Teaching & Learning Guide for: Multiracial Americans: Racial Identity Choices and Implications for the Collection of Race Data
Authors: Khanna Nikki 
Published: June 2012

This guide accompanies the following article: Nikki Khanna, ‘Multiracial Americans: Racial Identity Choices and Implications for the Collection of Race Data’, Sociology Compass 6/4 (2012): 316–331, 10.1111/j.1751‐9020.2011.00454.x.

Author’s introduction

In 2010, approximately nine million Americans self‐identified with two or more races on the United States Census – a 32 percent increase in the last decade. President Barack Obama, the son of a white Kansas‐born mother and Kenyan father, was not one of these self‐identified multiracial Americans. In fact, Obama chose only to check the ‘black’ box, illustrating that multiracial ancestry does not always translate to multiracial identity. Since the 1990s, there has been a growing body of research examining the multiracial population and key questions have included: How do multiracial Americans identify themselves? And why? This paper reviews this research, with a focus on the factors shaping racial identity and the implications regarding the collection of race data in the US Census.

Author recommends

Khanna, Nikki. 2011. Biracial in America: Forming and Performing Race. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Looking at black‐white biracial Americans, this book examines the influencing factors and underlying social psychological processes shaping their multidimensional racial identities. This book also investigates the ways in which biracial Americans perform race in their day‐to‐day lives.

Korgen, Kathleen. 1998. From Black to Biracial: Transforming Racial Identity among Biracial Americans. New York: Praeger.

This book looks at the transformation in racial identity among black‐white biracial Americans over the last several decades. She finds that those born before the Civil Rights Era are likely to identify as black, while those born in the post‐Civil Rights Era identify as biracial, black, and sometimes white. She describes the declining influence of the one drop rule on shaping black identities, and the increasing importance of other factors, such as physical appearance.

Perlmann, Joel and Mary Waters (eds). 2005. The New Race Question: How the Census Counts Multiracial Individuals. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

This edited volume examines how changes to the race question in the US Census affect how people are counted and the implications for public policy, enforcement of anti‐discrimination laws, and reporting of health, education, and income statistics.

Rockquemore, Kerry Ann and David Brunsma. 2008. Beyond Black: Biracial Identity in America. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Drawing on interview and survey data, this groundbreaking book examines racial identity among black‐white biracial adults. The authors describe a myriad of ways in which biracial Americans understand themselves racially, while also examining why people identify the way they do.

Online materials

Race: Are We So Different?

http://understandingrace.org/

This website explores the common misconceptions about race through several interactive activities.

Race: The Power of an Illusion

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

This website explores the question ‘What is Race?’ through several interactive activities.

Mixed‐Race Studies

http://www.mixedracestudies.org/

This website is a useful resource for anyone interested in mixed‐race studies. Included here is information about articles, books, dissertations, videos, multimedia, and other resources related to multiracial people.

Mixed Folks.com

http://www.mixedfolks.com

This site provides information about multiracial historical figures and celebrities, as well as links to books, websites, and comics featuring biracial characters.

Mixed Chicks Chat

http://www.mixedchickschat.com/

This site features an award‐winning weekly podcast about the multiracial experience. Included are approximately 200 episodes of interviews with scholars, activists, journalists, celebrities, and artists.

Sample syllabus

Part I: Introduction

Week 1: Defining concepts

Race & Multiraciality as Social Constructs.

Spickard, Paul R. 1992. ‘The Illogic of American Racial Categories.’ Pp. 12–23 in Racially Mixed People in America, edited by Maria P. P. Root. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Khanna, Nikki. 2011. ‘A Note on Terminology.’ Pp. ix–xiii in Biracial in America: Forming and Performing Racial Identity. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Angier, Natalie. 2000. ‘Does Race Differ? Not Really, Genes Show.’New York Times, August 22. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/22/science/do‐races‐differ‐not‐really‐genes‐show.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.

American Anthropological Association’s Statement on Race (1998): http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm.

Part II: Historical background

Week 2: Curbing ‘Miscegenation’ (Part 1)

Interracial Mixing in Early America.

Anti‐Miscegenation Laws.

Zabel, William D. 2000. ‘Interracial Marriage and the Law.’ Pp. 54–61 in Interracialism: Black‐White Intermarriage in American History, Literature, and Law, edited by Werner Sollors. Oxford University Press.

Kennedy, Randall. 2000. ‘The Enforcement of Anti‐Miscegenation Laws.’ Pp. 140–160 in Interracialism: Black‐White Intermarriage in American History, Literature, and Law, edited by Werner Sollors. Oxford University Press.

Kennedy, Stetson. 1990. ‘Who May Marry Whom.’ Pp. 58–71 in Jim Crow Guide: The Way It Was. Boca Raton, FL: Florida Atlantic University Press.

