Will "Multiracial" Survive to the Next Generation?: The Racial Classification of Children of Multiracial Parents

Mothers and Their Biracial Children: Growing Up Biracial in a One Race Fits All Society

“…According to the US Census taken in 2000, there are approximately 6.8 million individuals who classified themselves as two or more races (Coleman & Carter, 2007). Some of the biracial populations, reported in the 2000 Census, were young under the age of eighteen which meant parents play a significant force in the emergence of a biracial identity (Bratter, 2007).…”

“…The practices which were standard prior to 2000 unjustly denied the biracial population the right to publicly be recognized as a self-conscious and racially distinctive community (Bratter, 2007). We will have to wait and see what changes are to be made in the 2010 Census and what effects any upcoming changes will have for those of biracial identity as well as for society.…”

“…While parents are vital role models for their children, parents of biracial children cannot fully relate to the struggles which they will encounter because they are biracial. Unless a parent is also biracial, they cannot fully understand or comprehend the complexity that comes for their child/children being biracial (Bratter, 2007). While the minority parent may be able to related to these children to some degree, they cannot fully understand what it is to be African American and Euro-American in a society which can be, at times a one race minded society.…”

“…According to the recent census reports from 2000, 53 percent of children were identified with multiple races (Bratter, 2007). While racial classification is a public form of racial identification it can be vastly different from an individual"s sense of racial identity.…”

“…Individuals of biracial descent have come to realize that race is a social construct which is not only arbitrary, but subjective and meaningless (Shih, Sanchez, Bonam & Peck, 2007). The label which applies to an individual"s race publically may be very different from the way one classifies or declares themselves personally (Bratter, 2007).…”