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Who Are We Really? Genealogical Deconstructions of Monoracialism through Mixed...
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Who Are We Really? Genealogical Deconstructions of Monoracialism through Mixed and Contested Racial Identities

A special issue of Genealogy (ISSN 2313-5778). This special issue belongs to the section "Genealogical Communities: Multi-Ethnic, Multi-Racial, and Multi-National Genealogies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2022) | Viewed by 23868

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Educational Studies, College of Education and Human Ecology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Interests: multiraciality; mixed race identity; higher education; college student development
Dr. Orkideh Mohajeri

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Educational Foundations & Policy Studies, College of Education and Social Work, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, West Chester, PA 19383, USA
Interests: racial contestation; racial discourse; whiteness; critical whiteness studies; higher education

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The US population is witnessing remarkable changes in demographics. Notably, racially minoritized groups will soon constitute a numerical majority (some estimates suggest by 2040), and one in five individuals will be considered foreign-born, with populations such as Asian Americans and Latinos doubling in size. While the counts of these demographics depend on self-identification honoring individual understandings of race and identity, social forces continue to shape our constructions of race, ethnicity, mixedness, ancestry, and related concepts. The social force of monoracialism, or the maintenance of discrete, singular racial groups and the preference for every individual to fit these monoracial groupings, remains dominant.

However, there are outliers or constructions that do not seem to fit these monoracial ideals. For example, in higher education, Latino/a/x students often confound institutional researchers on how to categorize Hispanic ethnicity versus race, with current practices not able to accurately capture those Afro-Latinx students or those who identify as biracial/multiracial (Dache et al., 2019; Vargas, 2015; Vargas and Stainback, 2016). Moreover, the terms “Latinx” and “multiracial” are also contested (Salinas, 2020; Wijeyesinghe, 2021). Furthermore, it can be argued that Black Americans have seen a progression in moving away from dependence on the “one-drop rule” to identify one’s race, especially with increasing prominence of biracial and multiracial Americans who proudly assert those identities.

Some literature points to a sense of liminality or contestation when it comes to (mono)racial categories and differences. For example, when one’s self-identified race(s) differs from the race(s) typically ascribed by others (Rockquemore et al., 2009), this phenomenon connects with being in a state of racial liminality (Brunsma et al., 2013), which signals the existing “in between” or outside of popular conceptions of race and the monoracial categories currently employed by many researchers. How exactly are these monoracial categories constructed, however? What are the stories, mental models, and social structures that construct race in this way to reinforce monoracialism?

We are pleased to invite you to submit to a Special Issue of Genealogy entitled, “Who Are We Really? Genealogical Deconstructions of Monoracialism through Mixed and Contested Racial Identities”. Our aim is to provide an outlet for deconstructing notions of monoracial categorization by highlighting genealogically related writings of mixed (race, ethnicity, culture, etc.) and contested (liminal, borderland, hybrid, etc.) identities. We ask: What are the discourses extant in society that structure and order our understandings of (mono)racial difference? What family lore, national narratives, technologies of categorization (e.g., the Census, ancestry testing, educational tracking), or interpersonal dynamics (e.g., microaggressions, code switching, interracial relationships) help to police racial borders and perpetuate monoracialism? Together, the Special Issue will capture a sense of collective identities and experiences around mixedness and contestation toward better answering the question “who are we?” (rather than the common question of “who am I?”) when it comes to racial and ethnic demographics.

In this Special Issue, original research articles, literature reviews, and scholarly personal narratives are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

  • Mixedness and multiraciality;
  • Borders and borderlands;
  • Contested identities;
  • Fluidity;
  • DNA ancestry testing, interpretation, and consequences;
  • Media portrayals and representations;
  • Racial “surprises” through genealogy or oral histories;
  • Shifting racial hierarchies;
  • Antiblackness and multiraciality;
  • Methodologies and pedagogies of racial contestation;
  • Critical geographies of race.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero
Dr. Orkideh Mohajeri
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genealogy is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • monoracialism
  • multiraciality
  • mixedness
  • contested race
  • whiteness
  • identity
  • deconstruction
  • discourse
  • education

Published Papers (10 papers)

