as, their minority ethnical upbringing. They face racism through organizations that make it appear non-existing such as when they fill out applications and are instructed to check only one box and are given “other” as an option to choose from (Salahuddin and O’Brien 2011). The most common form of racism that multiracial individuals experience is received within their own family as opposed to outsiders. According to researchers, this form of racism associates with emotional anguish (Salahuddin and O’Brien 2011). Historically, an absence of cultural literacy, which is racial tactics parents teach to their children to implant a constructive form of individuality and a feeling of fitting in, is used to help them effectively deal with racism and inequality. This lack of cultural literacy has been the blame upon white women sense they most often are the leaders in mixing race among the families (Caballero, Edwards, Googyer, and Okitikpi 2012).
Society’s perceptions and representations of multiracial people, how outsiders such as the media and aristocrats perceive multiracial identity, often leads to micro-aggression; indirect methods of racism such as displeasing expressions, starring, making derogatory comments, inappropriate gestures, or using expressed tones (Shih and Sanchez 2009 and Caballero, Edwards, Googyer, and Okitikpi 2012). According to researchers, an organization called Association of Multi-Ethnic Americans (AMEA) was formed to offer support to multiethnic families and provide monoracial individuals with teachings so they can better understand their culture (Glenn 2007). Examiners suggest that multiracial individuals are becoming less disturbed by discrimination and are becoming more positive while feeling a sense of gratification with their culture. This is leading them to stand up to racism and hostility that they encounter (Glenn 2007, Salahuddin and O’Brien 2011). They also propose multiracials are forming a New Identity Formation Model, which indicates multiracial people will develop their individual racial identity known as multiracial, while taking a stand on matters concerning ethnical affairs and discrimination (Masuoka 2008).
Identification of Multiracial People
A study was performed at The Long Island University in Brooklyn New York where nearly 2,750 out of 11,000 students during the fall of 2009 and 2,200 students during the fall of 2010 did not reveal their racial status due to not wanting to check “other” as a form to identify their multiracial culture. Students who declined to check “other” as a racial identity lead to a rise in unknown identity from 1.2 million in the fall semester of 2004 to 1.6 million in the same semester four years later. A few of the students had no problem revealing their multiracial culture while others refused to identify themselves with any race at all (Gray 2011).
For multiracial people racial identity, the choosing of one’s racial classification that portrays understanding and acceptance for one’s self can be very complex due to pressures felt from family members, associates, and society. These same researchers share that several of the multiracial people they interviewed said they sensed racial conflict (Shih and Sanchez 2009); an uneasy, diverse, non-ordinary type of feeling about their racial heritage. They also admitted feeling a little alienated when others speak unkind about their culture. Although, their research revealed multiracial individuals have a positive self-esteem and found they have experienced only a few complication with their identity, leading these scholars to discover a great amount of gratitude for differences in humanity (Salahuddin and O’Brien 2011).
According to Cheng and Lively (2009), multiracial individuals who share white and black heritage tend to choose black environments as their primary communities and choose black as their own identification due to feeling more accepted. This supports Cheng and Lively’s (2009) definition on self-categorization in that it explains multiracial people’s self-identifications are driven from the social environment they choose. Malleable Racial Identification, as Salahuddin and O’Brien (2011) explains, multiracial people’s identity can change depending upon their environment and circumstances. There is supporting proof that this racial identification, which backs the one-drop rule, due to having a mother or father who is black, is slowly disappearing. This researcher also shares that fathers are not always interested in retaining their dominate heritage, expressing when a father is multiracial and their partner identifies as Asian, American Indian, or black, often the child from the relationship takes on the mothers identity to uphold ethnical precincts. This supports the claim that American Indian and Asian mother and fathers exhibit the most plasticity in ethnical identification (Bratter 2007).
Some researchers believe multiracial individuals, especially teens, are known to display a great amount of emotional suffering. When testing this idea it was discovered that the results for self-identified monoracial teenagers who had both black and white race were showing lower scores compared to teenagers who shared both black and white race and self-identified as multiracial. This result was believed to be affected by the teenager’s environments and cultural rearing (Bratter 2007).
Find Out How UKEssays.com Can Help You!
Our academic experts are ready and waiting to assist with any writing project you may have. From simple essay plans, through to full dissertations, you can guarantee we have a service perfectly matched to your needs.
View our academic writing services
Effects of Family and Environment
Public policies and their consequences for multiracial people define how the approaches to public policies impacts and moves the multiracial communities (Shih and Sanchez 2009). Multiracial individuals have been defined through public policies to meet the criteria’s of the Marginal Man Theory. This theory explains the cultural history of multiracials in that it is divided among two different social domains, having dissimilar ethnical customs with imbalanced influence, and it demonstrations diverse emotional and social physical characteristics compared to their monoracial colleagues (Cheng and Lively 2009).
