by hephzibah v. strmic-pawl

Vice President Kamala Harris became not only the first woman of color president in the United States but also became known for her mixed South Asian and Black background. Meghan Markle who entered the British royal family had her mixed identity at the forefront in the news as her Black mother and White father become part of the tabloid obsession with the wedding. International pop star Mariah Carey recently came out with a new book that centers her navigation of her mixed Black, White, and Venezuelan background and her biracial identity.  Superstar athletes Naomi Osaka (Haitian and Japanese) and Colin Kaepernick (Black and White) have also openly discussed their multiracial heritage.  From politics to music to sports, it seems that identifying as multiracial is now commonplace.  But it wasn’t always that way.

The United States has had a troubled history with recognizing mixed-race identity as a separate racial category. In the 1800s, the US Census created different categories for people of mixed Black and White descent, using racist terms such as “mulatto,” “quadroon,” and “octoroon.”  These categories did not stay around for long however, and for most of the Census’ history respondents were forced to choose only one monoracial box with which they identified.  After the US finally made interracial marriages legal in 1967 and there was increasing acceptance of interracial couples, there was mounting pressure to change the racial identity options on the Census. Finally, in 2000, the US Census allowed respondents to mark one or more racial boxes, which led to the creation of a “multiracial” population.

With the rise in the multiracial population came a series of questions on how people of mixed-race racially identify – and how that differs or compares to those with a monoracial background.  Racial identification for people of mixed-race can be particularly nuanced as they may identify with just one race, with multiple monoracial identities, as multiracial – or with a combination of these identities depending on time and place.  Multiracial identity has proven to be particularly fluid, both across location and across life course.  This fluidity or liminality of multiraciality has challenged long held ideas about the fixed and ascribed nature of racial identity.

Multiraciality also raises a large series of other questions.  How does embracing a multiracial identity vary across different types of mixed-race backgrounds? How do family members and familial processes shape racial identity?  How do other identities, such as gender, class, and sexual orientation, shape and intersect with multiracial identity?  How does multiracial identity manifest in different nations and how do histories of colonization and migration affect who is recognized as multiracial? How has multiraciality infiltrated our marketing and the media?  And, perhaps most importantly, what is the relationship between multiraciality and the future of the racial hierarchy? 

Multiracial: The Kaleidoscope of Mixedness is the first book to coalesce all the answers to these questions and more in one book.  Integrating foundational readings and the newest cutting-edge research across disciplines, this book uses a critical race lens to situate a “field on mixedness.” Multiracial is essential reading to understand the complexities of mixedness and is also for anyone interested in contemporary racial issues.

hephzibah v. strmic-pawl has her PhD from The University of Virginia and is currently an Associate Professor at Manhattanville College. Her new book Multiracial: The Kaleidoscope of Mixedness is out now.