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Aug
21
Tragic Mulatto is a Myth and Race is Not Culture
Filed Under Uncategorized by Rachel
In one of my earlier posts on inappropriate comments directed at interracial relationships a commenter, Stu, gave a response that I wanted to respond to.? Lyonside gave a very long and eloquent response, which you can read the here.? I was at the conference when this was posted, but I wanted to give an long response to several statements Stu made.
Let me start with the following quote:
Why is no one worried about the mixed cultural identity/confusion of the child in one of these relationships? I hear talk that cultures can co-exist but the fact is they dont really. They compete with one another until one eventually wins out. If that doesnt happen, the child will no doubt struggle with identity issues throughout his/her life and never truly belong to either. Thats sadly the way it is with culture. Say a black person and a white person marry one another and have a kid. Well, chances are that kid will always be looked upon by both families as different and perhaps even not really one of them because of his genetics. The families might not even outwardly know they are thinking this way, its just an innate human behavior to put importance in blood-lines and pedigree.
There are no? studies that I am aware of that indicate that mental health problems are greater in multiracial people than any of the rest of the population.? The notion that a multiracial person is somehow confused or troubled extends well into American history, and it is called the tragic mulatto myth.? This myth assumes that biracial or multiracial people are confused, lost souls who are accepted by no one.? ? From what I have seen, this is often a form of projection.? Projection occurs when people? see their own insecurities or discomfort in? others, so in the case of multiracial people, many people who come from monoracial backgrounds are uncomfortable with interracial relationships and multiracial people, so they assume that because they are uncomfortable that the mixed race person must also be uncomfortable.? Moreover, mixed race people have long been part of American culture, and in the case of Black/White mixed race people, they were traditionally considered Black.? In spite of the mixed race background, this group was considered Black and was accepted in the Black community.? This is an important point because mixed race people have traditionally been accepted in the? African American? community.? The African American community is a mixed race and mixed cultural group? (and the vast majority of African Americans have European and/or American Indian backgrounds).? So traditionally, it was the Euro-American whites who? rejected? mixed race people.? This challenges the tragic mulatto image because it undermines the idea that there is no community that has accepted mixed race people.? This is not to say that there were not individual whites who accepted mixed race people? and individuals blacks who rejected mixed race people.
The second point is more a general point about sociology–race and culture are not the same.? They are two different concepts.? Culture is a synonym for a “society.”? Cultures generally have similar norms, values, beliefs, language, and material items.? Of course, most modern societies have some cultural mixing, but there is generally a dominant culture and some subcultures.? Race refers to people who are grouped together based on subjectively, selected phenotypical (physical) characteristics.? Race is generally about the appearance of people whereas culture is more about their beliefs and practices.? If I marry a Polish guy, we would have a cross cultural marriage, and assuming he is white we would have a same race marriage.? If I marry an African American man, we would have an interracial marriage, but I wouldn’t consider it to be cross cultural.? What is fascinating about the United States is that even though people frame their discussions of interracial marriage in terms of “culture,” what really bothers them is race.? Think about the example above.? I suspect that most people would have more trouble with me marrying the Black man who comes from the same culture than they would the Polish man who comes from a different culture.? I do think there are some subcultural differences between African Americans and European Americans here in the US, but they are probably less than those between myself and people in many European countries.? Thus, I think the notion that racial differences=cultural differences needs to be framed in a different way.? To the extent that there are subcultural differences between racial groups here in the US, this is largely the result of segregation, and in many cases cultural differences within racial categories are greater than those across racial categories.? Can there be conflicts when people cross cultural lines, sure, but we should not limit our critique of? this to when people cross racial lines.
Last, point.? In my own research most relatives of interracial couples actually became more accepting when their relatives had children.? I think the idea that families see biracial children as genetically different defies logic.? No matter how a child is defined racially they still have half of their genes from each biological parent, which is no different than couples where people are from the same race.? There is no unique genetic pattern that occurs when people have mixed race children, genetics works the same not matter the race(s) of the parents.
I don’t have much to add about biological notions of race.? ? I think Lyonside did an? excellent job challenging the idea of biological races. However, I do want to challenge this statement:? ?
There is, because of all this, much tention in the IR nuclear family and it comes at a critically impressionable time in the childs life. This problem of inner struggle for acceptance of family and culture is only solved a few ways in the big picture
1. One world/large regional race (such that race wouldnt be an issue)
2. A replacing of traditional cultures ( because trad. cultures dont really fit together in the long run)
3. TRUE acceptance by all members of the family (highly unlikely)
I have not seen any studies that directly look at the amount of conflict in interracial families, so I think this is an empirical question that is not validated by any data that I am aware of.? I have seen a study that indicates that IRs are more likely to end in divorce, but I think rather than putting this on the couple.? We need to think about the social? stigma that many people put on interracial relationships–not so much the couple themselves, but the social reaction to the couple.? That is where the real problem is.? Rather than viewing mixed race people or interracial couples as the problem we need to think of racism and racist reactions to (and from) the couple as the real problem.
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9 Responses to “Tragic Mulatto is a Myth and Race is Not Culture”
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No studies? You dont look very hard.
http://www.uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=24065
Hey Surprise: before you mock, it helps to read.
