Teaching and Learning Guide for: The Role of Racial Identification, Social Acceptance/Rejection, Social Cognition, and Racial Socialization in Multiracial Youth’s Positive Development
Authors: Csizmadia Annamaria 
Published: December 2011

This guide accompanies the following article: Annamaria Csizmadia, ‘The Role of Racial Identification, Social Acceptance/Rejection, Social Cognition, and Racial Socialization in Multiracial Youth’s Positive Development’, Sociology Compass 5/11 (2011): 995–1004, 10.1111/j.1751‐9020.2011.00418.x.

Author’s introduction

Multiraciality has been garnering growing public and scholarly attention since 2000. For the first time in Census history, the 2000 U.S. Census allowed individuals to identify with more than one race. The latest Census revealed that over 9 million individuals identified with two or more races (Humes, Jones, & Ramirez, 2011), and that they were one of the fastest growing racial groups in the last decade. Multiraciality has also become the topic of frequent public discussion thanks to the election of Barack Obama, the first Black, that is, biracial, president of the United States in 2008. Historically, multiracial individuals have been automatically relegated to the racial group of their minority parent (also known as the rule of hypodescent). Black‐White biracial people were identified as Black due to the one‐drop rule, which considered any person with a trace of African ancestry to be Black. Sociological and developmental research that has been burgeoning since 2000 revealed that contemporary multiracial youth identify in a variety of ways. They may identify as multiracial or as monoracial. They may choose to shift their racial identity depending on their social context. Finally, some refuse to identify themselves in racial terms altogether. In addition to this body of research, scholars have begun to examine the implications of racial identity choices for contemporary multiracial youth’s psychosocial adjustment. This paper reviews findings of this emerging body of research and suggests ways in which parents, school counselors, teachers, and social workers can support the positive development of the growing population of multiracial youth.

Author recommends

To develop an understanding of how contemporary Black‐White multiracial young adults understand themselves racially in private and identify themselves in public, I recommend the series of publications that summarize Rockquemore and Brunsma’s research on Black‐White biracial young adults from the Midwest, South, and East. A good place to start is their book Beyond Black: Biracial Identity in America published in 2002. This book provides a thorough background to the literature, their multi‐stage research design, and includes a copy of the Survey of Biracial Experience. This survey has been used in several recent studies to assess multiracial youth’s racial identification. Rockquemore and Brunsma elaborated on different facets of multiracial youth’s lived experiences in several peer‐reviewed publications. They investigated the roles of physical appearance (Brunsma & Rockquemore, 2001); geographic location (Brunsma, 2006), and gender (Rockquemore, 2002) in contemporary multiracial youths’ racial identification. For sociologists, social psychologists, and race scholars, who want to delve into the complexity of the multiracial experience, I recommend Daniel’s More than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order and Brunsma’s 2006 edited volume, titled Mixed Messages: Multiracial Identities in the “Color‐Blind” Era. Brunsma’s edited book contains highly insightful chapters contributed by renowned scholars from the field (e.g., Davis, Bonilla‐Silva, Yancey, Spencer, Dalmage, and Rockquemore and colleagues). For family scholars, developmentalists with an interest in parenting issues, and parents of multiracial children, Rockquemore and Laszloffy’s Raising Biracial Children will be very informative.

Brunsma, D. L. and K. A. Rockquemore. (2001). ‘The New Color Complex: Appearances and Biracial Identity.’Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research 1(3): 225–46.

Brunsma, D. L. (2006). Mixed Messages: Multiracial Identities in the “Color‐Blind” Era. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.

Brunsma, D. L. (2006). ‘Public Categories, Private Identities: Exploring Regional Differences in the Biracial Experience.’Social Science Research 35: 555–76.

Daniel, G. R. (2002). More than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Rockquemore, K. A. (2002). ‘Negotiating the Color Line: The Gendered Process of Racial Identity Construction among Black/White Biracial Women.’Gender & Society 16(4): 485–503.

Rockquemore, K. A. and D. L. Brunsma. (2002). Beyond Black: Biracial Identity in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Rockquemore, K. A. and T. A. Laszloffy. (2005). Raising Biracial Children. New York, NY: Altamira Press.

