Thesis Statement: Society often forces biracial and multicultural people to identify themselves with one ethnic group by denying other part of their ethnic background. An analysis of the many scientific studies, literature, and art reveals the complexities of growing up with parents of different races. The American tendency to prefer lighter skin effects how biracial children form their identities and often causes them to deny their black heritage.
Source 1)
Colescott, Robert. Lightening Lipstick. 1994. Acrylic on canvas. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN.
• Lightening Lipstick is a complex painting that is rendered in a sort of ugly grotesque style to express the ugly reality colored people have and continue to face. According to the IU Art Museum’s website, by
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using humor and satire Colescott, “creates a complex narrative that addresses the serious social ramifications of imperialism, slavery, and rape on future generations. Source 2) Funderburg, Lise. Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk about Race and Identity. New York: W. Morrow, 1994. Print. • This book shares the lives and views of forty-six adult children of black-white unions.
Their stories over topics such as marriage, racism, biracial prejudices, love, and growing up in a racially divided world. The book as a few specific chapters I would like to possibly use specifically.
Source 3)
Hud-Aleem, Raushanah, and Jacqueline Countryman. "Biracial Identity Development and Recommendations in Therapy." Psychiatry (Edgmont). Matrix Medical Communications. Web. 09 Mar. 2016.
• This scholarly article discusses a study done on biracial identity development in children. The article discusses “the similarities and differences between Black and White racial identity development in the United States and address special challenges for the biracial child.” I hope to use it as a source when discussing the struggle to form an specific identity
Source 4)
O'Hearn, Claudine C. Half and Half: Writers on Growing up Biracial and Bicultural. New York: Pantheon, 1998. Print.
• This book discusses twentieth century biracial and bicultural and the increase in biracial couples and therefore people. This books goal is to explore the complex and ever-changing definition of certain races and
identities. Source 5) Pearl Fuyo Gaskins, Pearl Fuyo. What Are You?: Voices of Mixed-race Young People. New York: Henry Holt, 1999. Print. • This book is a collections of stories from mixed race Americans. It discusses what it is like to grow up multicultural and biracial in America. It tackles a series of topics stretching from the joys to the hardships of growing up with two cultures or races. Source 6) Rockquemore, Kerry, and David L. Brunsma. Beyond Black: Biracial Identity in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002. Print. • This book discusses what it means to be multiracial in post-Civil Rights America is. It investigates the identities that develop when a child is raised by parents of different races, specifically black and white parents. It explores the stages of ethnic
Sollors, Werner. I Interracialism: Black-White Intermarriage in American History, Literature, and Law. New York: University Press, 2000.
One of Beverly Tatum's major topics of discussion is racial identity. Racial identity is the meaning each of us has constructed or is constructing about what it means to be a white person or a person of color in a race-conscious society. (Tatum, pp Xvii) She talks about how many parents hesitate to talk to their children about racism because of embarrassment and the awkwardness of the subject. I agree with her when she says that parents don't want to talk about racism when they don't see a problem. They don't want to create fear or racism where none may exist. It is touchy subject because if not gone about right, you can perhaps steer someone the wrong way. Another theory she has on racial identity is that other people are the mirror in which we see ourselves. (tatum pp18) 'The parts of our identity that do capture our attention are those that other people notice, and that reflects back to us.'; (Tatum pp21) What she means by this is that what other people tell us we are like is what we believe. If you are told you are stupid enough you might start to question your intelligence. When people are searching for their identity normally the questions 'who am I now?'; 'Who was I before?'; and 'who will I become'; are the first that come to mind. When a person starts to answer these questions their answers will influence their beliefs, type of work, where they may live, partners, as well as morals. She also mentions an experiment where she asked her students to describe themselves in sixty seconds. Most used descriptive words like friendly, shy, intelligent, but students of color usually state there racial or ethnic group, while white students rarely, if ever mention that they are white. Women usually mention that they are female while males usually don't think to say that they are males. The same situation appeared to take place when the topic of religious beliefs came up. The Jewish students mentioned being Je...
In the essay “Mixed-Blood Stew”, Jewell Parker Rhodes describes her mixed colored lineage and the penetrable makeup of all people along the color line. Rhodes recounts her childhood and shows how her family acknowledge each other of being more than just black and talk of all the race their blood consists of. She argues how people sees a black person; as black. She explains that black is not just black. Richard Rodriguez, author of “Blaxicans and Other Reinvented Americans” talks about how racial classifications, e.g. black, white, Hispanic, etc. should be discarded for they misrepresent the cultural and ethnic realities of today’s America (140). Rodriguez explains how culture has nothing to do with race and how certain labels (black, Hispanic)
The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnics Literature of the United States. Spring 2000
Tatum’s book “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” (1997) analyses the development of racial identity and the influence of racism in American’s culture. She emphasizes the Black-White interactions by comparing the terminology in which racism perceived based on David Wellman’s definition of racism. Tatum also believes racism is not one person in particular but is a cultural situation in which ethnicity assigns some groups significantly privileged compared to others. She illustrates how engaging children in terms of interracial understanding will empower them to respond to racial stereotypes and systems of discrimination.
