The purpose of this project was to examine biracial identity, and the specific identitiy choices made by biracial individuals at the college level. In addition, this study explored the many factors that may be associated with the choice of a racial/biracial identity.

Multiracial people are the fastest growing population in the United States; yet despite their growing population size, they often experience prejudice, stigma, and discrimination (Pew Research Center, 2015). Research suggests that racist discrimination—both in its overt and covert forms—is associated with mental health concerns for multiracial people (e.g., Sue & Spanierman, 2020; Townsend et al., 2009; Tran et al., 2016). Currently, very few studies have assessed proximal stressors, or those related to subjective perceptions and appraisals, with samples of multiracial people. Research with other racial minority groups suggests that expectations of rejection and internalized racism are significant stressors for these populations (Chan & Mendoza‐Denton, 2008; Henson et al., 2013). While several measures currently exist that examine the race-based stressors multiracial people encounter, none of the scales adequately address proximal stressors (Franco & O’Brien, 2018; Salahuddin & O’Brien, 2011; Yoo et al., 2016). The purpose of the present study is to address the limitations of previous measures and develop a measurement of race-related proximal minority stressors for multiracial people. Based on a review of multiracial minority stressors (i.e., expectations of rejection, internalized monoracism, and concealment of multiracial identity) and psychological distress and well-being, a measure of minoritized multiracial stress was developed (the Minoritized Multiracial Stress Scale; MMSS). The proposed MMSS was evaluated by eight expert reviewers and a pilot study of 13 multiracial people. Items were modified based on their feedback and the scale was subsequently administered to a sample of 569 self-identified multiracial people. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to determine and confirm factor structure. A four-factor structure model consisting of internalized monoracism, concealment and concealment motivation, expectations of rejection, and what appeared to be a pride construct, emerged from the exploratory factor analysis. The pride factor was not supported in the confirmatory factor analysis. The final model confirmed in the confirmatory factor analysis sample and supported in the full sample was composed of three factors: internalized monoracism, concealment and concealment motivation, and expectations of rejection. Convergent, concurrent, and discriminant validity were established. The present research proposes a valid and reliable measurement of proximal stressors for multiracial people. Implications of the MMSS, its limitations, and future directions for clinical and research work are discussed.

Multiracial people are the fastest growing population in the United States; yet despite their growing population size, they often experience prejudice, stigma, and discrimination (Pew Research Center, 2015). Research suggests that racist discrimination—both in its overt and covert forms—is associated with mental health concerns for multiracial people (e.g., Sue & Spanierman, 2020; Townsend et al., 2009; Tran et al., 2016). Currently, very few studies have assessed proximal stressors, or those related to subjective perceptions and appraisals, with samples of multiracial people. Research with other racial minority groups suggests that expectations of rejection and internalized racism are significant stressors for these populations (Chan & Mendoza‐Denton, 2008; Henson et al., 2013). While several measures currently exist that examine the race-based stressors multiracial people encounter, none of the scales adequately address proximal stressors (Franco & O’Brien, 2018; Salahuddin & O’Brien, 2011; Yoo et al., 2016). The purpose of the present study is to address the limitations of previous measures and develop a measurement of race-related proximal minority stressors for multiracial people. Based on a review of multiracial minority stressors (i.e., expectations of rejection, internalized monoracism, and concealment of multiracial identity) and psychological distress and well-being, a measure of minoritized multiracial stress was developed (the Minoritized Multiracial Stress Scale; MMSS). The proposed MMSS was evaluated by eight expert reviewers and a pilot study of 13 multiracial people. Items were modified based on their feedback and the scale was subsequently administered to a sample of 569 self-identified multiracial people. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to determine and confirm factor structure. A four-factor structure model consisting of internalized monoracism, concealment and concealment motivation, expectations of rejection, and what appeared to be a pride construct, emerged from the exploratory factor analysis. The pride factor was not supported in the confirmatory factor analysis. The final model confirmed in the confirmatory factor analysis sample and supported in the full sample was composed of three factors: internalized monoracism, concealment and concealment motivation, and expectations of rejection. Convergent, concurrent, and discriminant validity were established. The present research proposes a valid and reliable measurement of proximal stressors for multiracial people. Implications of the MMSS, its limitations, and future directions for clinical and research work are discussed.

