Newman 1

Kayla Newman
Rebecca Agosta
UWRT 1102
July 26, 2016
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Bowles, Dorcas. Bi-racial identity: Children born to AfricanAmerican and white couples. Clinical Social Work Journal 21
(1993): 417-428.
7/20/16
Secondary Source, Journal Article
Why does society identify bi-racial individuals by the color of their
skin? How does ones upbringing impact how they identify
themselves? Is it harder for a bi-racial individual to find their true
identity?
Bi-racial, identity
Bowles explores the idea that upbringing and society deeply impact
the way that a bi-racial person finds their identity. The author does
this by sharing their research and the stories of therapy patients that
struggle with finding their identity. Through describing the
differences in being raised in predominately African-American or
white communities, or having a father thats white and a mother
thats African-American, Bowles was also able to show how different
variations of an individuals life can alter their perception of how
they identify themselves.
After reading the article, I was opened up to new ways of thinking
about how different a persons life can be if their mother is AfricanAmerican and their father is white, or if the bi-racial person is female
versus male. I learned through reading the article that bi-racial
individuals can feel shame or guilt for neglecting one side of their
heritage or denying one side, as well.
How can a bi-racial individual fully identify as 50/50 with their
heritages?
Reginald, Daniel G. More Than Black: Multiracial Identity & New
Racial Order. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002
7/22/16
Secondary Source, Book
Throughout the past couple of decades, how has the amount of biracial individuals changed and how will this trend impact the next
few decades?
Mixed, race

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In a chapter within this book, Reginald talks about the different types
of identities that biracial individuals may take on. He speaks on the
topic of synthesized identity which is when an individual identifies
with both the black and white communities equally. Within that,
Reginald also explains how this identity can cause an individual to
either identify as black and white equally, which is an integrative
identity, or neither black and white, which is a pluralistic identity.
Reginald also discusses functional integrative/European American
orientation, which is where an individual may identify and function
in white communities and functional integrative/African-American
orientation, where an individual functions and identifies within the
African-American community.
This chapter further opened my eyes to the multiple identities that
biracial individuals can take on. After reading this, I began thinking
of all the factors that can play a role in defining a biracial person,
such as location in which they are raised, which parent is which in
terms of race, and how integrated they are with both sides of
themselves. This chapter also leaves me thinking more about how
difficult it is for biracial individuals to identify themselves.
What can parents do to integrate their biracial children into both
heritages equally?
Smith, Christopher L. Biracial Americans Experience with Identity,
Gender Roles, and Anxiety. Journal of Human Behavior in the
Social Environment 24 (2014): 513-528.
7/22/16
Secondary Source, Journal Article
Is it harder for a bi-racial individual to find their true identity?
Biracial, identity, development
In this article, Smith examines how the biracial experience and
identity are related to well-being. Smith discusses how if a biracial
person identifies truly as biracial, then they have less stress and
higher self-esteem, compared to a biracial person who may be
suppressing half of their identity. Smith also writes about biracial
individuals struggles over how to identify themselves. Such factors
as, socioeconomic status, level of family acceptance of the interracial
relationship, racial makeup of city or town in which an individual
grows up, skin tone, and growing up in a family composed of one or
both parents have been found to relate to identity and psychological
well-being in biracial individuals, according to Smith.

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After reading this article, I was able to clearly see how a biracial
individual can achieve self-identity, without sacrificing one of their
heritages. This article made me wonder if society knew what biracial
individuals had to deal with to create their own identities, would they
make it so difficult on them with their need to know what someone
is.
Why does a monoracial individual feel the need to ask a biracial
person what they are?
Wilton, Leigh S. Sanchez, Diana T. Garcia, Julie A. The Stigma of
Privilege: Racial Identity and Stigma Consciousness Among Biracial
Individuals. Race and Social Problems 5 (2013): 41-56
7/22/16
Secondary Source, Journal Article
Do biracial individuals use their races in different capacities that may
benefit them?
Identifying, Biracial
Wilton, Sanchez, and Garcia discuss in this article how a biracial
person can experience a social identity threat. The article explains
how individuals may use a coping mechanism to shield themselves
from situations where one of their races is being devalued. If this is
happening, a biracial person may choose to put more emphasis on
their other race, therefore proving biracial individuals can swap at
will between their races to benefit them at certain times.
The idea that a biracial person can switch identities at will is not new
to me. I myself have been in situations where I found it was easier or
in my best interest to just identify as one or the other. However, this
practice only hinders the development of a true self-identity in my
opinion. I am left to wonder, if monoracial individuals were more
aware that biracial people were doing this, would it hurt the biracial
persons chance of being identified as biracial when they wanted it.
How does a biracial individual value one race over another in their
minds?
Townsend, Sarah S. M. Being Mixed: Who claims a biracial
identity? Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 18
(2012): 91-96.
7/22/16
Secondary Source, Journal Article
Do bi-racial individuals use their races in different capacities that
may benefit them?

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Biracial, identity
This article studies how status related factors can influence a biracial
individuals identity choice. Townsend identifies a few trends within
the country that led to a higher acceptance of biracial individuals and
uses that to describe how being biracial are now healthy identity
opinions. Townsend also discusses how the biracial movement
contributed to the emergence of the biracial identity option in the
United States, which is significant because studies showed that
denying biracially identifies people that option led to lower selfesteem and decreased motivational outcomes.
I enjoyed this article because I remember when a biracial person
didnt have the option to select that on a form. It was a very difficult
decision when I was growing up and a child and having to decide if
today I was white or black. The emergence of the biracial option was
vital in the progression of self-identity for a lot of biracial
individuals.
Throughout the past couple of decades, how has the amount of biracial individuals changed and how will this trend impact the next
few decades?

Newman, Kayla M. Observation. 23 July 2016.

7/23/16
Primary Source, Observation
How can societys misconceptions on the race of a bi-racial person
affect how they are treated or viewed?
I observed as two teenage boys interacted with a biracial individual
who they went to a pool with. The pool is located in a predominately
white neighborhood and the teenagers spent most of their time
making black jokes at the expense of the biracial person. While
they felt they werent doing anything wrong, their misconception of
biracial people added to the outdated one-drop rule, where if
someone has any percentage of African-American in them, they must
be completely African-American. The reason the teenagers thought
making these jokes were funny was because of all the recent news
and issues concerning African-Americans, and being they were in a
white neighborhood, they thought it would be funny to bring up race.
My opinion on this situation is that adolescents in general are very
impressionable. With that, they see things in the media and that
impacts their perception of how things should be. While these

Newman 5

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teenagers thought they were just being funny, they dont realize what
this could do to a biracial persons self-identity.
How does society see past race?

Reflection:
Of all my sources, I think the three strongest are from Bowles, Smith, and Townsend.
Each author explores the issue of identity crises amongst the biracial community, which helps me
with my topic because I am looking to explore the different ways biracial individuals are
hindered in their search for their identity. I was successful in my online searches for secondary
sources as I used Google Scholar and the UNCC library database. I was able to find ample
articles and books related to my topic. My primary and secondary sources are similar for me
because my primary source was a first-hand encounter of what a lot of my secondary sources
touch on. Through my experience in my primary source, I was able to understand better when
my secondary sources talk about being raised in certain predominately one race or the other
cities or towns, and what they are saying when they mention a race being devalued and in turn, a
biracial person denying that race.
I designed my questions to get a firsthand look at how society views biracial identity
versus reading the research of others. The process for my research was just to search for articles
related to my topic, which was simple since many organizations have done studies on the biracial
identity.