Mar

29

What About the Children? How Biracial Children Affect Family Approval of IRs

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Family Issues, Interracial Relationships, Original Essays and Analysis, Race and Racism, Uncategorized | 29 Comments

Another post out of the archive This was originally posted on Dec. 30th 2005.

Not proofread yet. It’s 12:30 AM, but I’ll go through it tomorrow.
Pt 3 of the Snippets from my Dissertation on Black/White Relationships. Keep in mind all of these posts are snippets of a much larger piece of work, so feel free to add to things, ask questions or give critiques. I’d love to hear feedback from people. In my dissertation, I focused on family approval of Black/White interracial relationships. The data is based on 39 interviews with people in interracial relationships (conducted individually) and 5 interviews with the relatives of some of these couples, so this is where most of the focus will be.

Clearly biracial children and views on them were a very significant feature in the process of family approval of Black/White relationships. In the interviews I conducted with Black/White couples, ?concerns? about the children of Black/White couples was the most common reason cited for opposing a relative?s interracial relationship (IR), but ironically, the birth of a biracial child was one of the factors most commonly associated with an increase in family acceptance.

Before elaborating on families objections to interracial relationships, I should acknowledge two ideas that have had a dramatic impact on how people with a Black parent and a White parent are viewed. Throughout American history the rule of hypodescent and the tragic mulatto image have shaped views of biracial children. Hypodescent involved a set of laws and rules that defined anyone with as little as ?one drop of black blood? to be Black; thus, the children of interracial unions were almost exclusively defined as Black (Wright 1993; Dalmage 2000; Moran 2001). The tragic mulatto ideology portrays Black/White biracial people as poor, lost souls caught in between two worlds and accepted by no group. According to this ideology, their mere existence was tragic, and they were destined to lead a life of sorrow because of their social ambiguity (Spickard 1989). Both these views are reiterated by relatives of interracial couples, especially White relatives. Several White respondents had heard negative things about biracial children well before they entered interracial relationships. However, it was not just relatives who had concerns about how biracial children would be perceived; even some members of interracial couples didn?t want to have children or were uncomfortable with having children with their spouse or partner.

Those relatives oppose to interracial relationships ?for the sake of the children? feel that biracial children will suffer because they are ?different.? They also believe that the child will be confused about his or her identity. People who expressed opposition to IRs also felt that interracial couples couples are seen as selfish, irrational, and unconcerned with the children?s well being, which they base on their assumption that biracial children have identity problems.

The one drop rule often comes up in interracial families because one of the primary concerns people have about such relationships is how the couple will raise their children to identify. In accordance with the one drop rule, most couples in this study tended to see their children as closer to Black. In some cases they said they would define their children as Black, and in other cases they said that their children would be seen as Black, in spite of their biracial backgrounds, something Rockquemore and Brunsma (2001) refer to as an unvalidated biracial identity. None of the respondents who had children identified them as White, and none of those who discussed biracial children referred to them as White; however, some did refer to individual biracial children as White looking, but not as White. Some couples and their families agreed (both Black and White) that the child would be treated as Black and should therefore be raised as such, but in many families racial differences emerged over how the child should be raised or identified (in terms of race). For White members of interracial couples the one drop rule was clearly racist, but for African Americans in interracial families the one drop rule was a racial reality that was part of being African American. Whites seem to prefer a biracial identity and Blacks seemed to prefer a Black identity.
Generally, the families of women, both Black and White, raised more concerns about biracial children. Given that it is women who bear children and women who are primarily responsible for raising children; it is not surprising that concerns about children were articulated more for women?s families. For White women?s relatives the general view is that children are a marker of the interracial relationship that can have a negative impact on how their daughter is viewed, but for Black women?s families the concern is less with the potential loss of privilege and more with the ability of a White male partner to understand and relate to his biracial children.

Families, particularly Black families worried about the racial makeup of the community the child will live in and the messages he or she will be given about racism. Many Black relatives were concerned about racism and/or isolation from other African Americans that a child could face if he or she lived in a predominantly White area.

Black relatives and White relatives generally had different ideas about the child?s racial identity and socialization. For some African American families, raising a child as biracial rather than Black was not seen as a challenge to the rule of hypodescent, but as a sign that the relative in the relationship or the child was (or could be) disloyal to African Americans. Given the long history of privileges bestowed on lighter skin blacks and those who could identify as ?mulatto,? it is not surprising that a mixed marriage raises concerns in African American families (Spickard 1989). While white families appear to be more concerned with the loss of privilege that interracial relationships and biracial children bring, Black families are concerned about the privileges biracial children enjoy over their Black (especially darker skinned) relatives.