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17 pages, 318 KiB  
Article
DNA Ancestry Testing and Racial Discourse in Higher Education: How the (Re)Biologization of Race (Un)Settles Monoracialism for Graduate Students
by Orkideh Mohajeri, Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero, Anita Foeman and Bessie Lawton
Genealogy 2023, 7(2), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy7020042 - 14 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1265
Abstract
The recent proliferation of DNA testing in both popular culture and higher education calls to question whether such testing reifies race as a biological construct and, in particular, whether or not it disrupts or reinforces monoracial categorizations. Graduate students, who are often at [...] Read more.
The recent proliferation of DNA testing in both popular culture and higher education calls to question whether such testing reifies race as a biological construct and, in particular, whether or not it disrupts or reinforces monoracial categorizations. Graduate students, who are often at a point in their educational journeys to further question and critique commonly held ideas, provide a unique lens through which to investigate discourses surrounding DNA testing. In this qualitative study, we analyze data from four focus groups with 22 racially diverse U.S. graduate students who had recently completed an ancestry test. We identify two specific discourses that graduate student participants engaged in, including (a) a biological race discourse and (b) an agentic choice discourse. Together, these discourses produced distinct unsettled subjectivities for Black and White participants. Our findings suggest the need to more critically consider the usage of DNA ancestry testing in and out of higher education and to provide further nuance around the validity of these tests as they relate to the social construction of race. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Who Are We Really? Genealogical Deconstructions of Monoracialism through Mixed and Contested Racial Identities)
24 pages, 672 KiB  
Article
“There’s Something There in That Hyphen”: The Lived Experiences of Asian and Asian American Higher Education Students in the Southwest Borderlands of the United States
by Chadrhyn A. A. Pedraza
Genealogy 2023, 7(1), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy7010022 - 16 Mar 2023
Viewed by 1792
Abstract
For centuries, Asians living in the U.S. have had to negotiate between the narratives that dominant society has imposed upon them and their understanding of what it means to be Asian and Asian American. When combined with the hierarchies of racial categories, the [...] Read more.
For centuries, Asians living in the U.S. have had to negotiate between the narratives that dominant society has imposed upon them and their understanding of what it means to be Asian and Asian American. When combined with the hierarchies of racial categories, the narratives underlying monoracialism are inherently limiting, obscuring their nuanced experiences, and stripping them of their ability to express the personal constructions of their identity The purpose of this qualitative case study was to elevate the voices of Asians and Asian Americans, their process of “inventing” their identity, and how their conceptualizations begin to deconstruct and challenge monoracialism. I argue that Asians and Asian Americans engage in a process where the interpretation and revision of meaning that emerges during interactions with others can illuminate the role of master narratives and how they negotiate between these structural factors and their ideas of what it means to be Asian or Asian American. The findings suggest a negotiation between master narratives at the macro-, meso-, and micro-societal levels that help them understand what it means to be Asian and Asian American. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Who Are We Really? Genealogical Deconstructions of Monoracialism through Mixed and Contested Racial Identities)
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19 pages, 304 KiB  
Article
Toward A U.S. AsianLatinx Intervention in Critical Mixed Race Studies and Interethnic Relations
by Kevin Ronny Kandamby
Genealogy 2023, 7(1), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy7010017 - 28 Feb 2023
Viewed by 1871
Abstract
Diasporic intimacies between Asian and Latinx groups have converged across the world for centuries; the mixing of these cultures and, as a result, mixed individuals are the effect of centuries of interactions with each other. In this article, I review the literature across [...] Read more.
Diasporic intimacies between Asian and Latinx groups have converged across the world for centuries; the mixing of these cultures and, as a result, mixed individuals are the effect of centuries of interactions with each other. In this article, I review the literature across Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS) and Asian and Latinx interethnic relations to situate an AsianLatinx intervention to understand how AsianLatinxs have continually been relegated to the subaltern despite their strong presence in the U.S. I argue that it is necessary to center the AsianLatinx lived experience to understand the interconnectedness of global Asian and Latinx communities. An AsianLatinx intervention disrupts monoracial frameworks of diaspora, mixed identity and interethnic relations to (re)imagine a reality that situates the complexities of mixedness tangential to racialization processes, identity formation and transnationalism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Who Are We Really? Genealogical Deconstructions of Monoracialism through Mixed and Contested Racial Identities)
18 pages, 353 KiB  
Article
Genealogy in Law as a Technology for Categorizing, Contesting and Deconstructing Monoracialism
by András L. Pap
Genealogy 2023, 7(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy7010001 - 21 Dec 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1556
Abstract
Contextualized by contestation and deconstruction of monoracialism, this article provides an assessment of how law, as a distinct tool and technology, conceptualizes and operationalizes race and ethnicity. The focus of the comparative project, by bringing examples from various countries and jurisdictions, is specifically [...] Read more.
Contextualized by contestation and deconstruction of monoracialism, this article provides an assessment of how law, as a distinct tool and technology, conceptualizes and operationalizes race and ethnicity. The focus of the comparative project, by bringing examples from various countries and jurisdictions, is specifically on the morphology and dynamics of legal categorization. A separate discussion concentrates on conceptualizing groupness and membership, with distinguished attention on self-identification and “objective” criteria. The paper shows that although identity politics has dominated the past decades, ethno-racial self-identification is not the only operationalizing model legal regimes apply, especially with the recent boost in artificial intelligence, and bio-genetic research. Examples for the “re-biologization” of ethno-racial conceptualization are brought from a wide range of legal regimes, including citizenship, anti-discrimination, asylum, and indigenous law. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Who Are We Really? Genealogical Deconstructions of Monoracialism through Mixed and Contested Racial Identities)
18 pages, 313 KiB  
Article
“I Just Want to Exist as Me”: Reflexivity and Our Duoethnographic Journey to Understanding the Self as Asian American and Asian Critical Scholars
by Chadrhyn Arevalo Agpalo Pedraza and Chan Jeong Park
Genealogy 2022, 6(4), 91; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy6040091 - 01 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1511
Abstract
Critical research, such as that involving the deconstruction of monoracialism, aims to empower and elevate the voices of marginalized populations. When we engage in critical research, whether it be quantitative or qualitative, scholars must recognize how our own lived experiences might shape each [...] Read more.
Critical research, such as that involving the deconstruction of monoracialism, aims to empower and elevate the voices of marginalized populations. When we engage in critical research, whether it be quantitative or qualitative, scholars must recognize how our own lived experiences might shape each stage of the research process. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we present scholars with a structured method using a conceptual mapping of social identities combined with written reflection and regularly scheduled debriefings to begin their own explorations of identity. Second, we present our experiences negotiating with monoracialism as we worked to understand our identities as Asian scholars. Through this process we discovered new perspectives on how we, along with our participants, have grappled with socially imposed notions of who we are as Asians. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Who Are We Really? Genealogical Deconstructions of Monoracialism through Mixed and Contested Racial Identities)
19 pages, 349 KiB  
Article
Chronic Codeswitching: Shaping Black/White Multiracial Student Sense of Belonging
by Nicholas Lamar Wright, Susan D. Longerbeam and Meera Alagaraja
Genealogy 2022, 6(3), 75; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy6030075 - 08 Sep 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4265
Abstract
Multiracial students grapple with experiences around mixedness which can hinder their sense of belonging among different social groups. Constantly feeling unaccepted and receiving the comment “You are too Black” or “You are too White” capture some of the common microaggressions faced by Black/White [...] Read more.
Multiracial students grapple with experiences around mixedness which can hinder their sense of belonging among different social groups. Constantly feeling unaccepted and receiving the comment “You are too Black” or “You are too White” capture some of the common microaggressions faced by Black/White multiracial students. Using a phenomenological design, this study examines the ways in which Black/White multiracial students develop their sense of belonging at a predominantly White institution (PWI). While codeswitching has the ability to impact the sense of belonging in racial and ethnic minority groups, our study findings suggest that Black/White multiracial students tend to rely on chronic codeswitching as ways of seeking acceptance, balancing “otherness” and carefully minimizing exclusion when interacting with members of different social groups. Chronic codeswitching is particularly relevant as an everyday strategy in how Black/White multiracial students foster their sense of belonging and a sense of community. Research and practice implications are included. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Who Are We Really? Genealogical Deconstructions of Monoracialism through Mixed and Contested Racial Identities)
21 pages, 381 KiB  
Article
The Influence of Familial Relationships: Multiracial Students’ Experiences with Racism at a Historically White Institution
by Victoria K. Malaney-Brown
Genealogy 2022, 6(3), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy6030064 - 13 Jul 2022
Viewed by 2119
Abstract
Multiracial college students’ enrollment has increased significantly over the past decade. This study examined the experiences of multiracial college students at a historically White institution (HWI) in the Northeast—particularly how student experiences within interracial family relationships—prior to college and while enrolled in college [...] Read more.
Multiracial college students’ enrollment has increased significantly over the past decade. This study examined the experiences of multiracial college students at a historically White institution (HWI) in the Northeast—particularly how student experiences within interracial family relationships—prior to college and while enrolled in college have assisted them in navigating instances of racism. In this exploratory qualitative study, students indicated that their family members can provide support in understanding racism. However, it does depend on the type of relationship and support (e.g., strong, weak, or stressed) they receive from specific family members during their pre-college and college experiences. Multiracial students confirmed experiencing multiracial microaggressions and found that they receive the most family support from their siblings. Implications are provided for students, practitioners, and interracial families to empower multiracial students to confront racism while attending a HWI. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Who Are We Really? Genealogical Deconstructions of Monoracialism through Mixed and Contested Racial Identities)
9 pages, 231 KiB  
Article
Dreaming for Our Daughters: Un/Learning Monoracialism on Our Journey of Multiracial Motherhood
by Aeriel A. Ashlee and Lisa Delacruz Combs
Genealogy 2022, 6(2), 45; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy6020045 - 18 May 2022
Viewed by 1682
Abstract
How is monoracialism un/learned from generation to generation? In this duoethnography, the co-authors engage in reflexive letter writing to purposefully connect their personal relationships with Aeriel’s daughter, Azaelea, to their academic ideas as poststructural scholars. In doing so, they practice letting go of [...] Read more.
How is monoracialism un/learned from generation to generation? In this duoethnography, the co-authors engage in reflexive letter writing to purposefully connect their personal relationships with Aeriel’s daughter, Azaelea, to their academic ideas as poststructural scholars. In doing so, they practice letting go of inherited dichotomies (such as mother versus scholar), lean into expansive ontoepistemological possibilities informed by their both/and positionalities as mama-scholar and auntie-scholar, in order to dream of expansive, healing, and liberatory futures that can emerge from connecting across difference, listening with raw openness, and pursuing radical interrelatedness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Who Are We Really? Genealogical Deconstructions of Monoracialism through Mixed and Contested Racial Identities)

Other

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21 pages, 402 KiB  
Concept Paper
Latinx and Asian Engagement/Complicity in Anti-Blackness
by Brittany Aronson and Hannah R. Stohry
Genealogy 2023, 7(2), 37; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy7020037 - 25 May 2023
Viewed by 2796
Abstract
We live in a world that desperately wishes to ignore centuries of racial divisions and hierarchies by positioning multiracial people as a declaration of a post-racial society. The latest U.S. 2020 Census results show that the U.S. population has grown in racial and [...] Read more.
We live in a world that desperately wishes to ignore centuries of racial divisions and hierarchies by positioning multiracial people as a declaration of a post-racial society. The latest U.S. 2020 Census results show that the U.S. population has grown in racial and ethnic diversity in the last ten years, with the white population decreasing. Our U.S. systems of policies, economy, and well-being are based upon “scientific” constructions of racial difference, hierarchy, Blackness, and fearmongering around miscegenation (racial mixing) that condemn proximity to Blackness. Driven by our respective multiracial Latinx and Asian experiences and entry points to anti-Blackness, this project explores the history of Latinx and Asian racialization and engagement with anti-Blackness. Racial hierarchy positions our communities as honorary whites and employs tactics to complicate solidarity and coalition. This project invites engagement in consciousness-raising in borderlands as sites of transformation as possible methods of addressing structural anti-Blackness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Who Are We Really? Genealogical Deconstructions of Monoracialism through Mixed and Contested Racial Identities)
16 pages, 300 KiB  
Essay
Ghost in the Kitchen: Multiracial Korean Americans (Re)Defining Cultural Authenticity
by Justin Sprague
Genealogy 2022, 6(2), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy6020035 - 29 Apr 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2202
Abstract
This scholarly essay explores some techniques that multiracial Korean Americans employ to trouble traditional notions of cultural authenticity as markers for racial/ethnic identity construction. I position multiracial individuals as foils to the common assumptions that cultural authenticity requires “native” lived experience, “full bloodedness”, [...] Read more.
This scholarly essay explores some techniques that multiracial Korean Americans employ to trouble traditional notions of cultural authenticity as markers for racial/ethnic identity construction. I position multiracial individuals as foils to the common assumptions that cultural authenticity requires “native” lived experience, “full bloodedness”, or a particular level of linguistic competency, in favor of cultural competency, analyzing the web community, HalfKorean.com. The site is a U.S.-based community of multiracial Korean Americans, where narrations of food and Korean motherwork play roles in many elements of the site, and in different ways work to reinforce new and adaptable forms of authenticity. Paying particular attention to the ways that cultural knowledge on the individual level becomes a marker for shaping community, I position Korean motherwork and household practices as vehicles of analysis. These embodied cultural practices inform community building practices, becoming critical variables for multiracial Korean Americans to exert cultural knowledge and expertise, authenticating flexible racial/cultural identities, which is an act of embodying what I term “plastic authenticity”. Multiracial bodies are inherently perceived as racially in-authentic; however, plastic authenticity is a framework that allows for expressions of identity and memory that resist this notion, grounded in their proximity to Korean women/motherhood. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Who Are We Really? Genealogical Deconstructions of Monoracialism through Mixed and Contested Racial Identities)
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