The Politics of Parenting in &#8216;Mixed&#8217; Families: An Autobiographical Account

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

The number of children born out of the widespread practice of sexual intimacy forced the colonial administration and the Belgian Parliament to debate what they termed the problème des métis, “the mulatto problem.” The issue was the treatment of the mulatto offspring of these unions: whether they should endure the same status as the rest of the Congolese population or whether they should be considered an intermediate group above the latter but beneath the Europeans. Attempts at resolving the dilemma produced a series of contradictory policies, resulting in considerable ambiguity. This ambiguity came to characterize the lives of the growing population of métis throughout the entire colonial period (Jeurissen 1999; Stoler 2002). Usually, the status of the metis depended upon the degree of recognition and acknowledgment of parenthood by their fathers. Those who were not recognized were often abandoned by their mothers because of the ostracism that they faced when returning to their native villages. The abandoned children usually ended up living in Catholic and Protestant missionary boarding schools, which were created for this purpose.

Jean Muteba Rahier, “Métis/Mulâtre, Mulato, Mulatto, Negro, Moreno, Mundele Kaki, Black,… The Wanderings and Meanderings of Identities” in Problematizing Blackness: Self Ethnographies by Black Immigrants to the United States, eds. Jean Muteba Rahier and Percey C. Hintzen, (London: Routledge, 2003): 86.

The Politics of Parenting in ‘Mixed’ Families: An Autobiographical Account

The Politics of Parenting in ‘Mixed’ Families: An Autobiographical Account

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
Atlanta Hilton Hotel
Atlanta, Georgia
2003-08-16

Nora Lester Murad, Founder and Executive Director
Dalia Association

This paper explores common themes in the varied experiences of parents in families that are “mixed” in terms of culture, race, or religion. These themes include identity, location and language, feelings of parental inadequacy, and social support/social sabotage. Drawing heavily on my journals and experience mothering two daughters in an international, bicultural, interfaith family, I highlight the political decisions we make as parents and their implications. I intend to counter the marginalization of mixed families by giving us voice and to use my personal experience as a lens on the changing racial and cultural landscape as it is influenced by conflict and love. Throughout, I address the complex political and spiritual transformation that is possible through the experience of parenting in a mixed family.

Read the entire paper here.

Tags: Nora L. Murad, Nora Lester Murad, Nora Murad

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Mixed Race Studies

The Politics of Parenting in ‘Mixed’ Families: An Autobiographical Account

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