Creating Mixed-Race: The Census in the US and the UK

The Racial Elevator Speech: How Multiracial Individuals Respond to Racial Identity Inquiries

“…Or answer what I know may not be the answer to the question. Like, ‘I’m a student!’” Rose, 21, French Canadian/Japanese, shared, “sometimes if I feel like it, I’m like ‘all American,’ just to be cheeky.” In this way, participants engaged in linguistic racial confrontation (Sims and Njaka 2019) and “played on” others’ colonial gaze (Paragg 2017) in some interactions but still employed racial elevator speeches in others.…”

“…“Racial identity inquiries” are one example of a multiracial microaggression, defined as “queries directed toward multiracial individuals as others attempt to determine their racial background” (Tran et al 2016:26). In their taxonomy of multiracial microaggressions, Marc P. Johnston and Kevin L. Nadal (2010) categorize such questions under “exoticization and objectification.” Several studies establish these questions as a common experience for multiracial individuals (Anderson 2015; Herman 2004; Paragg 2017; Sims 2016; Sims and Njaka 2019), but fewer studies have addressed how individuals respond to these queries, and how their responses may reflect or resist racialized social systems.…”

“…Most multiracial individuals understand questions about their race to be rude or uncomfortable, even as they acknowledge that the questioner has no ill intent (Sims and Njaka 2019). Paragg (2017) describes these questions as reflections of the colonial gaze that seek out a multiracial person’s “originary point of racial mixing,” constructing them as multiracial in that moment of interaction (p. 292).…”

“…Similarly, Jennifer Patrice Sims (2016) finds that these questions vary by age and authority, as some multiracial individuals recalled getting these questions more frequently when they were young. With respect to multiracial individuals’ responses, Sims and Njaka (2019) distinguish between “linguistic racial accommodation” and “linguistic racial confrontation” (Cazenave 2015). “Accommodation” entails responses that align with racial ideologies of the dominant racialized group, while “confrontation” rejects or challenges these ideologies (Sims and Njaka 2019:71–72).…”

“…With respect to multiracial individuals’ responses, Sims and Njaka (2019) distinguish between “linguistic racial accommodation” and “linguistic racial confrontation” (Cazenave 2015). “Accommodation” entails responses that align with racial ideologies of the dominant racialized group, while “confrontation” rejects or challenges these ideologies (Sims and Njaka 2019:71–72). In Paragg’s (2017) work, multiracials accommodate when they provide “‘ready’ narratives” legible to the colonial gaze and confront when they “play on” the colonial gaze by intentionally giving unexpected or illegible answers.…”