Multiracial Jennifer Carter and Sheana Murphy Ball State University

Discussion Questions  What do you think of when you hear “Multiracial” or “Biracial”  Do certain images or people come to mind?  Does anyone identify as multiracial? What does being multiracial mean to you?  Can you tell us any experiences that you have had (positive/negative)?

Discussion  Barack Obama  White mother from Kansas  African American father from Kenya  The media has continued to call Obama the nation’s first major party “Black President,” even though he is technically biracial  What are your reactions to this?  How do you think this may make a biracial American feel?

Famous Individuals  Tiger Woods  Vin Diesel  “The Rock”  Halle Berry  Derek Jeter  Barack Obama

Miscegenation History  “Race Mixing”  People of mixed heritage have been citizens of this country since the inception  The first interracial marriage in U.S. history was the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas in 1614  In Jamestown, the first biracial Americans were children of African American-Caucasian, Caucasian-Indian, and African American-Indian unions  Interracial marriages were not well accepted in the colonies and were often made illegal  With the introduction of slaves in the United States, laws were created to keep the races separate

Miscegenation History  Laws prohibiting miscegenation since 1661  Prohibiting laws common up to 1967  1661: Virginia passed a law prohibiting interracial marriages and prohibited ministers from marrying interracial couples  1691: Virginia required women who gave birth to a biracial child to pay a fine or face servitude (five years for herself, thirty years for her child)  Maryland: Women who married an African American man had to serve her husbands owner as long as she was married to him  1715: Maryland made cohabitation between an African American and Caucasian unlawful  By the Civil War, five states had anti-miscegenation laws

Loving v. Commonwealth of Virginia  1967  Perry Loving, a white man, married wife Mildred Jeter, an African American and American Indian wife in Washington, D.C. because biracial marriages were at the time illegal in Virginia  When they returned, they were arrested while sleeping in bed because “they were breaking the law”  The judge governing the case gave the couple the option of spending one year in jail or moving to another state

Loving v. Virginia continued  The couple moved to Washington, D.C. and appealed their case, which eventually made it to the Supreme Court  The court ultimately found the laws against interracial marriage unconstitutional  The Chief Justice stated, “Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry or not marry a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed upon by the state.”  With this court decision, all remaining anti-miscegenation laws in the country were null and void

“One Drop Rule”  The idea that someone even with one distant African relative is black  This belief was made popular because it ensured that children from biracial heritage would remain slaves  “It is a fact that, if a person is known to have one percent of African blood in his veins, he ceases to be a white man. The ninety-nine percent of Caucasian blood does not weigh by the side of the one percent of African blood. The white blood counts for nothing. The person is Negro every time.” – Booker T. Washington, 1900

Census 2000  First time the Census Bureau allowed citizens to check as many racial categories as the person felt applied  Before this:  1790: People were placed into one of three categories: free white male, free white female, and other persons (i.e. slaves, American Indian, and free African Americans)  1890: Census added more categories like Chinese, Mulatto, Quadroon, Japanese, and American Indian  1910: Census eliminated the terms Mulatto, Quadroon, and Octoroon; People who qualified for these categories were then counted as African American  1990: The following racial categories were available: White, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Eskimo/Aleut, or Other

Percent Distribution of Population of Two or More Races  White and American Indian and Alaska Native: 15.9  White and Asian: 12.7  White and African American: 11.5  African American and American Indian and Alaska Native: 2.7  All other combinations: 50.5  Three or more races 6.7 Population reporting two or more races was 2.4 percent of the total population Census, 2000

Stereotypes  What are some multiracial stereotypes?  How have the people who identify as multiracial been stereotyped? Can you share your experiences?  According to Shih, Sanchez, Bonam, & Peck (2007), multiracial individuals are more likely to have a heightened awareness of race as a social construct than monoracial individuals.  Do you agree?  The results indicated that multiracial participants subscribed less to the notion that racial differences were biologically based, were more likely to inhibit stereotypes in response to race salience, and were less affected by race-based stereotypes than were monoracial participants.

Models of Biracial Identity  Early Models  1937: Racial Hybrids  1971: Afro-American Racial Identity Model  1978: 3 Stage Model of Identity Development  1. Aware of differences  2. Struggling for acceptance  3. Accepting biracial identity  Kich (1992): Developed a 3 stage model of identity specifically for biracial adults of Japanese and White ancestry.  1979: Minority Identity Development (MID)

Current Models  Ecological Identity Model  5 Positive Outcomes of Identity Development  1. Acceptance of ascribed identity  2. Identification with both racial groups  3. Identification with a single racial group  4. Identification with a new group  5. Adoption of a symbolic race or ethnicity  Root (1999) notes that a multiracial individual may choose to identify with one or another group depending on factors such as:  Environment, personal history, family influence, gender, social class

Current Models Cont..  Black/White Biracial Identity Development  Developed by Henricksen  Based on 6 stages:  1. Neutrality  2. Acceptance  3. Awareness  4. Experimentation  5. Transition  6. Recogniton  Not distinct states  Fluid & Ongoing  Environment

Current Models Cont…  Progressive Development Model  4 Identity Outcomes  1. Personal Identity  2. Choice of group categorization  3. Enmeshment/denial  4. Integration  What do they all have in common?  Influence of environment  Statutes NOT Stages  More than one outcome of successful multiracial identity  Others influence the individuals choice of identity Pedrotti, J.T., Lopez, S.J., & Edwards, L.M. (2008). Working with clients in therapy: Bridging theory, research, and practice. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 39, No. 2,

Multiracial Bill of Rights  Resistence  I have the right not to:  Justify my existence in this world.  Keep the races separate within me.  Be responsible for people’s discomfort with my physical ambiguity.  Justify my ethnic legitimacy.

Multiracial Bill of Rights  Revolution  I have the right to:  Identify myself differently than strangers expect me to.  Identify myself differently from how my parents identify me.  Identify myself differently than my brothers and sisters.  Identify myself differently in different situations.  Change  I have the right to:  Create a vocabulary to communicate about being multiracial.  Change my identity over my lifetime – and more than once.  Have loyalties and identity with more than one group of people.  Choose freely whom I befriend and love.

Best Therapeutic Technique?  Solution-focused technique  Concept of empowerment  Client Is the expert achievement empowerment  Discuss strengths and weaknesses  The client may possess strengths he/she has not recognized Pedrotti, J.T., Lopez, S.J., & Edwards, L.M. (2008). Working with clients in therapy: Bridging theory, research, and practice. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 39, No. 2,