Information AboutMultiracial |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MULTIRACIAL | |
| multiracial affairs | |
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was born to a White mother of British extraction and a Black father of American extraction.]] The terms multiracial, '''biracial''', and '''mixed-race''' describe people who are not easily classified into a single Race . (Biracial refers to those with ancestors from mostly two races). This has caused some problems for census-takers, until recently. Multiracial also describes a Society or group that is composed of people from more than one racial or ethnic group. WHAT MAKES A PERSON MULTIRACIAL? See also Admixture The definition of being multiracial differs from one society to the next, as do the boundaries dividing one perceived race from another. A basic definition would include anyone whose ancestry combines significant contributions from two or more perceived racial groups. However, many such people identify with one particular group over the others and do not consider themselves 'multiracial' or 'mixed' (see American Rapper Slug ), while others do (e.g. Tiger Woods ). In some contexts, such as the United States , people with certain mixed ancestries are broadly considered to belong to only one group. This is generally the case with Black Americans , who are usually considered 'black' or 'African-American' even if they have a significant amount of European and Native American ancestry. In other countries, such as the UK, it is more common to identify people of dual or mixed ancestries as 'mixed' and belonging to more than one group. In other contexts, mixing between two or more groups has occurred on such a widespread basis that the concept of being 'multiracial' is seen as largely irrelevant. This is the case in many Latin American countries, such as Mexico or Cuba , where, in addition to the Indigenous and Spanish heritages, many people have additional diverse, mixed ancestries - from Middle Eastern to East Asian to African to Jewish - which are not considered to mark them as essentially different from the majority. People in these countries tend to adhere to a broader identity as 'Mexican,' 'Cuban,' 'Brazilian,' etc., ignoring real or perceived differences in ancestry or Phenotype . (This does not necessarily cover the attitudes of the largely European-descended elites, nor of unmixed Indigenous groups.) The science around the concept of being multiracial, as with the science around the concept of Race in general, is contentious and still in its infancy. While it is possible to trace a person's ancestry back to different geographical regions and associated Phenotypic clusters based on their DNA , what this means is partially subjective, and is bound to be interpreted differently from one society, or one individual, to the next. WORDS FOR THIS CONCEPT, INCLUDING OTHER LANGUAGES USED IN ENGLISH See Also: Glossary of terms for multiraciality Mulatto and Mestizo are used in Spanish and Metis in French . "Half-breed" is a now old-fashioned and pejorative term used for people of partial Native American ancestry. PLACE IN SOCIETY Societal acceptance of Interracial Marriages and the children born from interracial relationhips varies widely from person to person and region to region, and over time. In Nazi Germany , harsh race laws were enacted to establish racial purity, although Nazi soldiers in Scandinavia (a few countries considered by the Nazis to have a mostly "Nordic" population) interbred with local women. Scandinavians and Anglo-saxons were considered to be almost equal to Germans in the Nazi racist worldview. In the United States, especially the South , marriage between African American s and Whites have historically been looked down upon and legislated against through Anti-miscegenation Laws . These State Law s were declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967 in Loving V. Virginia . As recently as 2003, Taylor County High School in Taylor County, Georgia has held separate prom celebrations for black and white students; {Link without Title} however, some similar phenomena occur equally because of cultural differences and not specific prohibitions on marriage or dating. However, recent data suggests that multiracial marriages are becoming increasingly common in the United States, including the South. Censuses notwithstanding, any count of numbers of mixed-race people is subject to dispute. People may identify themselves as members of one single racial category despite having (potentially many) ancestors belonging to other categories, for various reasons. For instance, genetic studies of . Also, a considerable portion of the U.S. population identified as ''Black'' actually have some Native American or European American ancestry. Some of these categorization phenomena occur due to current or past cultural stereotyping or segregation; still, the amount of admixture in most people tends to get exaggerated. The average African-American for example is of 83% sub-Saharan descent, making him/her overwhelmingly black on the genetic level. Only 10% of Americans who self-identify as black are less than 50% sub-Saharan in ancestry, and thus can not be considered black at the genetic level.http://www.isteve.com/2002_How_White_Are_Blacks.htm Multiracial individuals are often Stereotypically presumed to have struggles with Identity Crises , perhaps due to having a sense of identity that is very different than people who claim to be of just one race. Most multiracial people cannot or do not identify with just one group. Latin America Mestizo is the common word used to describe multiracial people in Latin America , especially people with and Amerindian and Spanish or other European ancestry. Mestizos make up a large portion of Latin Americans including a majority in some countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mestizo