Week 3: Curbing ‘Miscegenation’ (Part 2)

Biological, Religious, Social Arguments.

The Role of Eugenics.

Tucker, William H. ‘Inharmoniously Adapted to Each Other: Science and Racial Crosses.’ Pp. 109–33 in Defining Difference: Race and Racism in the History of Psychology, edited by Andrew S. Winston. American Psychological Association.

Nakashima, Cynthia L. 1992. ‘An Invisible Monster: The Creation and Denial of Mixed‐Race People in America.’ Pp. 162–72 in Racially Mixed People in America, edited by Maria P. P. Root. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Visit the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia & read about the ‘Tragic Mulatto Myth’: http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/mulatto/.

Week 4: The politics of racial definition

Counting ‘Mixed‐Bloods’ and ‘Mulattoes’.

Williams, Gregory Howard. 1995. Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black. New York: Plume.

Morning, Ann. 2003. ‘New Faces, Old Faces: Counting the Multiracial Population Past and Present.’ Pp. 41–67 in New Faces in a Changing America: Multiracial Identity in the 21st Century, edited by Loretta I. Winters and Herman L. DeBose. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Davis, F. James. 1991. Who is Black? One Nation’s Definition. (Excerpt). http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/mixed/onedrop.html.

Week 5: Resistance and subversion to the American binary

Individual & Collective Strategies.

Daniel, G. Reginald. 1992. ‘Passers and Pluralists: Subverting the Racial Divide.’ Pp. 91–107 in Racially Mixed People in America, edited by Maria P. P. Root. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Valdez, Norberto and Janice Valdez. 1998. ‘The Pot that Called the Kettle White: Changing Racial Identities and US Social Construction of Race.’Identities 5: 379–413.

Maillard, Kevin. 2000. ‘We are Black Indians.’ Pp. 81–86 in What Are You? Voices of Mixed‐Race Young People, edited by Pearl Fuyo Gaskins. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Read first‐hand narratives of people who ‘passed’ as white during the Jim Crow Era: http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_es_passing_narratives.htm.

Week 6: The ‘Biracial Baby Boom’

Explanations.

The Loving Myth?

LISTEN: ‘Loving Decision: 40 Years of Interracial Unions.’ National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10889047.

Spencer, Rainier. 2006. ‘White Mothers, the Loving Legend, and Manufacturing of a Biracial Baby Boom’ in Challenging Multiracial Identity. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.

Week 7: The multiracial movement

Players and Agendas.

Public Policy Issues.

White, Jack E. 1997. ‘I’m Just Who I Am.’Time.http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986278,00.html.

Graham, Susan. 1995. ‘Grassroots Advocacy.’ Pp. 185–9 in American Mixed Race: The Culture of Microdiversity, edited by Naomi Zack. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Spencer, Rainier. 1999. ‘The Multiracial Category Initiative.’ Pp. 125–60 in Spurious Issues: Race and Multiracial Identity Politics in the United States. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Wright, Lawrence. 1999. ‘One Drop of Blood.’The New Yorker, July 24, 1994. http://www.afn.org/~dks/race/wright.html.

Week 8: Critiquing multiraciality

Spencer, Rainier. 1999. ‘Thinking About Transcending Race.’ Pp. 192–9 in Spurious Issues: Race and Multiracial Identity Politics in the United States. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Spencer, Rainier. 2006. Challenging Multiracial Identity. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.

Week 9: Mixed‐race people abroad

Conceptualizations & Status of Multiracial People.

South Africa, Brazil, Australia, Vietnam, Japan, India.

Davis, F. James. 2006. ‘Defining Race: Comparative Perspectives.’ Pp. 15–31 in Mixed Messages: Multiracial Identities in the ‘Color‐Blind’ Era, edited by David L. Brunsma. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.

Daniel, G. Reginald. 2003. ‘Multiracial Identity in Global Perspective: The United States, Brazil, and South Africa.’ Pp. 247–86 in New Faces in a Changing America: Multiracial Identity in the 21st Century, edited by Loretta I. Winters and Herman L. DeBose. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Murphy‐Shigematsu, Stephen. 2001. ‘Multiethnic Lives and Monoethnic Myths: American‐Japanese Amerasians in Japan.’ Pp. 207–16 in The Sum of Our Parts: Mixed‐Heritage Asian Americans, edited by Teresa Williams‐Leon and Cynthia L. Nakashima. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Week 10: Intermarriage, multiracial people, and the future of race relations in the US

Census Trends.

Future of Race in America?

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

Bonilla‐Silva, Eduardo and David G. Embrick. 2006. ‘Black, Honorary White, White: The Future of Race in the United States?’ Pp. 33–48 in Mixed Messages: Multiracial Identities in the ‘Color‐Blind’ Era, edited by David L. Brunsma. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.

