“Mixed” = advantageous at mixed media watch

“Mixed” = advantageous

columnist jerry large Yet another article that offers the idea that the “mixed” label is a way for people to run away from their “darkness.” The Seattle Times reports on a survey that took a look at the way parents identified their mixed children. First, the talk about the one-drop rule is a bit problematic. By placing it in opposition to mixed identity (which is explained in negative terms in this article), there is an implied acceptance of the one drop rule. This article seems to say that it kept things orderly. And simple. Damn, the mixed people! They have been “[confusing] the system!” :(

David L. Brunsma, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has a study that mines data from thousands of families. The children in the study were born between 1992 and 1994, which is when my son and his mixed-race friends entered the world.

Brunsma writes, “Mixed-race persons have always been a ‘concern’ in American society because of the challenge they pose to the racial order.” Race is one of the ways we determine how social and economic goodies are distributed. People who are mixed confuse the system.

The one-drop rule arose to fix the problem of people who would otherwise defy the sorting mechanism. The practice in United States has been that a person couldn’t be considered white if he or she had one drop of minority blood.

Parents of multiracial children are moving away from the one-drop rule (hypodescent) into what Brunsma calls “reverse hypodescent.” That is, they’re calling their children white or multiracial rather than giving them a minority label that might be disadvantageous.

Brunsma said the data suggest the United States may be moving toward a different type of racial hierarchy as parents of mixed children try to distance them from lower levels.

This author clearly doesn’t get it. Claiming a mixed identity isn’t about trying to get something out of it. It’s about identifying completely — recognizing all that you are. Although, perhaps the DNA opportunists are ruining it for the rest of us. :|

Trackbacks & Pings

Mixed Media Watch - tracking media representations of mixed people on 19 Jun 2006 at 8:18 am

[…] Then to make it even worse, out of all the possible academics the reporter could have spoken to, she chose to showcase David Brunsma. That’s the same guy who inspired this odious column back in April. Basically, Brunsma is of the “running from your blackness” school of thought: he believes that people who identify as mixed do so as a way to escape discrimination and disadvantage. […]

Comments

Unlisted wrote:

Brusma’s entire argument is based on a false premise: That mixed race people (those with African blood) are desperately looking to escape ‘blackness’ as I presume, based on this argument, that all blacks would like to escape this but have no means. So with the mixed racers leaving the ranks, they are making those on “the bottom” weaker. Hense the desperation to claim “exotic” looking mixed people as it gives esteem to those who make this argument.

This thinking is ridiculous as everyone from Derek Jeter to Manute Bol are the same people.

It is encouraging that more mixed race people are moving away from the Halle Berry example and more towards the Tiger Woods example.

As more and more of these children grow up, it is my hope that Brunsma’s thinking will become as ridiculed as one who thinks that the earth is flat.

Posted 16 Apr 2006 at 1:32 pm ¶
Rubberbiegeman wrote:

I think we should start saying that when a “light skinned black” person call themselves black they are “running from their whiteness.”

Posted 16 Apr 2006 at 2:33 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:

I really think both the auhor of the book and the columnist are limiting themselves to an older generation’s mindset, while using new data (from the early 1990s). I was born in the late 70s, and my mother is white - but she didn’t raise me to RUN from blackness - she just wanted me to have both backgrounds.

I wonder, what would they say a Asian Black White Hispanic person is running from? How far does their one-droppism go?

Posted 16 Apr 2006 at 2:47 pm ¶
mr guy wrote:

Here is my main problem with the article.It places all black people(and they give a bone to a few native americans) at the bottom.Second problem, there is this sense of paranoia that biracials will somehow be a buffer between blacks and whites ignoring all other races.Plus being biracial does not mean you will automatically be more accepted.

Posted 17 Apr 2006 at 6:10 am ¶
Rachel S wrote:

I think the article correctly describes some people who identify as biracial, but not all. I also think that the distinction between Black/White biracial people (and American Indians to a much lesser extent). You have to remember that there are places around the world, especially places like Haiti where a creole or biracial status is held in much higher regard. We shouldn’t act like this phenomenon doesn’t exist, but we also can’t assume that it applies to everyone who claims this status.

Posted 18 Apr 2006 at 8:53 pm ¶
Rachel S wrote:

Edit, sorry: I also think there is a distinction between Black/White biracial people and racial combinations is important because the rule of hypodescent was most strictly and legally applied to this goup and not others.

Posted 18 Apr 2006 at 9:14 pm ¶
Unlisted wrote:

I never thought of it this way, but this was brought to my attention.

Consider this:

Note the difference in perception between TWO of these three half Asian men: Keanu Reeves, Dean Cain and Hines Ward.

And these two half Asian women: Kristen Kreuk and Amerie Rogers

This is the evil of the “one drop” rule in action

Posted 19 Apr 2006 at 5:01 pm ¶
Dave wrote:

Rachel Sullivan (Rachel S.),

On this topic I disagree with you and I agree with the founders of mixedmediawatch, as well as posters like Unlisted.

White/Black biracials choosing to embrace all aspects of their heritage are shouldn’t be bullied with accusations that they are “running away from their blackness”, any more than any other mix. I hope that you don’t enable such bullying of folks of my background and who share my identity in the future, in your career as an academician. You identifying as a white woman (don’t your human ancestors originate from Africa too?) but saying that some folks who choose to identify as white/black biracial are running away from their blackness seems a bit hypocritical to me. Why don’t you start by example and start identifying as monoracially black yourself?

I too hope in the future such social pressuring will be as ridiculed as claims that the world is “flat”, and that the Tiger Woods model of embracing all of one’s heritage is widely accepted as a positive option the future.

Posted 23 Apr 2006 at 10:19 pm ¶
Janis wrote:

Rachel, like you I find the article pretty straight forward and accurate. Once blacks understand the true mindset of most biracials they will cease accepting the one drop rule almost instantly. Those who believe differently are in for a big surprise.

Posted 01 May 2006 at 7:53 pm ¶
amalia wrote:

I dont understand unlisted’s example of the one drop rule in relation to Keanu Reeves, Amerie and the others. Anyone care to clarify?

Also, it doesn’t make sense to (however ironically) suggest that a “white person” should identify with being “black”, as all humankind originated in Africa. Racial categories, particularly those of “white” and “black” clearly were created and cemented in a time when this was not known. Knowledge of it now has done very little to dismantle divisions.

Posted 14 May 2006 at 10:24 am ¶
James Landrith wrote:

Sorry Rachel, but Jen is absolutely right. Identifying as multiracial is about acknowledging all you are, not running from your blackness or trying to elevate yourself above others.

Your obvious embrace of the racist one-drop rule makes your constant presence in the multiracial community troubling.

Posted 25 Sep 2006 at 2:24 pm ¶