ANTH 23 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: White Privilege, Miscegenation, Endogamy
Friday, March 2nd
ANTH 23
Multiracial and Multiracial Identity Formation!
One Drop Rule:
•If you had even one drop of black blood you would be considered “black” which is why
Barack Obama etc, is considered black. !
•Hypo-Descent: Generally people identify more with the parent of a lower status. Historically,
black considered lower. !
•This is a theory of folk biology !
•Since colonial times there have been many different terms to describe multiracial children of
Blacks and other races outside the US, but in the US, they are considered Black. !
•This is largely due to a Strategy to discourage racial mixing, divide free Blacks and white
former indentured servants and maintain a self-reproducing population of slave labor. !
•It was law in most Southern statues through the early 20th century, but why is it still a social
assumption today?!
•Even in children we see a high incidence of the one drop rule, they consider anyone with
even a trace of black identity to be “black”!
Multiracial Identity: a product of Anti-anti-miscegenation:
• All but nine states had laws banning Whites from marrying Blacks and sometimes other non-
Whites at some point in their history. !
•In 1967, Loving vs. Virginia legalizes interracial marriage in the 16 (mostly southern) states
that still had anti-miscegenation laws !
•Last anti-miscegenation law repealed by referendum in 2000 (in Alabama, with 60% voting
for repeal) !
•Interracial marriages increase 250% between 1967 and 1987. !
•In 2000, census forms begin including multiracial option. !
•In 2010, 2.9% of the US population identifies as multiracial, 32% more than in 2000.!
-Even though it was unconstitutional, people wanted to keep the miscegenation laws. !
-A fear of black and brown men raping/attacking white women justifies many of these fears
and laws. !
Why have Americans (and Whites in particular) been slow to accept interracial marriage?
•A. Racism !
•B. Belief in cultural preservation through endogamy (separate but equal)!
•C. Clinging to white privilege !
•D. Inculcated notions of beauty and personal preference that are not necessarily racist !
•E. Fear of children facing discrimination!
Identity Formation: a Psychological Approach: !
•focus on subjective structures of consciousness !
•as opposed to structural or collective identification, interviews individuals to assess how they
form meaning of racial identity !
•Since structures of society have not traditionally recognized racial identity, perhaps this is a
good area to study individual agency !
•Also provides good contrast with more social and political discussion of identity formation.!
Models of Bi/Multi-Racial Identity:
•Generally move from describing a unilinear progression to mono-racial identity to more
flexible and creative negotiations of identity (Miville et al 2005). !
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
