Plus ça Change? Multiraciality and the Dynamics of Race Relations in the United States

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

I continue to identify myself as black. I don’t see it in contradiction with my white and Mexican ancestry. Nor does it negate these other parts of myself. I have come to understand that my multiplicity is inherent in my blackness, not opposed to it. To be black, for me, is to contain all colors. The choice stems from my childhood decision not to define myself differently from my sister or my father. But it also grows out of my increasing understanding that race is not real, but rather is a social, political, and historical construct. Race has never been about blood, and it has never been about reason. Rather, it has to do with power and economics and history. One of my concerns about the multiracial movement is that it buys into the idea of race as a real, biological category. It seems to see race almost as chemistry: Mix black and Japanese, you get Blackanese, mix Caucasian, black, Indian, and Asian and you get Cablinasian. I wonder if it will work toward a deconstruction of race, or a further construction of it. When we look at societies that acknowledge racial mixture, such as Haiti, Brazil, and South Africa, it becomes clear that multiracial pride does not necessarily mean the end of racism. Even when we look at the history of our own country—blue vein societies, brown paper bag tests, and light-skinned privilege—it becomes clear that a multiracial identity can live happily with racism and white supremacy intact.

Source: DanzySenna.com

Danzy Senna, “Passing and the Problematic of Multiracial Pride (or, Why One Mixed Girl Still Answers to Black),” in Black Cultural Traffic: Crossroads in Global Performance and Popular Culture, edited by Harry J. Elam, Jr. and Kennell Jackson, (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press: 2005), 85.

Plus ça Change? Multiraciality and the Dynamics of Race Relations in the United States

“…The articles by Binning, Unzueta, Huo, and Molina (2009) and by Townsend, Markus, and Bergsieker (2009) showed the positive benefits that accrue when multiracial individuals are free to claim their multiracial backgrounds. Binning et al. (2009), for example, found that multiracial students who identify multiracially demonstrate higher levels of psychological and organizational well-being than multiracial students who identify with a single racial group… …The message in these articles is clear: when multiracial individuals are given the freedom to identify multiracially rather than being forced to identify with only one racial category, and they perceive little conflict with and distance from their identities, they display higher levels of psychological adjustment…”

Frank D. Bean and Jennifer Lee, “Plus ça Change…? Multiraciality and the Dynamics of Race Relations in the United States,” Journal of Social Issues, Volume 65, Number 1 (March 2009): 205-219

Tags: Frank D. Bean, Jennifer Lee, Journal of Social Issues

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 31st, 2013 at 01:00Z and is filed under Excerpts/Quotes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Mixed Race Studies

Plus ça Change? Multiraciality and the Dynamics of Race Relations in the United States

Pages

Categories

Calendar of Posts

Links

Meta