She claims blackness when she perceives it to be useful and provide her with financial, social, or educational opportunities (such as on her college admission forms), but in her everyday life and self-understanding she is white. Michelle so deeply and clearly self-identifies as white that she describes the act of claiming a black identity on her college admissions forms as “passing for black.”29
As is apparent in these two examples, the development of a singular identity is heavily influenced by physical appearance and cultural context. Whether identifying as “exclusively Black” or “exclusively White,” those who develop a singular identity understand their mixed-race status as a fact of their birth that’s otherwise not meaningful in their daily lived experience. They acknowledge the existence of the parent whose identity is different from their own but generally don’t mention that part of their heritage unless asked.
The self-understanding of those who claim a “border identity,” a term coined by Gloria Anzaldúa, is quite different. The fact of their mixed-race birth is at the heart of their self-definition. “Mixed-race people who have a border identity don’t consider themselves to be either black or white, but instead incorporate both ‘blackness’ and ‘whiteness’ into a separate hybrid category of self-reference.”30 Among the participants in the Rockquemore and Brunsma study, the border “biracial” identity was the most common self-identification (58 percent). However, among this group, there were those whose self-identification as biracial was externally validated through their interactions with others, and those whose biracial identity was not validated by other people. Whether or not others validate the chosen identity makes an important difference in one’s daily life.
Among the study participants, Anthony is an example of someone whose biracial identity has been externally validated since childhood. Though he would not be perceived as White, he is not immediately identifiable as Black. His physical appearance is racially ambiguous. His Black father left the family when Anthony was young, leaving Anthony feeling resentful toward him, one reason among many perhaps that Black is not his self-identification. Raised by his White mother in a predominantly White community, he attended a school in which half of the children of color identified as biracial. In that context, it was easy for Anthony to also develop a strong sense of himself as biracial, an identity validated by others in his social environment.
Chris is an example of someone whose self-identification as biracial is unvalidated. Because of her physical appearance, most people assume she is Black, and like the earlier example of Aisha, nobody asks her about her family background. They simply assume they know what it is. However, unlike Aisha, whose family was cut off from their White relatives, Chris grew up in a close and loving extended family that included both her Black and Irish relatives and their cultural influences. For that reason perhaps, Chris says her identity is “biracial” yet she is painfully aware that other people do not see her that way. “I experience the world as a black woman.”
She felt that her family and close friends appreciated, understood and validated her as biracial, but when she had to interact with people outside of her immediate social network, they categorized her as black and attributed all the assumptions and preconceived ideas that go along with blackness to her. She felt sad about the lack of validation, yet she was also resigned to the fact that there would always be a chasm between her self-identification (as biracial) and society’s identification of her (as black).31
While people like Anthony whose physical appearance is racially ambiguous (some combination of lighter skin, lighter eye color, curly or straight hair, European facial features, for example) may have their biracial self-identification accepted, legitimized, and validated by others, those whose physical characteristics are quickly recognizable by others as Black do not experience the external validation of their self-identification as biracial. More than half of the respondents in the Rockquemore study who claimed a border identity were unvalidated by others (acquaintances, strangers, and society at large), though like Chris, they may well be validated by those closest to them (family members and intimate friends). Because they are treated by most others as Black, members of the unvalidated group “are more likely to report their cultural, political, physical and bureaucratic identity (i.e., the identity they select on forms) as ‘black’ rather than ‘biracial.’”32
Those who claim what Rockquemore and Brunsma call a “protean” identity are chameleon-like in the fluidity of their identity expression. Only 6.5 percent of the respondents in their study described themselves in this way. Mike is one of them. He grew up in a small midwestern town where his parents were the only interracial couple in the area, and Mike was the only person of color at school and in his social network in the town. But he also spent a lot of time with his Black extended family, and he feels like he is an “insider” whether he is in the company of Black people or with Whites or as a biracial person in a racially mixed group.
For Mike, any social situation must be assessed for what identity will “work,” and then that particular identity will be presented. Does he view this shape-shifting as problematic? On the contrary, he views his ability to effectively possess and present different identities and have them accepted as authentic by different groups of people as “the gift of being biracial.”