Although concerns about children are cited as the primary reason for opposition to interracial relationships, ironically, most couples who had children reported that the birth of a child made their families more accepting of the relationship (which is consistent with Rosenblatt et. al., 1995). Several couples talked about how happy their family was when they had children. This was especially true if the child was the first grandchild, and this phenomenon was particularly dramatic in White families who had strongly opposed the interracial relationship. Grandparents wanted to develop relationships with their grandchildren, and in some cases, grandparents began to understand more about racism by gauging others? reactions to their grandchildren. The birth of a child may lead to greater approval because relatives see the couple following some elements of the traditional family script; moreover, it is much easier for relatives to be upset with adults than it is for them to be upset with children. While having children tended to make families more approving, it did not necessarily mean that the relationship was completely accepted or that there was peace in the family.

The question at the heart of families? objections/concerns is how children from interracial unions and their parents will fit into the current (and future) racial order. Will they be more closely allied with African Americans? Will they develop into a unique racial group (i.e. coloreds in South Africa)? Will individual children of interracial unions have the power to create their own racial identities? Or will they be forever lost souls with no group to call home as the tragic mulatto image would predict? Although it is not possible to predict the future racial order, it does appear that the way interracial couples and their relatives talk about children with a Black parent and a White parent provides a foreshadowing of the changes that contemporary racial ideology will bring.

In my next IR post, I’ll address some of the tensions between the traditional Black Civil Rights groups and the Multiracial Movement.

Mar

27

Warning to Asian American Bloggers

Filed Under Blogs Blogging Blogthropology, Education and Academia, Media Praises and Critiques, Race and Racism, Uncategorized | 16 Comments

My students are looking for you.? ? For my Asian American sociology class, I gave the students two journal assignments where they have to analyze an Asian American themed or authored blog. Here is the assignment exactly how I sent it to them:

Journal#2&3 Due April 12th
In the last two journal assignments you will need to analyze an Asian American blog. If you choose to do both journals, you must analyze two different blogs. If you are unclear what a blog is, you can check out the wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog).In class we discussed common portrayals of Asian Americans in mainstream media, focusing on focused on stereotyping/prejudice, discrimination, and invisibility/symbolic annihilation. Given these problems in mainstream media, some Asian American authors and organizations have decided to create alternative media in the forms of blogs. You will need to analyze one blog for each journal. Start by gathering background information on the blog, and then describe the 15 most recent posts). Here are some questions to help guide journal entry:
1. What is its mission or focus? (This can usually be found in a section labeled about.) Is it a group blog or a single author blog?
2. Describe the 15 most recent blog posts. What issues are covered? Are they related to any of the ideas we discussed in class?
3. Do you think the site or the posts you read challenge portrayals of Asian Americans or Asian American issues? Do you think the blog you read is different from the mainstream media? Does it challenge invisibility and stereotyping?
4. What if anything did you learn from this site?

You can choose from one (or two if you are doing J#4) of the following blogs.
Angry Asian Man http://www.angryasianman.com/angry.html
Sepia Mutiny http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/
Asian Nation http://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/index.php
Power and Politics http://powerandpolitics.blogspot.com/index.html
Racialicious http://www.racialicious.com/
Harlows Monkey http://harlowmonkey.typepad.com/
Twice the Rice http://twicetherice.wordpress.com
Zuky http://www.zuky.net/

J#4 Personal Reflection Due May 1
As the class draws to a close, I would like you to reflect on what you have learned during the semester. Describe your knowledge of Asian Americans prior to taking this class. Describe some of the new concepts or ideas you learned. What concepts/ideas did you find the most interesting?

? There are a few other blogs like reappropriate that I wanted to put as an option, but some of them haven’t been updated much lately.? I’ve also discovered a couple new blogs more recently.? These blogs represent several different issues or subgroups that we have discussed in class, so I was a little strategic.? I wanted a mixture of genders, ethnicities, identities, and subject areas.? ?

I also suggested that some of them may find useful information about their research papers.? Right now we have papers on: transracial/transnational adoption, interracial marriage, gendered portrayals in mass media, portrayals in movies, hate crimes and violence against after 9/11, general hate crimes, effects of multicultural education for Asian Americans, and bilingual education for Asian Americans.? Those are the topics I remember off the top of my head.?