In Latin America, racial mixture was officially acknowledged from colonial times, resulting in an official nomenclature for every conceivable mixture present in the various countries. Initially, this classification was used as a type of caste system, where rights and privileges were accorded depending on one's official racial classification. Official caste distinctions were abolished in many countries of the Spanish -speaking Americas as they became independent of Spain , but several have remained in common usage to this day. Race and racial mixture have played a significant role in the politics of many Latin American countries. In some countries, notably Puerto Rico , Belize and Cuba , a majority of the population can be described as multiracial. The Mexican philosopher and educator José Vasconcelos authored an essay on the subject, '' La Raza Cósmica '', celebrating racial mixture. Venezuela n president Hugo Chávez , who is himself of Spanish, indigenous and African ancestry, has made positive references to the mixed race ancestry of most Latin Americans from time to time. Brazil According to the 2000 official census, 38.5% of Brazilians identified themselves as ''parda'' skin color http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/censo2000/populacao/cor_raca_Censo2000.pdf. That option is normally marked by people that consider themselves multiracial Brazil#Ethnicity . The term ''parda'' is formally used in the official census, but is not used by the population. In Brazilian society, most people that are multiracial call themselves '' Moreno '', light-''moreno'' or dark-''moreno''. These terms are not considered offensive, and focus more on skin color than on ethnicity (it is considered more like the others human characteristics such as being tall or short). The most common multiracial groups are between African and European, and Amerindian and European. But there are also African and Amerindian, and East-Asian (mostly Japanese) and European. All groups are more or less found throughout the whole country. Since multiracial relations in Brazilian society have occurred for many generations, today, some people find it difficult to trace their own ethnic ancestry, and there is a high level of integration between all groups. However, there is a great social and economic difference between European descendants (found more among the upper and middle classes) and African, Amerindian and multiracial descendants (found more among the middle and lower classes). South Africa The old Apartheid system divided people into whites, blacks, and Coloured s. Into this last category fell many of the products of liaisons between the first two (as well as others, such as Asians). Today they form their own community. United Kingdom In 2000, '' The Sunday Times '' reported that " Britain has the highest rate of Interracial Relationships in the world".John Harlow, ''The Sunday Times'' (London), 9 April 2000 , quoting Professor Richard Berthoud of the Institute for Social and Economic Research Apparently contradicting this, more recent census data shows the population of England (as a sub-section of the UK ) to be 1.4% mixed-race (2001), compared with, for example, 1.4% in the U.S. (2002 estimates; see below). However, as most of the English population is of one race (white) — even more so than in the US — there are fewer ''opportunities'' for interracial relationships in England. In support of the report's conclusions, it can be calculated that 14.4% of English residents not identified as ''white'' are mixed-race, compared with 7.5% in the U.S. In England many multi-racial people are from the British Caribbean and if they have some African Ancestry they may be said to be Afro-Caribbean . Many people are partly Welsh or partly Italian or partly of Irish Descent but it is hard to tell how many. Groups such as the '' Sheffield Multiple Heritage Service'' have been set up in the UK to address issues affecting multi-racial children. Canada The mixed race population of Canadians, at 1.2%, is the fourth largest group in the country, greater than the Filipino population. United States Increasingly, U.S. society is no longer willing to pigeon-hole multiracial people into just one race. For example, although Barack Obama self-identifies as African-American despite having a white mother, 55 percent of whites classified him as biracial instead of black after being told of his maternal descent and 61 percent of Hispanics did so as well. Blacks were less willing to acknowledge a mulitiracial category, with 66% considering him black {Link without Title} Multiracial children in the United States The proportion of multiracial children in the United States is growing. Interracial partnerships are on the rise, as are transracial adoptions. In 1990, about 14% of 18- to 19-year-olds, 12% of 20- to 21-year-olds and 7% of 34- to 35-year-olds were involved in interracial relationships (Joyner and Kao, 2005) Given the variety of the familial and more general social environments in which multiracial children are raised, along with the diversity of their appearance (vis-a-vis their component races and their family members), it can be difficult to make generalizations about multiracial children's challenges or opportunities. The racial Social Identity of children and that of their parents in the same multiracial family may vary or be the same.[http://www.intermix.org.uk/word_up/word_up_07_thandie.asp Some multiracial children feel pressure from various sources to "choose" or to assimilate into a single racial identity, while others whose identity or lifestyle is perceived to be closer to some of their component races than others may feel pressure not to abandon one or more of their ethnicities. Still other children grow up without race being a significant issue in their lives. CATEGORIZATION AND CENSUSES |
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