Heaviest Drop of Blood: Persistence of Black Exceptionalism Among Multiracials

• In Event: Skin-tone, Phenotype, and Prejudice

Abstract

This paper leverages the emerging American multiracial population to re-examine prominent theories of race and the color line. We explore whether assimilation theory, the people of color hypothesis, or black exceptionalism best characterize the sorting of multiracials into the American racial hierarchy. Using the 2016 American Community Survey, we first demonstrate that part black ancestry is the most dominant ancestral group for determining trends of subjective racial self-identification among biracial adults and in identity assignments to children of interracial marriages. Using the 2015 Pew Survey of Multiracials, we show that Black-White biracials feel more group consciousness about their minority racial group (Blacks), whereas Latino-Whites and Asian-Whites hold more about Whites. Still, all biracial groups self-reported discrimination rates equal to their lower-status minority groups, and less than monoracial whites. This indicates a possible perceptual disparity between how non-black biracials personally view their positioning across the color line, and where society views them. Implications for group consciousness and attitudes toward racialized policies are discussed.

Authors

• Gregory John Leslie, University of California, Los Angeles

• David O. Sears, University of California, Los Angeles