Get ready for them.? They may even post a few comments, although I didn’t tell them they had to.? It’s a small group of only 13, so your traffic won’t go through the roof, but it may be a little blip.

Mar

27

“What makes one a Cherokee?”

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Race and Racism, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Go read this Poem/Comment at John Cornsilk’s site.? I’m not sure of the origin of the poem.? I searched around, and couldn’t find it.? This exemplifies? several of the primary reasons the Cherokee Nation’s vote to disenfranchise the Freedmen is so jacked up.? Here’s an excerpt:

Cherokees did not reduce community membership to something as simple as blood.

Those that choose to make one drop of Cherokee blood the only defining marker of what it means to be ‘Cherokee’ are sadly diseased. To say that ONLY blood matters, that blood is the ONLY deciding factor, do so in the highest disrespect for all of the real factors that make one an Indian, A Cherokee.

When only blood matters, then:

Participation in the community is irrelevant.
Contribution to the community is irrelevant.
Singing songs is irrelevant.
Stomp dancing is irrelevant.
Speaking the language is irrelevant.
Taking a meal to someone bedridden is irrelevant.
Taking a meal to someone just because is irrelevant.
Caring for one’s grandma is irrelevant.
Sharing with one’s neighbor is irrelevant.
Patching the roof of an elder is irrelevant.
Telling stories to children is irrelevant.
Listening to the stories is irrelevant.
Sitting on the porch swing with someone is irrelevant.
Learning lessons from the stories is irrelevant.
Gathering around the fire is irrelevant.
Burning cedar is irrelevant.
Collecting medicine is irrelevant.
Planting medicine is irrelevant.
Knowning one’s history is irrelevant.
Living in harmony with the earth is irrelevant.
Giving tobacco is irrelevant.
Respecting worms is irrelevant.
Respecting the ancestors is irrelevant.
Respecting the eagles is irrelevant.
Respecting elders is irrelevant.
Respecting children is irrelevant.
Respecting the sun is irrelevant.
Respecting the water is irrelevant.
Respecting the moon is irrelevant.
Respecting the buzzard is irrelevant.
Telling a good joke is irrelevant.
Laughing at a good joke is irrelevant.

Please make sure you go read the rest of the poem; it is really good, and you miss much of it if you just read the part.

And while you’re reading Cornsilk’s.? You can see? David’s response to Chief Smith.

Mar

26

Bunch-O-Links 3/26/07

Filed Under Bunch-O-Links, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

1. Lester Spence at Blacksmythe has a link to some really interesting art that exams the commodification of blackness.? The artist’s (Hank Willis Thomas) work could also be read a study of Black masculinity.

2. Then there is the story of the couple who is suing their fertility clinic, which I saw on TV and has been posted on Racialicious.? I’m preparing a post on this that will hopefully be out in the next couple weeks.? There are tons of things I have to say.

3. There are several good posts about the Next Top Model dead women photo shoot. BeansBeans made a good slide and put it up on YouTube.? Gingermiss has a good letter to Tyra Banks production company.? Here’s an excerpt? from her letter:

My 17-year-old sister watches ANTM. I thought it was shallow, sexist, and anti-intellectual before, but now I know that the show actually glorifies violence against women. I am appalled that this episode was even made, specifically by a production company whose mission claims that they are, currently developing material with an eye toward female driven characters with a sense of empowerment. This empowerment will come from a journey that embodies a whimsical yet sophisticated sensibility, blurring racial and social stereotypes and storylines. (Excerpt taken directly from http://www.tyrabanks.com/)

What a disgusting, perverse joke. If youre going to sexualize and glamorize violence against women, do not masquerade as a company that promotes empowerment…

4. This is funny because it’s funny.?

5. “Reasons to say NO to the Penis”? from Expressions of Herstory

Mar

26

Paris, TX Schools, Racism, and Shaquanda Cotton

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Education and Academia, Race and Racism, Uncategorized | 23 Comments

Sharon emailed me about the story of Shaquanda Cotton and asked that I put it up.? I have seen several other bloggers? posting about her case (Here, Here, Here, Here).? Here’s an excerpt from the Chicago Tribune that summarizes her case:

And then there is the case that most troubles Cherry and leaders of the Texas NAACP, involving a 14-year-old black freshman, Shaquanda Cotton, who shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun.

The youth had no prior arrest record, and the hall monitor–a 58-year-old teacher’s aide–was not seriously injured. But Shaquanda was tried in March 2006 in the town’s juvenile court, convicted of “assault on a public servant” and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until she turns 21.

