Multiratial Families And Children : The Challenges Of Multiracial Marriages

The peer reviewed article “Ethnic and Racial Identity During Adolescence into Young Adulthood: An Integrated Conceptualization” is a well written article on the struggle that people of color face when coming face to face with their identity in social situations. Umana-Taylor, Quintana, Lee, Cross, Rivas-Drake, Schwartz and Seaton (2014) analyzed ethnic and racial identity or ERI and how it relates to important developments and issues from early childhood well on into young adulthood. They worked to find the most important milestones during the development or ERI as well (Umana-Taylor et. al 2014). This paper will consist of the information given from the article and how I’ve dealt with my own ERI.

There are two different dimensions of our identities: ethnicity and race. Ethnicity refers to one’s belonging to a specific cultural, or racial group that makes up culture, race language, and/or place of origin. For example, one can be African-American but have different ethnicities, one African-American and the other African-Caribbean decent. Race is a social construct that can be changed over time. Historically, referring to its specific characteristics one possesses based on: ethnicity, religion, or language; today's its classified solely based upon the color of one’s skin. Nevertheless, ethnic and racial identities are important and instill a sense of belonging and identifying with that specific group through attitude, behaviors. Moreover,

People with healthy biracial identity acknowledges and integrates both parts of their racial heritage in forming identity, which process is influenced by family, community and context, as well as socio-economic status. Empirical articles reviewed in this paper demonstrate that family socialization, recognition of both ethnic and racial heritages and validation of racial identification from community members have beneficial effect in helping biracial individuals to form a healthy racial identity (Mass, 1992; Chong, 2012; Lou et al., 2011). Having higher socio-economic status will encourage biracial individuals to claim a biracial identity (Townsend et al., 2012). Context change might pose threat for psychological well-being for individuals who have not reached an integrated biracial identity (Collins, 2000;

Those that study racial discrimination over mixed races tend to find that those individual usually do not have another mixed race relative or friend that can relate to the same situation as them. But psychologists believe that it’s best for individuals to seek help from those that are of mixed race if they have been discriminated against. But to also know that they are not alone. “Adolescents who do not have a stable racial identity show lower self-esteem,” says Astrea Greig, a Psychological Doctor that meets with multi and mono-racial young adults (and children) over substance abuse and perceived discrimination. And this being a stable racial identity, occurs when individuals either young or old, have been discriminated or brought down emotionally and psychologically over being mixed-race (or even mono-racial) that they are depressed/ashamed over the fact that they are mixed. This striking a fairly large problem, it’s best to find a biracial-multiracial, referring from what was mentioned earlier, to help when problems such as discrimination occur. It’s best not going through such as thing alone and is better when someone has a support

This paper discusses the dynamic issues involving the diversity of multicultural families in regards to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic, gender and sexual orientation. This paper will also highlight same or different minority or cultural backgrounds, identity and biases involving multicultural families. How multicultural families incorporate their beliefs, cultures and values into a family unit as well as the transformation of acculturation. Challenges involving racial identity, ethnicity; where do people with different cultures fit in and make it work; the population of multicultural families has risen and continue to do so. Socioeconomic status in multicultural families

James McBride can tell you firsthand about man verse racial identity. Journalizing his experience in his New York Times Bestseller novel the Color of Water simply outlined his struggles of finding who he was. His upbringing included a black father and a Jewish white mother. His background made it hard for him to understand why his home was different than others on the street. Although McBride experience shows an older outtake of racial identity, some may say this still is a problem today. Offspring feels the need to pick a race in society to succeed in the generation and it may be the step to understands them more. Notice in the subtitle of the book "A black Men tribute to his white mother" he label himself as just black as if there was a barrier between his mother and himself because the so different. Today we need to not let racial identity become a big part of our lives.

