Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

What is particularly interesting about the high percentage of multiracial children is that children do not fill out census forms. Children are being identified as multiracial by their parents, or by the parent who fills out the census form as the head of the household. This tends to corroborate the claim that the multiracial movement has been fueled by parents of multiracial children. But it also underlines the instability of this category, not to mention the other categories as well. We do not know, for example, if these children will continue to identify as multiracial when it is their turn to fill out the census form. Lee suggests that the "number of people who identify with more than one race is likely to increase as interracial marriages increase." This may be so, but we also know that many people who could report themselves as multiracial choose not to. We also know that how people report their identity depends on the prevailing discourse of race and the options available at any given time. Current multiracial children, and multiracial adults for that matter, may in the future decide not to identity themselves as multiracial. They may decide to identify with a single minority race, or they may decide to identify themselves as white. When these multiracial children are grown, the categories will undoubtedly have changed, just as they have every year since 1790, and with them, the debate about race and identity. What is clear is that "the parameters of self-definition have never been open-ended, for the state has always furnished the range of available, credible, and reliable-that is, of licensed and so permissible-categories in which self-definition could occur."

Naomi Mezey. “Erasure and Recognition: The Census, Race and the National Imagination”, Northwestern University Law Review. 2003, Number 97, Number 4, pages 1701-1768.

‘Mixed Race’ Studies: A Reader

‘Mixed Race’ Studies: A Reader

ISBN: 9780415321631
ISBN-10: 0415321638
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Date: 2004-06-17
Pages: 352
Trim Size: 246mm x 174mm
Binding(s): Hardback, Paperback

Editor: Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe

Mixed race studies is one of the fastest growing, as well as one of the most important and controversial areas in the field of race and ethnic relations. Bringing together pioneering and controversial scholarship from both the social and the biological sciences, as well as the humanities, this reader charts the evolution of debates on ‘race’ and ‘mixed race’ from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. The book is divided into three main sections:

tracing the origins: miscegenation, moral degeneracy and genetics
mapping contemporary and foundational discourses: ‘mixed race’, identities politics, and celebration
debating definitions: multiraciality, census categories and critiques.

This collection adds a new dimension to the growing body of literature on the topic and provides a comprehensive history of the origins and directions of ‘mixed race’ research as an intellectual movement. For students of anthropology, race and ethnicity, it is an invaluable resource for examining the complexities and paradoxes of ‘racial’ thinking across space, time and disciplines.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Tracing the Origins: Miscegenation, Moral Degeneracy, and Genetics
Part 2: Mapping Contemporary and Foundational Discourses: ‘Mixed Race’, Identities Politics, and Celebration
Part 3: Debating Definitions: Multiraciality, Census Categories, and Critique. Index.

Tags: Census/Demographics, Jayne Ifekwunigwe, Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe

This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 00:53Z and is filed under Anthologies, Anthropology, Books, Census/Demographics, Media Archive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “‘Mixed Race’ Studies: A Reader”

Mixed Race Studies » Scholarly Perspectives on Mixed-Race » MixedRaceStudies.org Says:

April 11th, 2010 at 19:46Z
[...] to begin the process of building this resource, I purchased and read Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe’s ‘Mixed Race’ Studies: A Reader. Considered by some the definitive anthology on the subject, ‘Mixed Race’ Studies takes the [...]

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‘Mixed Race’ Studies: A Reader

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