Structural explanations emphasize on indisputable statistical data of a person’s environment (Herman 2013). Statistical evidence provided demonstrated that nearly half of all person’s interviewed with multicultural ethnicity explained they wear reared in a home with parents or guardians who were from different races. Thus, leading them to feel acquainted or at ease with models of mixed races and providing structural explanations as to why they may have chosen to have mixed race children themselves (Caballero, Edwards, Googyer, and Okitikpi 2012). Many researchers have found society to believe that multiracial families split up or loose relatives due to their choice of being with someone of a different ethnic group. However, this is not true because researchers have provided information that shows these families to not have blatant antagonism or feelings of racism, especially when there are children in the home. In fact, when multiracial children are born it causes relationships to mend with a loss of hostility and approval of the opposite race relationships.
In light of some beliefs, mixed cultures have been in existence for a very long time and have had extended family, as well as, neighborhood support. Most multiracial couples maintain communication with their relatives because they value their extended family support, including single mothers with their children’s father’s family. Multiracial individuals believe these relationships will offer a feeling of acceptance for their traditional and ancestral identity. Scholars state that the feelings of hostility are not intended for their multiracial families but merely a result of how they feel against the different perspectives of other minority crowds (Caballero, Edwards, Googyer, and Okitikpi 2012).
Perceptions and Assumptions on Multiracial People
Often people talk about mixed or multiracial children as if they have been cursed with a disease. Many find much complexity within the acceptance of multiracial communities (Shih and Sanchez 2009). They claim multiracial children, compared to monoracial children, most often come from poor or low-income families and show “disapproval of themselves,” have higher levels of depression, and are “disadvantaged in educational attainment, labor force participation, and wages,” “use drugs and alcohol and engage in violence.” (Bratter 2007and Nobles 2005) In contrast to the difficulty and mixture of tactics to properly rear their children, parents of these multiracial children become alienated when they hear assumptions regarding their capabilities, background, and family form (Caballero, Edwards, Googyer, and Okitikpi 2012). Most often white single mothers with children who are part black manifest their anger when dealing with stereotypes that question or degrade their capabilities to rear strong, non-troubled children and to foster prosperous relationships with the fathers of their children, as well as developing positive community relations (Caballero, Edwards, Googyer, and Okitikpi 2012).
Children, no matter what race they identify with, are a product of their parents rearing and the environment in which they are reared in (Herman 2013). Many of society’s people blame multiracial adolescents for discrimination and the inability to handle peer pressure, saying it’s because of their inability to feel accepted and they hang out with bad influences. While statistics show that most of society believes teenaged multiracials experience in drug and alcohol consumption and participate in violent activities more often than monoracial teens. However, researchers have found that multiracial children are more alike monoracial children than they ever imagined. The multiracial adolescents who participate in these behaviors are believed to come from low income families (“Multiracial Youths Show Similar Vulnerability to Peer Pressure as Whites” 2012). Researchers have provided up to date health examinations that say self-identified teenagers are known to have more emotional difficulties and negative behaviors than single-race teens. Although, they believe this is a result of having a broader social life than monoracial teens being they interact with people from all races.
In reviewing multiracials feeling of conflict while in school, they fare less than white adolescents who have a two-parent family household and attend private schools but greater than whites of the same equality. Many studies often disregard encouraging traits that are found in multiracial individuals especially among youth. Some researchers show that some of these multiracial adolescents demonstrate a considerable amount of affirmative behaviors versus monoracial adolescents (Cheng and Lively 2009).
Conclusion
This Literature Review reveals that racism continues even amongst those multiracial individuals who chose to self-identify as monoracial, especially within their own family. Studies that include the Critical Race Theory provide evidence this is most true for those who have black blood. Being black places them at the bottom of the social hierarchy causing them to encounter disadvantage for many things including employment, wages, and education. Thou, it also puts multiracials at an advantage in that racism becomes unsuccessful in distressing them because they grow accustomed to overlooking racial labels.
In comparing other countries, historical, to America, some researchers believe their philosophies are more accepting of multiracial people due to being predominantly populated with people of mixed race. However, just as blacks are the race at the end of the spectrum here in America, whites experience racism and diversity within their communities in Latin America; Columbia, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic because they are over looked and face racism. Some researchers believe it would be quite interesting to see “acts of prejudice” here in America to be punished by imprisonment as in Mexico.
The findings among these articles indicate structural background as a predominate factor to consider within multiracial youths. Researchers tell us nearly half of the multiracial people interviewed were reared in a mixed cultural home, leaving them to feel comfortable with their race. Those from single poor families who lack of education often become involved in gangs, and experience with alcohol and drugs. Thus, it was also discovered this applies to all races of adolescents, whether multiracial or monoracial.
Race issues have remarkably improved in comparison to what our history portrays; however, it remains a very controlling force within our civilization. If multiracials gain complete abilities to check all races that apply or be allowed a box that classifies multiracial as a race and their population continues to grow at its steady rate, it is possible to reach twenty-one percent by 2050. The willingness of our nation to accept people from multiracial heritages could lead to significant forthcoming effects since the majority of the populations of multiracial individuals are currently at a young age.
Cite This Work
To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below:
