Public Categories, Private Identities: Exploring Regional Differences in the Biracial Experience

Public Categories, Private Identities: Exploring Regional Differences in the Biracial Experience

Social Science Research
Volume 35, Issue 3, September 2006
Pages 555-576

David L. Brunsma, Professor of Sociology
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Empirical research on multiraciality and the development of richer models of racial identity have increased in the last decade. Increased attention to such phenomena has lead to the “check all that apply” modification to the 2000 Census—an official recognition of an historical reality not before reflected on the United States’ Census. However, “identity” and “identification” are different phenomena. Using Place-level data from Census 2000 as well as data from the Survey of Biracial Experience (Rockquemore and Brunsma, 2001), this paper will reveal the geographic distribution of black–white biracial individuals via the Census and compare it to the geographic distribution of biracials’ racial self-understandings from survey methods. The findings illuminate the multifaceted relationship between public categorization and private racial identification. Finally, the implications for utilizing the new Census data for studying black–white and other mixed populations are considered.

Article Outline
1. Introduction
2. Research on mixed-race identity: the case of black–white biracials
3. Methodologies
3.1. Census 2000 data
3.2. The survey of biracial experience
3.3. Measurement of key variables
3.3.1. Biracial identity
3.3.2. Census 2000 identification (South and East samples only)
4. The distribution of mixed-race individuals: the census results
5. Geographic differences in the survey of biracial experience
6. Racial identification versus racial identity
7. A brief thought experiment
8. Discussion and conclusion
Acknowledgements
References

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