Mothering across colour lines: decisions and dilemmas of white birth mothers of mixed-race children

ABSTRACT

Conceptions of identity in multilingual multicultural societies still seem to be dominated by the perception that human beings are born into social locations and categories of ethnicity that are pre-existing. This fails to acknowledge the current reality for the progeny of interracial marriages, who may find themselves belonging neither to their father's nor to their mother's social location. While a strong emerging literature in hybridity considers the complexities of race and ethnicity for those born into these positions, little literature exists that examines the role of parents, particularly white, dominant culture mothers, who must help their children negotiate a path they have not trod. This paper examines the role of white birth mothers of non-white children in terms of their language, culture, and education decisions, illuminating whether and how they were able to help their children develop respect for and facility with the two languages, two cultures, and two worldviews they live within, while also documenting their struggles to do so.

KEYWORDS:

• Hybridity
• mixed race
• mothering
• minority education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The Amami people are part of the former Ryukyu Kingdom, conquered separately from Okinawa as sugar slaves in 1609.

2. I use this term in a play on its linguistic sense, meaning the ‘default' or ‘minimum effort' condition that is dominant in society.

3. As I write this, I am still fuming over shopping for my daughter's high school graduation dress. While my daughter twirled in front of my son and me, the saleslady asked ‘How old were they when you got them?' We left.

4. Mixed union is the term used by Statistics Canada referring ‘to a couple in which one spouse or partner belongs to a visible minority group and the other does not, as well as a couple in which the two spouses or partners belong to different visible minority groups' (http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/as-sa/99-010-x/99-010-x2011003_3-eng.cfm).

Additional information

Funding

The author would like to thank the University of Manitoba Research Grants program for funding the research on which this article was based. All errors are solely my own.