Race Policy and Multiracial Americans

245 Pages·2016·1.485 MB·English

by  Kathleen Odell Korgen (ed.)

Edited by
Kathleen Odell Korgen
RACE POLICY AND MULTIRACIAL
AMERICANS
Edited by
Kathleen Odell Korgen
First published in Great Britain in 2016 by

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Contents
List of figures and tables iv
Author biographies v
Introduction 1
Kathleen Odell Korgen
One Multiracial Americans throughout the history of the US 13
Tyrone Nagai
Two National and local structures of inequality: multiracial 29
groups’ profiles across the US
Mary E. Campbell and Jessica M. Barron
Three Latinos and multiracial America 51
Raúl Quiñones-Rosado
Four The connections among racial identity, social class, and 67
public policy?
Nikki Khanna
Five Multiracial Americans and racial discrimination 81
Tina Fernandes Botts
Six Should all (or some) multiracial Americans benefit from 101
affirmative action programs?
Daniel N. Lipson
Seven Multiracial students and educational policy 123
Rhina Fernandes Williams and E. Namisi Chilungu
Eight Multiracial Americans in college 139
Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero and Kristen A. Renn
Nine Multiracial Americans, health patterns, and health policy: 155
assessment and recommendations for ways forward
Jenifer L. Bratter and Christa Mason
Ten Racial identity among multiracial prisoners in the 173
color-blind era
Gennifer Furst and Kathleen Odell Korgen
Eleven Multiraciality and the racial order: the good, the bad, 191
and the ugly
Hephzibah V. Strmic-Pawl and David L. Brunsma
Twelve Multiracial identity and monoracial conflict: toward 207
a new social justice framework
Andrew Jolivette
Conclusion: Policies for a racially just society 221
Kathleen Odell Korgen
Index 227
iii
Race policy and multiracial Americans
List of figures and tables
Figures
2.1 American Community Survey questionnaire, 2011 32
2.2 Median household income for multiracial adults, divided 38
by city median household income, 2007–2011 ACS
2.3 Median household income for multiracial children, 40
divided by city median household income, 2007–2011
ACS
2.4 Foreign-born adults by multiracial groups and city, 41
2007–2011 ACS
2.5 Bilingual adults by multiracial groups and city, 42
2007–2011 ACS
2.6 Foreign-born children by multiracial groups and city, 43
2007–2011 ACS
2.7 Bilingual children by multiracial groups and city, 43
2007–2011 ACS
2.8 Adult college graduates (age 25+) by multiracial groups 44
and city, 2007–2011 ACS
Tables
I.1 Approval for interracial marriage 3
2.1 Average socio-economic characteristics of the 10 largest 34
multiracial groups: adults, 2007–2011 ACS, weighted
2.2 Average socio-economic characteristics of the 10 largest 36
multiracial groups: children, 2007–2011 ACS, weighted
9.1 Expected probabilities of health measures among 160
non-Hispanic US-born adults by race
10.1 Racial identity of first-generation multiracial descent 177
prisoners
10.2 Racial identity of multigenerational multiracial descent 178
prisoners
iv
Author biographies
Jessica M. Barron is a postdoctoral fellow in the Social Science
Research Institute at Duke University, Durham. Her research focuses
on racial inequality and the dynamics of race in multiracial churches.
Currently, she is examining multiracial segregation in US cities using
newly refined versions of traditional segregation measures.
Tina Fernandes Botts is a Visiting Assistant Professor & Consortium
for Faculty Diversity at Liberal Arts Colleges Postdoctoral Fellow at
Oberlin College. She is also chair of the American Philosophical
Association’s (APA’s) Committee on the Status of Black Philosophers
and the managing editor of the APA’s Newsletter on Philosophy and the
Black Experience. Professor Botts is currently at work on two books:
Philosophy and the mixed race experience and Race, Aristotle’s proportional
equality and the equal protection clause.
Jenifer L. Bratter is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Rice
University and the director of the Program for the Study of Ethnicity
Race and Culture. Professor Bratter’s research primarily focuses on
the ways racial interactions in the realms of families and identities
have implications for the ways racial disparities in health and poverty
are captured and experienced Her work appears in in peer-reviewed
journals and book chapters.
David L. Brunsma is Professor of Sociology at Virginia Tech. He
is author and/or editor of Beyond Black: biracial identity in America
and Mixed messages: multiracial identities in the “colorblind” era, among
others. He is Founding Co-Editor of the Section of Racial and Ethnic
Minorities’ new journal Sociology of Race and Ethnicity at the American
Sociological Association. He lives and loves with his wife Rachel, and
his three kids, Karina, Thomas, and Henry in Blacksburg, VA.
Mary E. Campbell is an Associate Professor of Sociology affiliated
with the Race and Ethnic Studies Institute at Texas A&M University.
Her work on racial identification and racial inequality has been funded
by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on
Aging, and has appeared in journals such as the American Sociological
Review, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Social Problems.
v
Race policy and multiracial Americans
E. Namisi Chilungu, PhD, is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the
Department of Educational Psychology, Special Education, and
Communication Disorders. She has a doctorate and master’s degree
in Educational Psychology from the University at Buffalo. She is
passionate about increasing quality access to education for all students,
particularly students from marginalized populations or high-need
communities.
Gennifer Furst received her doctorate in Criminal Justice from
CUNY Graduate Center/John Jay College. She is an Associate
Professor at William Paterson University of New Jersey. Her research
interests include incarceration and prison programs, particularly those
involving animals.
Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero is an Assistant Professor in the Higher
Education and Student Affairs program, Department of Education
Studies at The Ohio State University. His research interests focus on
racial dynamics in US higher education, with specific attention to
issues of multiraciality within understandings of campus climate and
college student development.
Andrew Jolivette is Professor and Chair of American Indian Studies
at San Francisco State University. He is the author of several books
and essays including Research justice: methodologies for social change (Policy
Press, 2015) and Obama and the biracial factor: the battle for a new American
majority (Policy Press, 2012).
Nikki Khanna is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of
Vermont. Her areas of specialization are multiracial people and identity
and, more recently, the role of race in adoption. She is the author
of Biracial in America: forming and performing racial identity (Lexington
Books, 2011).
Kathleen Odell Korgen is Professor of Sociology at William Paterson
University. She received her BA from the College of the Holy Cross and
her PhD at Boston College. Kathleen, a public sociologist, specializes
in race relations, racial identity, and inequality.
Daniel N. Lipson, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Political Science
at SUNY New Paltz. He earned his PhD in Political Science in 2002
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on the
vi
Author biographies
legal and political battles over race-based affirmative action in higher
education.
Christa Mason, BA, graduated from Rice University in 2014,
majoring in Sociology. She was accepted to The University of Texas
at Arlington, where she will earn a Master of Science in Industrial/
Organizational Psychology.
Tyrone Nagai is an Assistant Editor at Asian American Literary Review.
He also served as Art Director of the Mixed-Race Initiative.
Raúl Quiñones-Rosado, PhD, is a social justice educator, antiracism
organizer, and Latino leadership coach. His book, Consciousness-in-
action: toward an integral psychology of liberation & transformation, is used
in academic programs in psychology, counseling, social work, and
social justice education in the US and Latin America, as well as by
political activists, community organizers, anti-oppression trainers,
helping professionals, and others. He lives with his family in Cayey,
Puerto Rico.
Kristen A. Renn is Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong
Education at Michigan State University, where she also serves as
Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Director for Student
Success Initiatives. Her research focuses on college student identities,
development, and success.
Hephzibah V. Strmic-Pawl is an Assistant Professor of Sociology
at Manhattanville College. Her teaching and research interests center
on race, racism, and social inequality, with a particular focus on
multiracialism. Strmic-Pawl’s forthcoming book is a comparative
analysis of how Asian–White people’s and Black–White people’s racial
identity and opportunities are differentially shaped by the hegemony
of the US racial hierarchy.
Rhina Fernandes Williams specializes in critical pedagogy, teacher
development, and multicultural education, with a special interest in
education for social justice. She is currently a faculty member in the
Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education at Georgia
State University in Atlanta.
vii

