“What are you?”: Mixed race responses to the racial gaze

Abstract

Mixed race scholarship considers the deployment of the term '

The face of the nation: Troubling the sameness–strangeness divide in the age of migration

“…In both cases, the enunciative or ontologising power of the visual fixates the identity of the person on the basis of their appearance, but this power is equally disoriented by traits of sameness in that body. This ambivalent presence of an “outsider‐insider” (Bannerji, ), I would argue, does not only trigger the question “what are you?” (Paragg, ), which often people with mixed breeding elicit, but implied in this question is the potential for another identity question: “who are we?” It forces a reflection on the inner contradictions of a nation defined in ethno‐racial terms.…”

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

“…“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). She found that Canadian multiracial individuals develop “‘ready’ narratives” that provide kinship narratives and/or describe national origin as inherited through blood (Paragg 2017).…”

“…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). She found that Canadian multiracial individuals develop “‘ready’ narratives” that provide kinship narratives and/or describe national origin as inherited through blood (Paragg 2017). Jennifer Patrice Sims and Chinelo L. Njaka (2019) examine how these questions take place across multiple contexts but occur less frequently for those perceived as high status.…”

“…To examine why individuals intentionally create mismatch, I draw on theories of dramaturgy (Goffman 1959), doing race (Khanna 2011a; Markus and Moya 2010; West and Fenstermaker 1995), and microaggressions (Embrick, Domínguez, and Karsak 2017; Hughey et al 2017; Pierce 1974; Sue et al 2007). While Jillian Paragg (2017) has examined how multiracial Canadians respond to others’ queries about race with “‘ready’ narratives,” I use the framing of “racial elevator speeches” to emphasize how some American participants deliberately omit personal identity in their responses. I find that multiracial individuals rely on racial elevator speeches to mitigate the harm these inquiries incur as a form of microaggression.…”