Racial identifications are continually influenced by and constructed through one’s environment. Building on Jean Baudrillard’s “The Precession of Simulacra” and Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, this thesis argues that houses and clothing are the material objects that allow characters Birdie Lee from Danzy Senna’s Caucasia and Helga Crane from Nella Larsen’s Quicksand to construct their mixed race identities. Birdie Lee’s childhood home is the place where she develops a mixed race identity. When she leaves that home, she is forced to take on simulacra in order to pass for white. Without a stable childhood or adult home, Helga Crane’s wardrobe becomes the space where she unconsciously develops a mixed race identity. Her clothing choices allow her to simulate an entirely black identity that masks her mixed race heritage. Ultimately, the fates of Birdie and Helga are determined by whether or not they can occupy a space that is accepting of their mixed race identities. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

A narrative inheritance is comprised of the stories told by family members that are received by a younger generation and used to help construct identity. According to the communication theory of identity, identity is formed through communication. Additionally, the storied resource perspective looks at narratives as a major method of creating and maintaining identity. This study looks at the kinds of narrative inheritance concerning race that people in multiracial families receive and possible ways it affects racial identity formation. Findings from 12 semi-structured interviews indicate that narratives of racism, cultural pride, and hardship are prevalent in multiracial families. Additionally, findings show that varying family structures may affect the transference of racial narratives between generations, which can in turn affect how multiracial children choose to identify themselves racially.

Thesis (M.A.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-88). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Contemporary Canadian literature and drama that features racial hybridity represents the racially hybrid soma text as a unique form of embodiment and pays particular attention to the power of the racialized gaze. The soma text is the central concept I have developed in order to identify, address, and interrogate the signifying qualities of the racially hybrid body. Throughout my dissertation, I use the concept of the body as a text in order to draw attention to the different visual "readings" that are stimulated by this form of embodiment. In each chapter, I identify the centrality of racially hybrid embodiment and investigate the power of the racialized gaze involved in the interpellation of these racially hybrid bodies. I have chosen to divide my study into discrete chapters and to use specific texts to illuminate my central concepts and to identify the strategies that can be used to express agency over the process of interpellation. In Chapter One I explain my methodology, define the terminology and outline the theories that are central to my analysis. In Chapter Two, I consider the experiences of mixed race people expressing agency by self-defining in the genre of autobiography. In Chapter Three, I explore the notion of racial drag as represented in fiction. In Chapter Four, I consider the ways in which the performative aspects of racial hybridity are represented by theatrical means and through performance. My analysis of the soma text and racialized gaze in these three genres offers critical terms that can be used to analyze representations of racial hybridity. By framing my analysis by way of the construction of the autobiographical voice I suggest that insight into the narrative uses of racial hybridity can be deepened and informed by a thorough analysis of the representation of the lived experience of racial hybridity in a given context. My crossgeneric and crossracial methodology implicitly asserts the importance of the inclusion of different types of racial hybridity in order to understand the power of the racially hybrid body as a signifier in contemporary Canadian literature and drama. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The Melungeons are a group of indeterminable origin living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southeastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia. This thesis describes characteristics of these tri-racial isolates and gives theories as to their mysterious origins. Being darker skinned, the Melungeons were pushed into more mountainous regions by European colonists in the early 1700’s. While multiple hypotheses exist as to the origin of the Melungeon people, there is no single theory that is accepted by all scholars. Dr. Brent Kennedy’s The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People, served as a catalyst for my Melungeon research. Kennedy is my cousin, and his book provided facts behind the family stories I recalled from childhood. It also linked me to other famous Melungeons such as Brandy Jack Mullins and Mahala Mullins. Although there are an abundance of stories and facts about my Melungeon heritage, there is also much history that has been lost. This thesis traces my Melungeon roots, following the family stories of N.B. Kennedy, Brandy Jack Mullins, Mahala Mullins, and Kenneth Kennedy. In order to fully understand these people and their stories, I not only researched their history, but I also visited the areas where they lived and died. In this manner, I was able to gain a better understanding my own family as well as the history of the Melungeons. A person’s past is pieced together through oral history, written records, fading pictures, and personal artifacts. Along with these methods, we as writers and researchers add a bit of our own thought and imagination to fill in the gaps of a person’s life. In this manner, personal mythology is created. This thesis ends with an example of one fictionalized story from my family surrounding the death of my uncle, Kenneth Kennedy.

published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This thesis starts with an overview of the historical record tied to the birth of a new nation studied by Alexis de Tocqueville and Henry Steele Commager. It singles out the works of Henry Nash Smith and Eugene D. Genovese for an understanding, respectively, of the "myth of the frontier" tied to the conquest of the American West and the "plantation myth" that sustained slavery in the American South. Both myths underlie the concept of hybridity or cross-cultural relations in America. This thesis is concerned with the representation or lack of representation of hybridity and the roles played by female characters in connection with the land in two seminal American novels and their film versions---James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, and Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind---and Alice Randall's rewriting of Mitchell's novel, The Wind Done Gone , as a point of contrast. Hybridity is represented in the mixed-race bodies of these characters.