As a biracial woman growing up in the South, I never knew my place in the world. My father is a dark-skinned African American and my mother is a fair-skinned Caucasian, leaving my sister and I to fall somewhere in the middle. In elementary, my unique background caused numerous personal problems. Friends would assume I was adopted. I would frantically defend myself by saying “I am not adopted! My mommy is white and my daddy is black, and there is nothing wrong with me.” My classmates often told me that I was not possible: “black goes with black, and white goes with white.” In time, both races rejected me. I was bullied by the black girls at my school for being “too white” regarding my clothes and my hair. I continued to struggle with this

Defining someone by their skin color is an everyday phenomenon. Many people see a specific shade of skin and believe they know exactly how that person is going to speak, carry, and illustrate themselves. It seems to be embedded in one’s head at a young age to have specific views given by family, friends, and coworkers such as, believing interracial relationships are immoral, or it being acceptable to judge others according to their skin color. In the articles “Race is a Four Letter Word” by Teja Arboleda and “Mr. Z” by M. Carl Holman, the color of the authors skin plays a substantial role on how they are treated and perceived. Living in a society that doesn’t understand one’s culture can make their life extremely difficult.

My pre-adolescent years were spent in a community thick with diversity. My friendships were as diverse as the environment in which I lived. It never struck me that racial and ethnic ideals separated people in society. However, upon moving to a predominately white upper-class community I began to question such racial and ethnic ideas. From my adolescent years through today I began noticing that certain people are viewed differently for reasons relating to race and ethnicity. As a result, the most recent community I grew up in has kept me sheltered from aspects of society. As a product of a community where majorities existed, I found myself unexposed to the full understanding of race and ethnicity. Prior to the class I had never fully dealt with issues of race or ethnicity, as a result I wondered why they would be of any importance in my life.

Historically, interracial families’ were a taboo in the United States and many other countries. In the 1960’s, the civil rights movement caused the country to move

In his article, “Children of Interracial Parents Face Special Difficulties”, Frank A. Jones argues that biracial children, especially black males, face difficulties due to their parents raising them based on white parenting standards without considering the way modern society will treat them. Jones describes how biracial children think they are different, which builds up the fear of getting judged and leads to racism. Frank emphasizes the need of not just love and affection in raising a child or more specifically a biracial child but “guidance, discipline, self-perception, and survival perspective” and also the importance of education being a must and not an option. Biracial

Multiracial people struggle to gain acceptance within their own individual ethnic groups.

Due to the complexity related to both individual and group racial identity, the subject is inherently interesting. Even more complex is the subject of race relations, which are the interaction and relationships between different racial groups. This interaction can be examined from infinite angles and on many levels. For instance, on an economic level, do members of different races have equal access to jobs? Do members of different races control a vastly different percentage of the country’s wealth? On a political level, do different races exert greater control over the political process? Does this control result in legislative and/or legal bias? Is this bias racism?

In 1972 the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) passed a resolution, which said, “Black children should be placed only with black families whether in foster care or adoption. Black children belong physically, psychologically and culturally in black families in order that they receive the total sense of themselves and develop a sound projection of their future.... Black children in white homes are cut off from the healthy development of themselves as black people.... We have committed ourselves to go back to our communities and work to end this particular form of genocide”(Silverman). Since then, family scientists have conducted extensive research on whether the negative affects of transracial adoption is as detrimental to the development of racial identify in children as the NABSW claims. Ultimately, many have come to the conclusion that it is better for a child to be in a loving family, regardless of race than to be orphaned. In this paper, I will outline arguments both for and against transracial adoption as well as offer suggestions on how parents can foster the development of a racial identity in their adopted child.

In 1967, the decision made by the Loving v. Virginia court case established that interracial relationships would be legal, and all laws against it would be invalidated (Loving v. Virginia). Afterwards, many biracial children were born, which created a new problem for those with different cultural backgrounds. People of different cultures face many troubling issues separate from the problems most White Americans have to face. The most offensive and abusive issue is racism. Racism is a major life-changing issue in society that hurts a majority of the ethnic cultures. A study reports, “Overall, 58% of Americans say racism is a “big problem in our society” (Neal). This shocking realization puts in the perspective the many issues that ethnic people endure. Although, biracial adolescents have to face racism in a different form. These adolescents aren’t accepted in society due to their