"Americans like answers in black and white, a cultural trait we confirmed last year when the biracial man running for President was routinely called "black".
The flattening of Barack Obama's complex racial background shouldn't have been surprising. Many multiracial historical figures in the U.S. have been reduced (or have reduced themselves) to a single aspect of their racial identities: Booker T. Washington, Tina Turner, and Greg Louganis are three examples. This phenomenon isn't entirely pernicious; it is at least partly rooted in our concern that growing up with a fractured identity is hard on kids. The psychologist J.D. Teicher summarized this view in a 1968 paper: "Although the burden of the Negro child is recognized as a heavy one, that of the Negro-White child is seen to be even heavier."
But new research says this old, problematized view of multiracial identity is outdated. In fact, a new paper in the Journal of Social Issues shows that multiracial adolescents who identify proudly as multiracial fare as well as — and, in many cases, better than — kids who identify with a single group, even if that group is considered high-status (like, say, Asians or whites). This finding was surprising because psychologists have argued for years that mixed-race kids will be better adjusted if they pick a single race as their own."
To read the entire artcle, click here: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1880467,00.html
Thanks to Kristen (Organizer of Melting Pot Moms - Twin Cities) for sharing this article!
2 comments:
This article is very interesting. I am an African-American woman who is married to a mixed race (Southeast Asian - father/Eastern European - mother) man so perhaps I am biased, but I do agree that mixed-raced children can be better adjusted than children who identify with just one race. This was something that I noticed about my husband when we were just dating. I also was instantly welcomed/accepted by his parents. There were no comments about us being a "mixed" couple due his own parents being one.
GREAT article - nice to hear the positive aspects of being mixed. :-)
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