The Color of Jews: How Biracial Jews Construct Social Identities

• In Event: 130 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Mixed Race Studies

Abstract

Research on biracial identity construction has been dominated by survey research. While early researchers argued that the offspring of interracial (black/white) unions had but two options for constructing a racial identity – “black” or “biracial” – recent scholarship reveals a more varied set of options available to them (Rockquemore and Brunsma 2002; Harris and Sim 2002; Khanna and Johnson 2010). Still, even these newer studies largely limit their analyses to race. Using eleven in-depth interviews with bi-racial Jews, this article examines how Jewish ancestry, culture and religion intersect with race to create unique and often shifting identities. Although the content of any individual black-Jewish identity is variable, we draw attention to the formation of a “double minority” identity, which reinforces traditional racial and ethnic group boundaries.

Author

• Bruce D. Haynes, University of California-Davis