Mixed-Race Ancestry ≠ Multiracial Identification: The Role Racial Discrimination, Linked Fate, and Skin Tone Have on the Racial Identification of People with Mixed-Race Ancestry

Abstract

Mixed-race identification may be complex, in that people with mixed-race ancestry may or may not identify as multiracial. Social experiences, such as experiencing racial discrimination, believing that your fate is connected with specific racialized others, and personal characteristics, such as skin color, all have been theorized to play a role in identification. The Mixed-Race Ancestry Survey (2020) conducted on Mechanical Turk allows me to ask unique questions with a large enough sample of this understudied population to disaggregate by racial ancestries. Only people with mixed-race ancestry are included in this study, but respondents may identify mono- or multiracially. Binary logistic regression models reveal that increased linked fate with a specific racial group is associated with greater odds of racially identifying, at least in part, with that group (e.g., among Asians, greater linked fate with Asians is associated with greater odds of identifying as mono- or multiracially Asian). Increased linked fate with multiracials as a group is also connected to greater odds of identifying as multiracial. In addition, personally experiencing racial discrimination is associated with a greater likelihood of identifying as Black and slightly lower odds of identifying as White or as Latinx. Finally, as skin tone darkens the odds of identifying as Black increase three-fold and the odds of identifying as multiracial increase by 1.3 times. I discuss these findings by racial ancestry groups, noting that being aware of having mixed-race ancestry does not in and of itself predict multiracial identification. Rather, in a social structure that uplifts Whiteness, feeling linked fate, experiencing discrimination, and having darker skin tone are important predictors of identification. These findings highlight the mechanisms connected to racial identification for a population that may feel tied to multiple racial groups and is navigating identification within a White-centric nation.

Mental health differences between multiracial and monoracial college students in the United States: Emerging racial disparities

“…Potential interventions include anti-racism campaigns on campus and in service settings (Ben et al, 2020;Hassen et al, 2021), implicit bias trainings (Hall et al, 2015), and greater representation of diversity throughout campuses. Our study also calls for research to more consistently define multiracial identity (Sanchez et al, 2020) (Bratter, 2018).Research can be strengthened in several ways, including the triangulation of responses through genetic/ancestry services, racial identities of the respondents' biological parents (or grandparents), and appearance/skin tone (Gonlin, 2022;Parker et al, 2015;Reece, 2019;Woo et al, 2011). Part of these efforts to understand multiracial identity requires deliberate examination of 'multiracial' as a heterogenous group, which may be achieved by pooling years of data for statistical power.…”

“…Our study also calls for research to more consistently define multiracial identity (Sanchez et al, 2020) (Bratter, 2018). Research can be strengthened in several ways, including the triangulation of responses through genetic/ancestry services, racial identities of the respondents’ biological parents (or grandparents), and appearance/skin tone (Gonlin, 2022; Parker et al, 2015; Reece, 2019; Woo et al, 2011).…”

An Indigenous critique: Expanding sociology and recognizing unique Indigenous knowledge

“…Ch'ixi can help fill this recognized gap in the literature and advance the field as it is a specific framework that centers the concept of multi-raciality, its positive and non-racialized aspects, and associated lived experiences. It may additionally help multi-racial individuals to accept their multi-racial ancestry and more fully embrace their rich and diverse heritage when they otherwise may be hesitant, hostile to that ancestry, or employ methods such as code-switching in a society that negatively racializes multi-raciality (Anzaldua, 2012;Gonlin, 2022). Anzaldua (2012) highlights code-switching in her analysis of borderlands and the concept of nepantla (Nahuatl: in the middle of it; between) to describe in-betweenness of lived experiences and identities, particularly in border communities.…”

Complicating Latiné experiences: Afro-Latiné students’ perceptions of campus climate and sense of belonging.

“…Scholars studying multiracial people consider the lives of people who may fit into multiple racial categories—the “two or more race population.” However, this scholarship does not usually study Afro-Latinés as part of this population (e.g., see Gullickson & Morning, 2011; Lee & Bean, 2004). Yet, paradigms used to understand multiraciality provide a way to conceptualize data to contest monoracial essentialism (e.g., see Gonlin, 2022). We are not asserting that Afro-Latinés should be encapsulated in the multiracial population, as the interrogation of Afro-Latinés contends with race, ethnicity, and culture; rather, we consider how a multiplicative framing, often used in multiracial studies, can be generative in the interpretation of Afro-Latiné students’ experiences.…”