Is racial mismatch a problem for young ‘mixed race’ people in Britain? The findings of qualitative research |
Ethnicities
Volume 12, Number 6 (December 2012)
pages 730-753
DOI: 10.1177/1468796811434912
Miri Song, Professor of Sociology
University of Kent, UK
Peter Aspinall, Reader in Population Health at the Centre for Health Services Studies
University of Kent, UK
Recent evidence concerning the racial identifications of ‘mixed race’ people suggests growing latitude in how they may identify. In this article, we examine whether mixed race young people believe that their chosen identifications are validated by others, and how they respond to others’ racial perceptions of them. While existing studies tend to assume that a disjuncture between self-identification and others’ perceptions of them is problematic, this was not necessarily the case among our respondents. While a racial mismatch between expressed and observed identifications was a common experience for these individuals, they varied considerably in terms of how they responded to such occurrences, so that they could feel: (1) misrecognized (and there were differential bases and experiences of misrecognition); (2) positive about the mismatch; or (3) indifferent to how others racially categorized them in their day-to-day interactions. Some differences in responses to such mismatch emerged among disparate types of mixed people. This study also found that we need to consider national identity, and other forms of belonging, in making sense of the diverse and often multilayered identifications and experiences of mixed race young people in Britain.
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Tags: Ethnicities, Miri Song, Peter Aspinall, Peter J. Aspinall