The Heaviest Drop of Blood: Black Exceptionalism Among Multiracials

Abstract

We leverage the emerging multiracial population to reexamine prominent theories of the American color line. A Black exceptionalism hypothesis suggests that Black heritage will be more restrictive of biracials' social and political assimilation prospects than Asian or Latino heritage. Black exceptionalism better explains biracials' sorting into the racial hierarchy than does classic assimilation theory or a people‐of‐color hypothesis. In the American Community Survey, Black heritage dominates subjective racial self‐identification among biracial adults and identity assignments to children of interracial marriages. In the 2015 Pew Survey of Multiracials, Black‐White biracials' social identity, social networks, perceptions and experiences of discrimination, and political attitudes relevant to race resemble those of monoracial Blacks, whereas Latino‐Whites and Asian‐Whites are more similar to monoracial Whites than to their minority‐group counterparts. Results suggest that even in a more racially mixed future, Black Americans will continue to be uniquely situated behind a most impermeable color line.

Segregated Patterns of Hospital Care Delivery and Health Outcomes

“…We present the 5 most and least segregated HRRs among the 40 biggest HRRs by population in Table 1. The mean (SD) level of hospital dissimilarity was 23 (11), the mean (SD) level of hospital isolation was 13 (13), the mean (SD) level of residential dissimilarity was 40 (12), and the mean (SD) level of residential isolation was 21 (17). Maps of the hospital dissimilarity and isolation indices across HRRs are shown in Figure 1.…”

“…The aim of this study was to describe contemporary patterns of hospital segregation within hospital markets in the US, identify local market-level correlates of hospital segregation, and examine the association between hospital segregation and health outcomes. For this study, we chose to focus specifically on non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White segregation due to long-standing and deeply rooted anti-Black racism in the US that has and continues to impose a more rigid and persistent divide between Black and White groups than other racialized groups …”

“…For this study, we chose to focus specifically on non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White segregation due to long-standing and deeply rooted anti-Black racism in the US that has and continues to impose a more rigid and persistent divide between Black and White groups than other racialized groups. 16,17…”