Race and ethnicity is a main factor in the way we identify others and ourselves. The real question here is does race/ethnicity still matter in the U.S.? For some groups race is not a factor that affects them greatly and for others it is a constant occurrence in their mind. But how do people of mix race reacts to this concept, do they feel greatly affected by their race? This is the question we will answer throughout the paper. I will first examine the battle of interracial relationship throughout history and explain how the history greatly explains the importance of being multiracial today. This includes the backlash and cruelty towards interracial couple and their multiracial children. Being part of a multiracial group still contains its impact in today’s society; therefore race still remaining to matter to this group in the U.S. People who place themselves in this category are constantly conflicted with more than one cultural backgrounds and often have difficulty to be accepted.
Women and men always have different perspectives on topics. Not always will a married couple see eye to eye. Even individuals from the same culture and race still have different opinions. A couple may spend their life together, consequently to discover they have grown apart. As a result a husband and wife were in the kitchen, doing the dishes when the topic of interracial marriage came up. Tobias Wolff’s short story “Say Yes” uses the main characters point of view and symbolism to address interracial marriage and racism.
Counselors today face the task of how to appropriately counsel multicultural clients. Being sensitive to cultural variables can be conceptualized as holding a cultural lens to human behavior and making allowances for the possibility of cultural influence. However, to avoid stereotyping, it is important that the clinician recognize the existence of within-group differences as well as the influence of the client’s own personal culture and values (Furman, Negi, Iwamoto, Shukraft, & Gragg, 2009). One’s background is not always black or white and a counselor needs to be able to discern and adjust one’s treatment plan according to their client.
In this paper I will present the numerous theories built around the process of establishing one’s identity and provide examples of how this identity shapes a students involvement and actions while in school. I will also reflect on the importance for systems that foster identity formation that is equal for both inner-city and suburban children. It is crucial to the success of America’s schools to understand that a mixture of cultures creates a mixture of identi...
As a child, I never really knew that there was anything different about having parents of two different races because that was the norm for me. But as I started getting older, there was confusion when my dad picked me up from school because friends had seen my mother the day before and she was white. There was never judgement, but they just sort of made me feel weird for something I’d never even considered a problem. Being biracial has shaped my life experience in many ways. It’s given me insight to the theme “don’t judge a book
The trend and patterns of interracial marriages have increased substantially in America over the past few years. Between the early 1970 and late 1980’s after abolishing laws prohibiting interracial unions, the proportion of interracial marriages was under five percent of all married couples in America (Lewis & Robertson, 2010). Although recent surveys indicate that the percentage of interracial marriages is a little over five percent in America, the rate and frequency of occurrence are alarming (Lewis & Robertson, 2010). The American society has become more diverse and much of this diversity has been attributed to the growing number of new immigrants (Qian & Lichter, 2011). Immigration has lead to assimilation of many cultures into the mainstream American culture and as a result narrowing the gap between majority and minority groups. The United States of America Census Bureau show that there has been a dramatic increase in population due to immigration (Qian & Lichter, 2011). For instance, between 1980 and 2007, the Hispanic population in America has doubled while the Asian population has increased by four percent, and the Black population is more or less the same over the same time period (Lewis & Robertson, 2010). The increase in size of the population has resulted in the increase rate of interracial marriages. Interracial unions in the 1980’s represented about three percent of all marriages in America (Lewis & Robertson, 2010). In the year 2000, interracial marriages have only increased approximately by two percent, with marriages between Hispanic and white representing the greatest balance of all interracial marriages (Lewis & Robertson, 2010).
In these articles, the reader finds a similar topic of interracial marriage, and how it affects family dynamics. In the article “Loving v. Virginia,” the couple is separated because of racial differences, while in “Desiree’s Baby”,Armand and Desire’s relationship is broken as Armand requests her to leave because the baby is a “mixed” child. The article provides factual evidence when it mentions “the Lovings were woken in their bed at about
In the United States, its population consists of variety of races, ethnic and mixed groups including White Americans. Although the U.S is considered as a modern day melting pot country, White Americans are still considered the majority. Not only are they the majority in population, but they are also best known as the privileged population as well. Considering the diversity in the U.S, each person typically goes through a process of shaping their identity including White Americans. This process consists of experiences and influences from an individual, group and universal level. To be more in-depth regarding white racial identity development, the goal is to create an identity that is consistent of an individual’s increasing critical conscience
A main theme in this novel is the influence of family relationships in the quest for individual identity. Our family or lack thereof, as children, ultimately influences the way we feel as adults, about ourselves and about others. The effects on us mold our personalities and as a result influence our identities. This story shows us the efforts of struggling black families who transmit patterns and problems that have a negative impact on their family relationships. These patterns continue to go unresolved and are eventually inherited by their children who will also accept this way of life as this vicious circle continues.
My maternal grandparents are an interracial couple. My grandmother was born and raised in Japan and my grandfather was raised in Oklahoma. Roughly around 60 or so years ago my grandfather was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. The rest of their story is history, they fell in love and got married. My grandmother took a huge leap of faith and moved to America. She has told us many stories about the racism she experienced and how hard it was to come to a new unfamiliar place. Prior to reflecting on this paper I never thought about parents also being an interracial couple, they are my parents so it is normal to me.