Online materials

There are several organizations that are dedicated to providing support to multiracial children, youth, and their families. Websites of these organizations provide useful and practical information for parents, youth, and practitioners. They also allow multiracial people to connect with other multiracial peers. For scholars, they often serve as a starting point for recruitment of multiracial research participants.

1. The Mavin Foundation

http://mavinfoundation.org/

2. The Mixed Heritage Center

http://www.mixedheritagecenter.org/

3. AMEA: Association of MultiEthnic Americans

http://www.ameasite.org/

4. Race: The Power of an Illusion

http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00‐Home.htm

For students and scholars of race and multiraciality, the accompanying website to the three‐part PBS documentary on race is a good source of information. The site contains sample discussion questions, historical facts, and self‐quizzes to assess one’s view on race. It also contains short clips to the film. Understanding how the racial classification system and hierarchy of the United States evolved is essential to studying contemporary multiracial youth’s lives in context.

Sample syllabus

Topics for lecture and discussion and recommended readings

Week I: Introduction and overview

Definitions, Problems and Issues: Who is Multiracial?

Reading:

Daniel, G. R. (2002). More than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Week II. The history of race in the United States

Readings:

Bonilla‐Silva, E. (1996). ‘Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation.’American Sociological Review 62: 465–80.

Omi, M. and H. Winans. (1994). Racial Formations in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. New York, NY: Routledge.

Week III. The multiracial population of the United States

Readings:

Humes, K. R., N. A. Jones, and R. R. Ramirez. (2011). Overview of race and Hispanic origin: 2010. 2010 Census Briefs. http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br‐02.pdf.

Jones, N. A. (2005). We the people of more than one race in the United States: Census 2000 special reports, U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/censr‐22.pdf.

Week IV. What are you? – How do multiracial youth identify?

Readings:

Harris, D. R. and J. J. Sim. (2002). ‘Who is Multiracial? Assessing the Complexity of Lived Race.’American Sociological Review 67(4): 614–27.

Rockquemore, K. A. and D. L. Brunsma (2002). Beyond Black: Biracial Identity in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Week V. Changes in racial identification over time

Readings:

Brown, J. S., S. Hitlin, and G. H. Elder, Jr. (2007). ‘The Importance of Being “Other”: A Natural Experiment about Lived Race over Time.’Social Science Research 36: 159–74.

Doyle, J. M. and G. Kao. (2007). ‘Are Racial Identities of Multiracials Stable? Changing Self‐identification among Single and Multiple Race Individuals.’Social Psychology Quarterly 70(4): 405–23.

Terry, R. L. and C. E. Winston (2010). ‘Personality characteristic adaptations: Multiracial adolescents’ patterns of racial self‐identification change.’Journal of Research on Adolescence 20: 432–55.

Week VI. Influences on multiracial youth’s racial identification: physical appearance

Reading:

Brunsma, D. L. and K. A. Rockquemore (2001). ‘The New Color Complex: Appearances and Biracial Identity.’Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research 1(3): 225–46.

Week VII. Influences on multiracial youth’s racial identification: geographic region and neighborhood

Reading:

Brunsma, D. L. (2006). ‘Public Categories, Private Identities: Exploring Regional Differences in the Biracial Experience.’Social Science Research 35: 555–76.

Week VIII. Influences on multiracial youth’s racial identification: historical time

Readings:

Davis, J. F. (1991). Who is Black? One Nation’s Definition. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

Khanna, N. (2010). ‘ “If You’re Half Black, You’re Just Black”: Reflected Appraisals and the Persistence of the One‐Drop Rule.’The Sociological Quarterly 51: 96–121.

Week IX. Multiracial youth’s peers/friends

Readings:

Doyle, J. M. and G. Kao (2007). ‘Friendship Choices of Multiracial Adolescents: Racial Homophily, Blending, or Amalgamation?’Social Science Research 36: 633–53.

Quillian, L. and R. Redd (2009). ‘The Friendship Networks of Multiracial Adolescents.’Social Science Research 38: 279–95.

Week X. How do parents identify their multiracial offspring?

Readings:

Brunsma, D. L. (2005). ‘Interracial Families and the Racial Identification of Mixed‐Race Children: Evidence from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study.’Social Forces 84(2): 1131–57.