Just three months earlier, Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family’s house, to probation.

“All Shaquanda did was grab somebody and she will be in jail for 5 or 6 years?” said Gary Bledsoe, an Austin attorney who is president of the state NAACP branch. “It’s like they are sending a signal to black folks in Paris that you stay in your place in this community, in the shadows, intimidated.”

Personally, I think pushing a hall monitor is a serious offense, but not an offense that? could lead to up to 7 years in juvenile prison.? Maybe something like a suspension even being sent to alternative school, but not 7 years in jail, especially when the teenager in question doesn’t have a prior criminal record.

However,? when I? read about the case further, I even began to question those more conventional punishments.? Here is why:

In the past five years, black parents have filed at least a dozen discrimination complaints against the school district with the federal Education Department, asserting that their children, who constitute 40 percent of the district’s nearly 4,000 students, were singled out for excessive discipline.?

In this particular case her mother believes that Shaquanda was targeted by school officials after the mother protested the school’s practices.? When I read about the number of discrimination complaints leveled at the schools, I was shocked.? It takes quite a bit of time and energy to file a complaint like this, which sets off red flags related to the schools practices. The US Department of Education has been investigating the school:

But the federal investigations of the school district are not so clear-cut, and they are not finished. In one 2004 finding, Education Department officials determined that black students at a Paris middle school were being written up for disciplinary infractions more than twice as often as white students–and eight times as often in one category, “class disruption.”

The Education Department asked the U.S. Justice Department to try to mediate disputes between black parents and the district, but school officials pulled out of the process last December before it was concluded.

And in April 2006, the Education Department notified Paris school officials that it was opening a new, comprehensive review to determine “whether the district discriminated against African-American students on the basis of race” between 2004 and 2006. Federal officials say that investigation is still in progress.

If you want more information about this case or would like to find contacts for the case, you can link to Sharon’s site.? She has a comprehensive list of links.

Mar

23

Pt 1Are Interracial Couples in it for Money?: IRs and the Marriage Gradient

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Class Classism and Economic Inequality, Family Issues, Gender and Sexism, Interracial Relationships, Original Essays and Analysis, Race and Racism, Sexuality and Heterosexism, Sociology, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

This was originally posted? on Nov. 25, 2005.? I have fetched out of the Way Back Machine? Archive, so if there were any comments they have been lost.? This was the first in a series of 6.?

Pt? 1 of the Snippets from my Dissertation. Keep in mind all of these posts are snippets of a much larger piece of work, so feel free to add to things, ask questions or give critiques. I’d love to hear feedback from people. In my dissertation, I focused on family approval of Black/White interracial relationships. The data is based on 39 interviews with people in interracial relationships (conducted individually) and 5 interviews with the relatives of some of these couples, so this is where most of the focus will be.

One general expectation in many families is that women (of all races) should gain economic status through marital relationships (and to a lesser extent non-marital intimate relationships). This gender ideology asserts that women should marry men who are economically stable and also men who have educational or economic statuses higher than their own this is called the marriage gradient.

Although the marriage gradient is the expectation for same race couples, especially White couples, interracial relationships between Blacks and Whites are significant because they tend pose challenges to the marriage gradient. Rather than just trading gender and economic status, many believe that interracial couples also trade on differences in racial status. Since interracial marriage violates racial taboos, many researchers tend to approach it as an irrational act; however, exchange theorists have tried to argue that couples are trading more than just gender and potential earning power, they are also trading racial status. Initially, many felt that highly educated Black men would leverage their high level of education in order to marry less educated White women, but recent studies have found that this pattern is not statistically significant (Qian 1997). This theory also assumes that a higher class would cancel out the lower racial status of a Black man, a claim that has never been proven. If this assumption is correct, then White men would have the most status to trade and Black women would have the least status to trade, given the economic inequality between race gender groups. The greatest weakness of rational choice models of interracial marriage is that they infer racial, class, or gender motives based on demographic characteristics of couples, rather than asking couples about their motives or about the perceived costs and benefits of interracial relationships and marriage. They also ignore one of the greatest potential costs of interracial relationships family disapproval and alienation. Familial expectations about the marriage gradient play a particularly important role in the process of family approval.

In the case of White women, the concern in their families is that they will not be able to gain financially from an interracial relationship. Most White families think their daughters are marrying down, even when the Black man is middle class. In these families, the expectation is that Black men are not capable breadwinners and even in cases where Black men are highly educated or well off, many White women’s families initially have trouble believing that the Black male partner is well off, and in many cases the higher status Black man is viewed as an anomaly a very rare gem among Black men.