1. Rachel said: there are no studies that she was aware of that saw greater numbers of MENTAL ILLNESS… last time I checked, substance abuse and behavior problems were not the exclusive perview of people with distinct mental disorders. They can be a factor/symptom/coping mechanism for some people with some illnesses, but every teenager who smokes weed and gets in a fight is not mentally ill, are they?
2. She also said that she hadn’t seen studies that directly deal with levels of conflict within families, and niether does the article you cite (I would need to look at the actual study report to determine).
3. From just reading the article alone, it’s impossible to say whether any of the following are ALSO factors/stressors, other than having a mixed ethnicity:
-rate of divorce.seperation of parents (a significant factor in teenage rebellion, identity issues, etc.)
-presence of a stable parenting situation (whether in the same household or not, are both parents involved in the child’s life)
-socioeconomic factors, such as income rates in the sample, types of schools and levels of discipline within those schools (i.e. in some schools it’s easier to get away with bad behavior than others), social environment (i.e. is there racial tension within the wider community in which the teenagers find themselves or is there more acceptance?)
4. The article has the following: “perceived racial discrimination in school and in home neighborhoods puts adolescents at risk for these problems. However, the study suggests that a strong, positive ethnic identity can shield some multiracial youth from behavior problems.”
That SUPPORTS Rachel’s assertion that the problem is external, as opposed to some genetic conflict within the individual that springs wholecloth to endanger society (how would that work, exactly, DNA strands competing in intracellular warfare? Tolerance until rDNA skips one strand in favor of another? brain development that is measurably Latino on on hemisphere and measurablly Black on the other (impossible, but that’s what some people think)?)
LOL! That piece does not test the tragic mulatto hypothesis.
[...] with opponents.? Now this my friends points out the utter absurdity of conflating race and culture, which I have also addressed before.? (Lyonside also helped me? put the smackdown on a troll in the comments. It’s worth [...]
I am triracial-1/4 Black, 3/8 Native American, and 3/8 white. I have an IQ in the top 1000th sub-percentage of the 99th percentile, am an artistic dynamo in almost every field, am a late diagnosed dyslexic, am literally a trick baby that was taken in by a white family at 13 and though they are good people I feel they can be very condescending to say the least; I favor Sophia Loren in her youth, and though I finally am rising above all this s*** I do struggle with depression and rage mixed with passionate love at everybody. But let’s put it this way-we aren’t born with the problem. I’m afraid this time it’s our society both white and Black and especially female that has the problem that can create these situations-and they do get risen above once we learn to stop bothering with that bloody PC s*** and consider the source about everyone and often how jealous they are. Anyway, most geniuses and artists are going to have depression at some time in their life because they’re more aware and because of that more angry. Oh, I disagree that Jesus is the answer-I tried that from late 1999 to early 2006 and it didn’t work. That one is another escape mechanism in and of itself-and I’m deeply spiritual and a Sunni Muslim these days. But perhaps there’s a reason we need pain-so we also know what joy really is…
the “tragic” part in tragic mullato and in IR couples (it’s only tragic with a Black partner) is the continued demonization of anyone with visible African ancestry…no wonder a “mixed child” is goin’ through it. He or she may have a white parent, but the social “benefits” of whiteness are denied to them. On the other hand they are being penalized daily because of the so-called “taint” of their blackness…who wouldn’t go crazy under that kind of psychological/emotional assault!
For me, the term “mixed” is evidence of the stress of a dual heritage…I’m not an Afro-Eurpoean, i’m mixed!!…the heritage that can’t say it’s name!
the idea of “mixed” is a new term embrased by white people, in my opinion mainly white women with children by men of other races, to “protect” their children from being merely grouped with their darker ancestry. all people of the african diaspora throughout the americas- north, south, and the caribbean, are “mixed.” none of us are purely african. duh. anyone can look at us and see that. and if we have any mental issues it’s from being totally displaced and denied a clear history. of course, few Americans really know what they are and where they’re from anymore anyway. but i digress- my family is full of “mixed” people, a few have the luxury of being born in the 90’s and are thus allowed to define themselves as bi-racial or multi-racial. but whatever the case, due to the history of colonialism, all cultures touched by European imperialism are more than familiar with “mixed” people and have been absorbing them into their cultures since time immemoria. the people with the mental issues are the ones with notions of dark people “tainting” white blood, or people who need to make distinctions in the first place. no that is NOT normal. that is sick, insecure, and an indication of fear. i, personally deal with white people asking me all the time “what” i am. it is as if, they need to categorize me before they know how to treat me. other people just assume i am one of them- latino, black, middle eastern, north african etc… this is my perception. but i also have a master’s in American Studies, and am well aware that our society was built on race stratifications, as was the system of capitalim and international trade. that is just a fact. it is history. i challenge everyone to study history. it is the greatest tool in fighting ignorance and finding peace within yourself. i believe things like “mixed” races would be obselete if people just READ. geeze, this whole country is comprised of people who would be considered mixed in many contexts whether it’s catholic/protestant, anglo/german, yankee/dixie, or black/white. it’s all a matter of perspective, it’s as old as adam, and hardly worth all the drama.
Ya i really Agree With this Point.Myth and Race is Not Culture.Myths are the personal believes for there culture.and Race is basically defined as a group usually refers to the categorization of humans into populations or groups on the basis of various sets of heritable characteristics