Exceptionalism with Non-Validation: The Social Inconsistencies of Being Mixed Race in Australia

ABSTRACT

This paper uses Australia as an example to view how state and social acceptance of mixedness influences a mixed race individual’s life and their access to a validated identity. The study is a critical view of history’s influence on modernity, which uses a data from a larger study to exemplify critical mixed race theories. Data were gathered through interviews with six mixed race individuals in Melbourne, Australia. The study found that mixedness has been problematised in salient points in Australian history, and this has resulted in a lack of appropriate terminology to accurately identify race and fully understand mixed race. Due to this, individuals in the study were afforded honorary whiteness and racial exceptionalism due to their association with whiteness and the desire of the onlooker to allocate a singular racial identity. While such exceptionalism can provide social favours, it simultaneously denies them access to their mixed race identity which leads to a superficial engagement with their ‘otherness’ and an inability to feel national belonging. The study argues that this is damaging to the individual, and calls upon the Australian state to honestly engage with racial plurality for the benefit of mixed race Australians.

KEYWORDS:

• Mixed race
• whiteness
• bi-racial
• multiracial
• race
• race theories
• identity
• Australia’ Australian racial history
• colonialisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Stephanie B. Guy is an independent researcher based in Melbourne, Australia. Her interest in the intersection of racial issues and social policy has driven much of her research. In recent years, she has combined her mixed race background and academic interest in mixed race studies to find the balance between the scientific and the personal. She has previously worked in social policy in Australian state and federal governments, and the not for profit sector in London. She holds an MPhil in Sociology from the University of Cambridge and a BA (Hons) in Australian Indigenous Studies from the University of Melbourne.