Lind, Michael. 1998. ‘The Beige and the Black.’New York Times.http://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/16/magazine/the‐beige‐and‐the‐black.html?pagewanted=all.

Part III: Scholarly research

Week 11: Identities (Part 1)

Methodological Issues in Research.

Typology of Identities.

Racial Fluidity.

Root, Maria P. P. 1992. ‘Back to the Drawing Board: Methodological Issues in Research on Multiracial People.’ Pp. 181–9 in Racially Mixed People in America. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Tashiro, Cathy J. 2002. ‘Considering the Significance of Ancestry through the Prism of Mixed Race Identity.’Journal of Advanced Nursing Science 25: 1–21.

Harris, David R. and Jeremiah Joseph Sim. 2002. ‘Who is Multiracial? Assessing the Complexity of Lived Race.’American Sociological Review 67: 614–27.

Week 12: Identities (Part 2)

Factors Shaping Identity.

Implications for Census Statistics.

Morning, Ann. 2000. ‘Who is Multiracial? Definitions and Decisions’. Sociological Imagination 37: 209–29.

Khanna, Nikki. 2004. ‘The Role of Reflected Appraisals in Racial Identity: The Case of Asian‐White Adults.’Social Psychology Quarterly 67: 115–31.

*Khanna, Nikki. 2012. ‘Multiracial Americans: Racial Identity Choices and Implications for the Collection of Race Data.’Sociology Compass 6(4): 316–31.

Week 13: Psychological and social well‐being

The ‘Tragic Mulatto’ & Other Stereotypes (revisited).

Campbell, Mary E. & Jennifer Eggerling‐Boeck. 2006. ‘What about the Children? The Psychological and Social Well‐Being of Multiracial Adolescents’. The Sociological Quarterly 47: 147–73.

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: 137–50.

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

Seminar/Project ideas

Census Exercise and Discussion: Have students visit the webpage: http://racebox.org/, which shows what the race question looked like in the U.S. Census from 1790 to 2010. Next, they should visit http://understandingrace.org/lived/global_census.html to see how different countries collect census information about race. After students view both sites, they should answer the following questions: In what years in the US were multiracial Americans counted as multiracial? What types of categories were used? What other countries use multiracial categories and what categories are used? Finally, after reading Lawrence Wright’s ‘One Drop of Blood’ and Rainier Spencer’s ‘The Multiracial Category Initiative’ (see above), pose the following question for class discussion: What are the pros and cons of including a multiracial category in the Census (or allowing Americans to check multiple boxes)? Then ask: Should we even ask Americans their race in the US Census? While some students will emphatically answer ‘no!’ because they believe the Census categories only serve to reify racial categories and racial divisions, this question should open up an informed debate about the function of the Census and race question.

Examining the Politics of Race in Comic Strips: To provide context for this assignment, student should first read the following on‐line excerpt from F. James Davis’Who Is Black: One Nation’s Definition: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/mixed/onedrop.html. Next, have students visit the site: http://www.mixedfolks.com/comics.htm, which features The Boondocks comic strip with a biracial character (Jazmine). Have students read and analyze the 17 posted comic strips and answer the following questions (via class discussion or an out‐of‐class assignment): How is Jazmine’s character portrayed? How is blackness portrayed? What message does the artist convey in these comic strips regarding biraciality and internal and external perceptions of Jazmine’s race and racial identity?

Film and Discussion: Show students the movie, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner– a 1967 film starring Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn, which looks at the controversy surrounding interracial marriage. In the year that the film was released, 16 states still prohibited interracial marriage in the US (although the Supreme Court would abolish these laws in the same year with their landmark ruling in Loving v. Virginia). This film is useful to discuss the controversy surrounding interracial marriage, and how the same scenario might play out in the present‐day.

Small Group Activity: Analyzing Anti‐Miscegenation Laws: Before coming to class, have students listen to the following NPR story: ‘Loving Decision: 40 Years of Interracial Unions’ (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10889047) – it describes the case Loving v. Virginia (1967). Next, using an interactive map of the United States (see http://www.lovingday.org/legal‐map), have students, in small groups, examine and analyze anti‐miscegenation laws in the US prior to the Loving decision. Some questions to have them consider: Which states were the first to make interracial marriage illegal? Which racial groups were targeted in those early laws? By 1913, how many of the then 48 states had anti‐miscegenation laws? Which states made interracial marriage legal? How many states had anti‐miscegenation laws in the year preceding Loving? Students can also click on individual states to see an example of its laws. Looking at the laws, ask students: What was criminalized (e.g. interracial marriage, sex, performing the wedding, cohabitation)? What types of punishments did those who violated the law receive? What racial groups are targeted in these laws? How are racial categories (e.g. black, white) defined in these laws? What do these laws reveal about the social construction of race?