An interesting article on npr.com captures nicely the growing awareness of the limits of traditional definitions of race and ethnicity. The article, which comes from npr.com’s Race Card Project, discusses a blended family with two adolescent boys who are of mixed-heritage (their language). Per the author and the children’s mother, the two boys resist the notion imposed by society that they must choose one particular label or even a mixed-race, preferring the term “mixed-heritage.” As the number of inter-racial families grows, the numbers of children asserting biracial (or mixed) identities will also grow, and we will hopefully begin to see more research on the interesting psychological experiences that play out in the lives of these youths.
One interesting question for me is how parents and children who have different ethnic backgrounds discuss their differences (and similarities). In the npr article, the mother of the boys indicates feeling concern and guilt that one of her mixed-heritage children is developing an interest in sociology and the study of mixed-race youth. She wonders if his mixed-heritage is pushing him to pursue an interest that will not be lucrative. The article does not discuss how the family discusses this topic, nor the boy’s response to this interesting reaction by the mother. How families negotiate these conversations over time, taking into account developmental and contextual considerations, has yet to be well investigated.