Introduction
Kathleen Odell Korgen
This is a book about a controversial topic—race policy and multiracial
Americans. Simply mentioning the term “multiracial” can draw strong
reactions among social commentators and scholars today. As Rainier
Spencer (2014: 166) puts it:
[some] argue that multiracial identity has the potential
to undo race in the United States as long as it attends to
social justice and does not present itself as a racially superior
category, while other scholars contend that multiracial
identity is supportive of White supremacy and is a
throwback to earlier, simplistic, and racist conceptualizations
of the American mulatto.
Many civil rights groups, including the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Urban League,
view the creation of a multiracial category (and its support by opponents
of civil rights and affirmative action policies such as Newt Gingrich)
as a potential threat to race policies established to protect and assist
monoracial racial minorities. On the other hand, many multiracial
organizations and advocates for a multiracial category within the US
Census and other demographic instruments understand the need to
address racial discrimination but also “believe in an all-inclusive society,
where all individuals are afforded the dignity and autonomy to identify
themselves in the ways they believe represent them” (Swirl, no date
[a]: para 3). They aim to “create supportive and inclusive communities
for all people” (MAVIN, 2014: paras 2, 4) and “have created a home
for those who refuse to be boxed into ‘choosing just one’” (Swirl, no
date[b]: para 2). While acknowledging and working to combat all acts
of racism in society, they aim a spotlight on racial issues that impact
multiracial persons because of their mixed heritage.
The acknowledgment of persons who identify as multiracial and
the issues related to them are the foci of the newly recognized field
of critical mixed race (CMR) studies. While building on the work
of critical race and ethnic studies, CMR scholars “place mixed race
at the critical center of focus” (Daniel, 2014: 1). CMR scholars both
stress the social construction of racial categories “that are continuously
1