Multiracial and Monoracial - Essay Example

Introduction The American population is made of more than one race. It is a society that has well established white, black, Native Americans, Hispanic and Asians. Mark you, these are pure or mono racial. So, where do Multiracials fit? Is it possible for these people to maintain a unique multiracial identity that bridges their racial ancestry or they are torn between the two? The presence of Multiracials is not new to the American demographic composition. History has it that blood quantum was the yardstick through which individuals were classified.

Therefore, during those days, rights and privileges were extended or denied pursuant to an individual’s ancestry and how close they were to a minority group. This explains why black-white offspring were rudely referred to as “mullatoes” and “quadroon” if they had a black grandparent. The bias was based on the physical appearance of the person in question. This was not the case with multiracial Native Americans and Asians who were classified primarily on their family ancestry.So, what is the relationship between Monoracial and multiracial Americans?

To understand this, it is important to consider the various studies conducted on the matter. These studies seeking to understand the multiracial identity mainly feature demography, psychology and sociology. Researchers use many methods to examine and understand the multiracial population. They borrow heavily from narratives, health survey conducted on a large scale, vital statistics and the U.S census. There are two outstanding motifs from these studies. There is the logic of hypo descent (One Drop Rule) which was a political measurement of racial blood composition used to separate blacks from whites in the population.

In short, one single and tiny drop of black blood was enough to classify someone as black (Kao 2007). This stigmatization however died with the end of World War II.However, due to the resonating legal sanctions that supported the practice, perpetrators of this racial stigma still walk the United States soils. The result of their existence spells doom for the black-white multiracial life opportunities. A research conducted by Herman 2004 discovered that very few people identify themselves as exclusively white.

Another study claims that many of these Multiracials tend to identify themselves with their minority peers, adopt an integrating multiracial identity or totally discard their racial labels.To answer this question, this article will consider Waves I and III of the National Longitudinal study of Adolescent Health (Add Health).This was a nationally representative sample of 20743 students drawn from 80 U.S high schools. As the name suggests, the studies are conducted in “waves” with the first wave extending from 1994-1995, respondents drawn from grades 7-12.

The third wave was conducted in 2000 through 2001 with the respondents being 18-25 years of age. The study had a number of covariates which may affect individual changes in racial identification and subsequently create discrepancies in knowing the exact relationship between the mono and Multiracials (Kao 2007). The covariates are thee socioeconomic status, phenotype measures as well as racial concordance. It is important to note that racial concordance is a name coined to describe the extent to which people identify in a way synonymous to how others view them.

At an individual level, studies found that women were more likely to self-identify with more than one race. While men dismissed criticisms about their hair and skin color to be based on jealousy, black women took this to heart. The socioeconomic status was based on the level of education of the black female. This is because where there were educated people, they tended to identify themselves as per their without fear. In conclusion, the relationship between mono and multiracial Americans go beyond the stereotypes.

This is seen in that both have adopted or been assimilated into each other’s culture. This can be seen in various examples such as music, culinary, architectural and religious frontiers.ReferenceDoyle, J., & Kao, G. (2007). Are Racial Identities or Multiracials Stable? Changing Self Identification among single and multiple Race Individuals. Social Psychology Quarterly, 70(4), 405-423.