Qian, Z. (2004). ‘Options: Racial/Ethnic Identification of Children of Intermarried Couples.’Social Science Quarterly 85(3): 746–66.

Roth, W. D. (2005). ‘The End of the One‐Drop Rule? Labeling of Multiracial Children in Black Intermarriages.’Sociological Forum 20(1): 35–67.

Week XI. Parenting multiracial children

Readings:

Rockquemore, K. A. and T. A. Laszloffy (2005). Raising Biracial Children. New York, NY: Altamira Press.

Rockquemore, K. A., T. A. Laszloffy, and J. Noveske. (2006). ‘It all Starts at Home: Racial Socialization in Multiracial Families.’ Pp. 203–17 in Mixed Messages: Multiracial Identities in the “Color‐Blind” Era, edited by D. L. Brunsma. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.

Weeks XII–XIII. Multiracial youth’s social‐emotional adjustment

Readings:

Campbell, M. E. and J. Eggerling‐Boeck. (2006). ‘What about the Children? The Psychological and Social Well‐being of Multiracial Adolescents.’The Sociological Quarterly 47: 147–73.

Lusk, E. M., M. J. Taylor, J. T. Nanney, and C. C. Austin. (2010). ‘Biracial Identity and its Relation to Self‐esteem and Depression in Mixed Black‐White Biracial Individuals.’Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work 19: 109–26.

Phillips, L. (2004). ‘Fitting in and Feeling Good: Patterns of Self‐evaluation and Psychological Stress among Biracial Adolescent Girls.’Women & Therapy 27(1/2): 217–36.

Sanchez, D. T., M. Shih, and J. A. Garcia. (2009). ‘Juggling Multiple Racial Identities: Malleable Racial Identification and Psychological Well‐being.’Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 15(3): 243–54.

Suzuki‐Crumly, J. and L. L. Hyers. (2004). ‘The Relationship among Ethnic Identity, Psychological Well‐being, and Intergroup Competence: An Investigation of Two Biracial Groups.’Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 10(2): 137–50.

Week XIV. Supporting multiracial youth’s positive development

Readings:

Csizmadia, A. (2011). ‘The Role of Racial Identification, Social Acceptance/Rejection, Social Cognition, and Racial Socialization in Multiracial Youth’s Positive Development.’Sociology Compass.

Khanna, N. (2004). ‘The Role of Reflected Appraisals in Racial Identity: The Case of Multiracial Asians.’Social Psychology Quarterly 67(2): 115–31.

Week XV. Methodological issues in multiracial research

Readings:

Root, M. P. P. (2002). ‘Methodological Issues in Multiracial Research.’ Pp. 171–93 in Asian American Psychology: The Science of Lives in Context, edited by G. C. N. Hall and S. Okazaki. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Shih, M. and D. T. Sanchez. (2005). ‘Perspectives and Research on the Positive and Negative Implications of Having Multiple Racial Identities.’Psychological Bulletin 131(4): 569–91.

Focus questions

 How do you determine a person’s race? How do you determine if a person is multiracial?

 How do multiracial people fit into the racial classification system of the United States?

 What are the advantages and disadvantages of being multiracial?

 How does multiracial youth’s physical appearance influence the way others relate to them?

 How do you explain regional variations in how multiracial young adults identify themselves racially?

 Is there a racial identity type that is psychologically ideal for multiracial youth: why or why not?

 What topics should scholars of multiracial youth investigate in the future? Why do you think these topics are important to study? How will they inform our understanding of multiracial youth’s development?

 What role do others play in how multiracial youth choose to identify racially? Based on the assigned readings for this week (Csizmadia, 2011 and Khanna, 2004), make a list of suggestions of how parents can support their multiracial children’s healthy racial identity development and psychosocial adjustment.

Seminar/Project ideas

1. Class activity

To introduce the complexity of multiracial youth’s lived experience, ask students to answer the race questions on the U.S. Census form. After students complete the relevant questions, ask students to discuss how they identified on the Census form, whether it was easy for them to select a category, and in what ways the answer choices influenced their responses.

2. Class activity

Students view the PBS documentary: Race: The Power of an Illusion Part I and II in class. Use the contents of these two episodes to discuss how racial categories evolved in the U.S. and how multiracial youth have been treated historically.