[For] respondents like Mike… their racial identities are directly tied to their ability to cross boundaries between black, white and biracial, which is possible because they possess black, white and biracial identities. These individuals feel endowed with a degree of cultural savvy in several social worlds and understand their mixed-race status as the way in which they are accepted, however conditionally, in varied interactional settings.… This contextual shifting leads individuals to form a belief that their multiple racial backgrounds are but one piece of a complex self that is composed of assorted identifications that are not culturally integrated. When the topic of racial identification was initially broached with Mike, he said: “Well shit, it depends on what day it is and where I’m goin’.”33
Though what is called here a “protean identity” was not a common way of self-identifying—in fact, it was the least frequent—it is of particular interest to researchers because it requires “a complex mastery of various cultural norms and values and an ongoing awareness and monitoring of one’s presentation of self.”34 Those who self-identify this way report feeling close to both Blacks and Whites and are distinguished from the other identity groups previously described by the fact that they have racially mixed social networks and had lots of experience in both Black and White communities during their growing-up years. In that sense, they are truly multicultural “border-crossers,” shifting from one identity to another with relative ease and psychological comfort, just as some multilingual people can switch between languages as needed.35
The last type of self-identification that Rockquemore and Brunsma described is the transcendent or “non-racial” identity. Approximately 15 percent of the study respondents expressed this self-understanding, essentially refusing to participate in the racial categorization process in any way other than as “human.” The following quote captures the transcendent perspective:
I’m just John, you know. I never thought this was such a big deal to be identified, I just figured I’m a good guy, just like me for that, you know. But when I came here [to college] it was like I was almost forced to look at people as being white, black, Asian or Hispanic. And so now, I’m still trying to go, “I’m just John” but uh, you gotta be something.36
Most, but not all, of the “transcendents” were perceived by others as White based on their physical appearance. In that sense, they may not claim “Whiteness” as Michelle did, but they are viewed and treated by others as if that were their self-identification. It is not uncommon to hear monoracial White people say that they don’t think about race, and if one is perceived as White, it is relatively easy to move through the world without having one’s self-identification as “non-ra
cial” questioned. However, it would seem to be quite difficult to assume a “non-racial” stance if your physical appearance marked you as Black, yet a small number did. For all of the participants in this category,
their status as mixed-race provided them with the perspective of the “stranger.” They perceived their detached, outsider’s perspective as enabling them to objectively articulate the social meaning placed on race and discount it as a “master status” altogether.… Experiences of discrimination, perceived from the standpoint of the stranger, neither reinforce nor negate their existing sense of self. Our respondents who have a transcendent identity seemed content to be at the periphery of a racially divided America, annoyed by the inconveniences, but playing their role when necessary.37
What is abundantly clear from the results of the Rockquemore and Brunsma study is that there is no unified racial identity known as “multiracial” or singular understanding as to what it means in one’s daily life. It is also clear that while physical appearance plays a role in how one’s self-understanding evolves, it is not the only determining factor. Socioeconomic status plays a role because the higher the social status of the parents, the more likely the child is to have access to White social networks through the schools they attend and the neighborhoods in which they reside. Having a more White-like appearance and high exposure to White social networks increases the likelihood of developing a border identity that will be validated and reduces the likelihood of developing a singular Black identity. Mixed-race individuals who grow up in predominantly Black communities, regardless of physical appearance, are likely to be validated as “Black” by their Black neighbors, who themselves vary in phenotype, and in that context mixed-race individuals are more likely to choose an exclusively Black identity because of their community acceptance.38 But it is not always that straightforward.
It seems to be the quality of interaction within those social networks that makes the difference. “What occurs within those networks and the type of interactions that individuals have within those settings affect their choices of racial identity. We conceptualize these as push and pull factors where individuals, located within particular types of social networks, may feel pulled toward one racial identity option because of positive experiences with one group and/or may feel pushed away from another racial identity because of negative experiences.”39
Building on the findings of Rockquemore and Brunsma, social scientist Nikki Khanna also noted the “push-pull” phenomena that mixed-race youth experience in her qualitative interview study of forty individuals (average age of twenty-four) living at the time of the interviews in metropolitan Atlanta. She found that the majority of biracial respondents in her study felt pulled toward identifying as Black because of the general acceptance of the Black community and pushed away from claiming a White identity because of a sense of rejection from Whites who perceived them as Black, or at least “not White.”40
However, she describes what she calls the “gendered rejection” that mixed-race women experience in both White and Black communities.
Social exclusion appeared more pronounced for women than men in this study within the context of dating in adolescence and young adulthood. While biracial men in this study described feeling desired by white female peers in dating relationships, biracial women told a markedly different story. White males, they argued, ignored and overlooked them as potential romantic partners, leaving those who grew up in predominantly white communities feeling unattractive and socially isolated.41
Biracial girls are often considered beautiful objects of curiosity because of their “exotic” looks, but this attention does not necessarily translate into dating partners if they live in White communities. Conversely, biracial girls in predominantly Black environments may be actively sought after by Black boys and consequently become objects of resentment by monoracial Black girls because of the legacy of colorism in Black communities, conferring favored status to those with light skin, straight or wavy hair, and European features. Indeed, the biracial women in Khanna’s study reported encountering hostility from Black women who seemed jealous of their physical appearance and popularity with Black males. This was a dynamic that biracial males did not encounter. “When asked whether they ever faced hostility or negative treatment from black people, 61.3 percent of women said yes, while only one biracial male agreed.”42 Despite the dynamic of colorism within the Black community, which was a factor in biracial women’s sense of acceptance, most of the men and women in Khanna’s study still felt more strongly identified as Black as overall they felt more accepted in Black communities.
