Georgia State University
2008
348 pages
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University
Research on racial border patrolling has demonstrated how people police racial borders in order to maintain socially constructed differences and reinforce divisions between racial groups and their members. Existing literature on border patrolling has primarily focused on white/black couples and multiracial families, with discussions contrasting “white border patrolling” and “black border patrolling,” in terms of differential motivations, intentions, and goals (Dalmage 2000). In my dissertation research, I examined a different type of policing racial categories and the spaces inbetween these shifting boundaries. I offer up “multiracial interracial border patrolling” as a means of understanding how borderism impacts the lives of “multiracial” individuals in “interracial” relationships. In taking a look at how both identities and relationships involve racial negotiations, I conducted 60 in-depth, face-to-face qualitative interviews with people who indicated having racially mixed parentage or heritage. Respondents shared their experiences of publicly and privately managing their sometimes shifting preferred racial identities; often racially ambiguous appearance; and situationally in/visible “interracial” relationships in an era of colorblind racism. This management included encounters with border patrolling from strangers, significant others, and self.
Not only did border patrolling originate from these three sources, but also manifested itself in a variety of forms, including benevolent (positive, supportive); beneficiary (socially and sometimes economically or materially beneficial); protective, and malevolent (negative, malicious, conflictive). Throughout, I discussed the border patrolling variations that “multiracial” individuals in “interracial” relationships face. I also worked to show how people’s participation in border patrolling encouraged their production of colorblind discourses as a strategy for masking their racial attitudes and ideologies about “multiracial” individuals in “interracial” relationships.
Table of Contents
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
- Research Overview and Questions
- Navigating Multiracial Interracial Borders
- CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW, THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODS/METHODOLOGY
- How Do You Solve A “Problem” Like Racial Mixture? Making Mixture Appear and Disappear
- What is an “Interracial” Relationship?
- Measuring Mixture, Exploring Mixed Matters
- CHAPTER THREE: BORDER PATROLLING FROM THE OUTSIDE IN
- When Strangers Border Patrol Identities
- When Strangers Border Patrol Both Identities and Partner Choices
- Conclusions
- CHAPTER FOUR: BORDER PATROLLING FROM OUTSIDERS WITHIN/INSIDER OTHERS/INSIDERS WITHOUT
- When Significant Others Border Patrol Identities
- When Significant Others Border Patrol Both Identities and Partner Choices
- Conclusions
- CHAPTER FIVE: BORDERISM FROM THE INSIDE OUT
- When People Border Patrol Their Own Identities
- When People Border Patrol Both Their Identities and Partner Choices
- Conclusions
- CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
- Conclusions
- Future Research
- REFERENCES
- APPENDICES
- APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW GUIDE
- APPENDIX B: APPROVED INFORMED CONSENT FORM
Read the entire dissertation here.