Mixed Race Studies

Philosophical aspects of the ‘AAA Statement on “Race”’

Anthropological Theory
Volume 1, Number 4 (December 2001)
pages 445-465
DOI: 10.1177/14634990122228836

Naomi Zack, Professor of Philosophy
University of Oregon

I apply philosophical analysis to the ‘AAA Statement on “Race”’ (American Anthropological Association, 1998) and the commentary on its earlier draft published in the Anthropology Newsletter (1997). Racial essentialism is the theory that there are distinct and general human biological traits that determine racial membership and cause the presence of specific racial traits. This theory is false, as is the belief that a taxonomy of human races, or race, exists. But the 1998 ‘AAA Statement on “Race”’ fails to repudiate racial essentialism explicitly. Instead, the Statement denies that race determines culture or psychology and thereby misses the broad logical point that race cannot determine anything, because it does not exist. In the Anthropology Newsletter discussion of Kennewick Man, which appeared to be a debate about racial essentialism, contributors spoke past one another in confusing population-based measures of human diversity with race. The same confusion clouds contemporary concerns about the relevance of common-sense racial categories to medical diagnosis and treatment. Education is the solution to the public’s ignorance about the scientific foundation for its ideas about race. It is an empirical question whether such education will remedy racism or unjust treatment based on the false racial taxonomy. Although mixed-race categories are no more real than ‘pure’ ones, their acceptance may help unsettle the prevailing false taxonomy of race.

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Australian Mixed Race

European Journal of Cultural Studies
Volume 7, Number 2 (May 2004)
pages 177-199
DOI: 10.1177/1367549404042493

Maureen Perkins, Associate Professor of History, Anthropology and Sociology
Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia

This article argues against the case for colour-blindness as a fundamental principle of liberal policy and recommends more colour consciousness rather than less. The growth in mixed race studies around the world suggests that the use of terms of colour, black and white, to indicate a simple racial binary is being eroded by more complicated ‘in-between’ positions, which are now demanding recognition. In Australia, where black and white mean Indigenous and non-Indigenous, terms of ‘mixed’ identity carry a residue of colonial racist usage and are unequivocally rejected by Aboriginal communities. In refusing to consider ‘mixedness’, however, Australian culture makes national loyalty and a sense of belonging difficult for those non-white Australians who are not Indigenous. The article compares the Australian census with those in the UK and US to show that there needs to be much more discussion of the terminology used to discuss colour in order to keep up to date with the crumbling of racial boundaries and the increasing numbers of interracial children.

Read or purchase the article here.