Negotiating the (Non)Negotiable: Connecting ‘Mixed-Race’ Identities to ‘Mixed-Race’ Families

ABSTRACT

Whilst being a global phenomenon, ‘mixed-race’ means different things in different contexts. ‘Mixed-race’ individuals make sense of their mixed heritages by drawing on interactions with intimate others from their social networks. Based on an empirical study conducted in Scotland, this paper seeks to explore the linkage between mixed identities, society and families. Examining first-person accounts derived from interviews with self-identified mixed Scots, this paper delineates the dynamics involved in ‘mixed-race’ identifications and it contends that the ways in which mixed individuals make sense of their mixedness are profoundly influenced by their early experiences at home. This paper analyses qualitative data from in-depth interviews to examine the interrelationship between expressed identities and their experiences at home. The focus of analysis is placed upon the ways in which families are factored into the process of negotiating racialised differences by those who had grown up with limited knowledge about their non-Scottish heritage. This paper suggests that the role of families is two-folded: on one hand, it generates symbolic resources for children to negotiate racialised difference; on the other hand, it serves as a key site for the development of racial ideologies. The two roles of families shed light to understand the formation of mixed identities.

KEYWORDS:

• Mixed-race identities
• family practices
• race and racism
• whiteness
• Scotland

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Mengxi Pang was a PhD candidate at the Sociology subject area within the University of Glasgow. Her PhD study focuses on the ways in which the meaning and significance of mixedness is understood by ‘mixed-race’ individuals and parents of mixed children in Scotland. Her PhD was awarded in 2018, and prior to this, she graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a MSc by research degree in Socio-cultural Studies (with distinction).

Notes

1 According to the 2011 Scottish Census, 96 per cent (i.e. 5,084,407 out of 5,295,403) of the Scottish population was identified as white, whereas this figure is 87 per cent in England and Wales.