To further probe how mixed-race youth come to understand where they “belong” racially, Khanna makes use of social comparison theory to look at how adolescents form their internalized racial identities. “Fundamental questions facing black-white biracial people such as ‘Who am I racially?’ may be answered by comparing themselves to black, white, and other black-white biracial people on several dimensions, including 1) phenotype (i.e., how they look); 2) culture (e.g., how they dress, what they eat, how they speak); and 3) experiences of privilege, prejudice and discrimination.”43
The first social comparison the mixed-race child is likely to make is with other family members. Biracial children, like all children, begin to develop their racial awareness during the preschool years. They notice physical differences between themselves, their parents, and others. Skin color and hair texture are likely to be commented on from an early age. As discussed earlier, these observations can catch parents off guard. Maureen Reddy, the author of Crossing the Color Line: Race, Parenting, and Culture, relates her son’s efforts to understand both gender and race simultaneously at the age of three.44 Her son had observed that he and his Black father both had penises, but his White mother did not. Attributing the difference to race rather than gender, he asked, “Why do White people have vaginas?” Such questions reflect the child’s efforts to make sense of the world and to create categories, as all children do. Racial awareness seems to develop earlier among biracial children than it does among White children, probably due to their early exposure to different racial groups in the context of their own family. In this regard, their experiences may be similar to monoracial Black children growing up in families where one parent is light-skinned and the other dark.
If the child’s look is significantly different from that of the same-sex parent, the child may express a desire for sameness at an early age. For example, if the mother’s skin is light and her daughter’s is dark, the daughter may wish for lighter skin like Mom’s. This wish in itself is not necessarily a sign of low self-esteem but a natural expression of a desire to be identified with the parent. In fact, in the following example, it was the mother that the five-year-old child wished to change, not herself. As a mother and daughter were riding in the car together, the child was playing with a “magic wand.” The White mother asked, “If you really had magic, what would you do?” Without any hesitation, the Black daughter replied, “I would turn your skin brown.”45
The fact that the child and parent don’t match may be a cause for unwanted attention from others who ask if the child is adopted or assume that the parent is a babysitter. Particularly if the parent appears Black and the child appears White, White adults may even question the parent’s right to be with the child. For example, one Black mother of a White-looking child took her infant to a public gathering several weeks after her birth, one of their first outings together. An older White woman saw her carrying the child and asked accusingly, “Where did you get that baby?” While the infant surely doesn’t remember this event, similar scenes are repeated during the preschool years and later, heightening the child’s awareness of the physical differences between family members.
The impact of physical social comparisons within the family is captured in this quote from one of Khanna’s participants, Lauren, who internally identifies as Black:
I think in some instances when I was younger [being with my white fami
ly members] made me acutely aware that I was different.… You know, because when I’d go in these situations with my [white] mom and… her family, I mean there was me and there was everybody else with their blonde-haired and blue-eyed kids. And then there’s me.… It was just kind of filtered into my brain that I was different. It makes it easier for me to identify with being black. I look at [black] people [and] I’m like, “Okay, you look like me. So obviously I’m one of you if I look like you and you look like me.46
Biracial children within the same family can have different phenotypes and consequently make different social comparisons. Kate, who identifies internally as White, says, “I don’t really feel like I look really black compared to black people that I know. Or even like biracial people. I don’t even look anything like my [biracial] sister. She has, like, the black person hair and I have the white person hair and I look really different.… I look more like my [white] mom.”47
While social comparisons regarding physical appearance are usually based on realistic comparisons—that is, comparisons to real people in the person’s social network (e.g., family members or school peers)—other kinds of social comparisons (perceived cultural differences, for example) may be based on constructive comparisons—that is, comparisons based on imagined differences, often stereotypes. “In the case of black-white biracial people, they may rely on constructed comparisons when real (black or white) referents are underrepresented in their social networks, and hence, when real referents are unavailable for direct comparison.”48 For example, in Khanna’s study, biracial youth who grew up in predominantly White racial networks tended to compare themselves against negative racial stereotypes of Blacks, and consequently, there was a desire to differentiate themselves from the negative stereotype by identifying as White or biracial. There was also a tendency for some biracial respondents to conflate race and class in the social comparisons they made, “equating being middle class with having a White identity.”49 Says Kate, also quoted above, who grew up in a small, predominantly White community:
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Page 35