For Black women in interracial relationships the issues surrounding the marriage gradient are more complex. Demographic studies have found that Black women/White men marriages tend to be exceptional when it comes to educational status. Black women are more likely than other groups of women to marry someone with less education when they marry intraracially or interracially (Kalmijn 1993, Qian 1997). What is even more interesting is that Black women in interracial relationships are even more likely to marry a less educated man than Black women in same race relationships. This trend is even more striking given White men’s higher average levels of education and income (Qian 1997, Kalmijn 1993). Rational choice theorists could argue that Black women more than any other group must trade higher levels of education since both their gender and race are perceived as lower than that of White men. This could also mean that only the highest status Black women could have interracial marital opportunities.

I have a lot more written abou this issue, but I’ll stop here. What do you think?

Mar

23

How Far Is This Going To Go? “House OKs timetable for troops in Iraq”

Filed Under Politics, Sociology, Uncategorized | 17 Comments

Here is the late breaking news.

WASHINGTON – A sharply divided House voted Friday to order President Bush to bring combat troops home from Iraq next year, a victory for Democrats in an epic war-powers struggle and Congress’ boldest challenge yet to the administration’s policy.

? Ignoring a White House veto threat, lawmakers voted 218-212, mostly along party lines, for a binding war spending bill requiring that combat operations cease before September 2008, or earlier if the Iraqi government does not meet certain requirements. Democrats said it was time to heed the mandate of their election sweep last November, which gave them control of Congress.

“The American people have lost faith in the president’s conduct of this war,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. “The American people see the reality of the war, the president does not.”

Mar

23

Horribly Misogynistic Fashion Spreads Via America’s Next Top Model and New York Times Magazine

Filed Under Gender and Sexism, Media Praises and Critiques, Pop Culture, Sociology, Uncategorized | 31 Comments

nyt-mag-noose-fashion-spread.jpg

Jean Kilborne, I hope you’re reading (I know she probably isn’t, but I figured I would give her a shout out anyways.).? I’ve got some pictures you can add to your award winning films on misogynistic media.?

First, we have last night’s episode of America’s Next Top Model, where the photo shoot consisted of simulations of murdered? models.? Jill mentioned it over at Feministe, and Jennifer at WIMN’s Voices has a much longer post, including this link to the actual pictures.? The pictures also include the comments of the judging panel, which adds another touch of misogyny to the photo shoot.? I saw the episode last night and dropped my jaw in amazement.

A few weeks ago the NYT magazine featured another blatantly misogynistic fashion spread.? This spread included women in nooses and bondage.? I was able to find the blogger Musings of a Working Mom who posted a few of the pictures on her site (You can see all of the photos here.).? The photo from above is one example from the NYT Magazine.

I say we start a letter writing campaign.? If you want to email the New York Times Magazine about their photo shoot. Here is the email: magazine@nytimes.com

America’s Next Top Model is sponsored by a few companies.? One such company is Sprint.? I found the name and email of some folks at Sprint.? I’m not really sure exactly who one is supposed to contact, but you could CC an email to each of these folks:

Sprint Nextel Executive Services
866-398-4606
executive.offices@sprint.com

Director of Consumer and Business Communications Laura Lisec
Laura.m.Lisec@sprint.com

I had a hell of a time finding contacts for Cover Girl, but they also sponsor ANTM if you can find a contact.? In fact, if anyone knows the right people to contact, feel free to tell me in the comments section.

Mar

21

I Need Spring Break

Filed Under Blogs Blogging Blogthropology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Folks, I really would like to come up with something original to post, and I have a whole bunch of ideas.? What I don’t have is time.? I’m dying for spring break; it’s awfully late this year, so I’m sorry if I don’t have much to add.? Over the next couple weeks I’m going to bring back my old interracial relationship posts from my dissertation to hold things over until I get a break in a few weeks.? Enjoy, I’ll respond in the comments sections, but you just won’t see much new material.

Mar

21

Erase Racism is Up at Racialicious!

Filed Under Race and Racism, Racism Round-Up, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

The 10th Erase Racism Carnival? is up over at Racialicious.? Carmen managed to collect about a million posts.? Double Consciousness will be hosting the 11th Carnival on April 20th. Submit your posts? by the 17th of April if you are interested. If you are interested in hosting a future edition of the carnival, check the carnival’s official page for availability and let us know when you would like to host.

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