Two biracial college students who identify as Black took different paths to achieve their racial identities. Jacqueline refuses to be exclusively Black and had a non-racial personal identity early on. Adolphus wished he was exclusively Black and struggled with identity issues. While they reached similar Black identities, the meanings and consequences differed based on their unique biracial experiences. The study examines how monoracial Black identity models may not fully capture biracial identity development.
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C A S E S T U D YBlack Identity in Bimcial BlackWhitePe.docx
1. C A S E S T U D Y
Black Identity in Bimcial Black/White
People: A Comparison of Jacqueline Who
Refuses to Be Exclusively Black and
Adolphus Who Wishes He Were
ANGELA R. GILLEM
LAURA RENEE COHN
CAMBRIA THRONE
Arcadia University
Two biracial college freshmen, both of whom identify as Black,
were chosen from a
larger sample of participants in a qualitative study of biracial
identity development to
exemplify the differences in the paths that 2 biracial individuals
could take to achieve
racial identity resolution. Through the case study method, the
authors describe the
course and progression of racial identity development (RID) in
these 2 individuals and
discuss some key themes in their lives that have contributed to
the development of their
RID. The purposes are fourfold: to describe nonclinical
subjective experiences of being
2. biracial in the United States, to explore the differences in the
paths that 2 biracial indi-
viduals can take to achieve what looks superficially like similar
Black racial identity
resolution, to demonstrate how identifying as Black can have
different meanings and
consequences for 2 biracial people, and to contribute to the
differentiation of Black RID
from biracial Black/White RID. The authors raise questions
about the generalizability
of monoracial Black and ethnic identity theories to biracial
individuals.
* biracial identity * biracial Black/White * interracial • racial
identity • ethnic identity
• Angela R. Gillem, Laura Renee Cohn, and Cambria Throne,
Department of Psychology, Arcadia
University.
This research was supported by the Christian R. and Mary F.
Lindback Foundation, the El-
lington Beavers Fund for Intellectual Inquiry, and the Arcadia
University Faculty Development
Fund.
Erica Freeman and Michael Mauney, Angela R. Gillem's cousin,
who died in a car accident
3. before he had a chance to see this research computed, shared
their insights as biracial people to
help develop the interview schedule. Melissa Bailey and Nancy
Grossman Feldman coauthored the
interview schedule. Jeff Shultz and Maria Root contributed their
time and wisdom to reviewing the
manuscript.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to
Angela R, Gillem, Arcadia Uni-
versity, 450 South Easton Road, Glenside, Pennsylvania 19038-
3295. Electronic mail may be
sent to [email protected]
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology Copyright
2001 by the Educational Publishing Foundation
Vol. 7, No. 2, 182-196 1099-9809/01/$5.00 DOI:
10.1037//1099-9809.7.2.182
182
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8. B L A C K I D E N T I T Y I N B I R A C I A L B L A C K / W
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The racial identity development of those
who have one socially defined Black Ameri-
can parent and one socially defined White
American parent has been of interest to re-
searchers primarily because of how U.S. so-
ciety constructs race on the basis of the one-
drop rule (Gillem, 1996). Until recently,
there have been relatively few published em-
pirical examinations of racial identity devel-
opment (RID) in nonclinical samples of bi-
racial people. Although early clinical
research on biracial people emphasized
negative consequences of being the off-
spring of an interracial union, Root (1992)
pointed out that racist and antimiscegenist
attitudes motivated much of the early re-
search. Root (1990) postulated that when
racial identity and self-concept are difficult
for biracial people, it is because of the ten-
sion between the two racial components of
the self (which reflects the tension in the
greater society between those two "compo-
nents"). She asserted that biracial people
demonstrate internalized oppression if they
reject either part of their heritage. Sebring
(1985) suggested that adopting a monora-
cial identity can lead to guilt and "feelings of
disloyalty" (pp. 6-7), and many biracial
people have reported that it is emotionally
damaging (Watts, 1991).
Research with nonclinical samples has
9. offered positive portrayals of biracial young-
sters as self-confident, creative, and well ad-
justed when raised with a supportive family,
neighborhood, and social network and in
integrated schools (Gibbs & Hines, 1992).
When Cauce et al. (1992) compared biracial
and monoracial (Black) 11-13-year-olds,
they found no significant differences with
regard to peer relationships or family rela-
tionships on measures of trust, communica-
tion, and alienation and with regard to life
stress, anxiety and depression. When Field
(1996) compared Black, White, and biracial
adolescents on general self-concept, self-
acceptance, and self-ratings of physical at-
tractiveness and romantic appeal, she also
found no significant differences.
In this article, we describe the course of
RID in two biracial college students and dis-
cuss key themes in their lives. The purpose
of this case discussion is fourfold: (a) to de-
scribe nonclinical subjective experiences of
being biracial in the United States, (b) to
explore the differences in the paths that bi-
racial individuals can take to achieve what
looks superficially like similar Black racial
identity resolution, (c) to demonstrate how
identifying as Black can have different
meanings and consequences for biracial
people, and (d) to differentiate monoracial
Black RID from biracial Black/White RID
and raise questions about the generalizabil-
ity of monoracial Black identity theories to
biracial individuals. Our purpose is to con-
10. tribute to the complication of the concept of
race in a way that helps to get beyond polar-
ized, monoracial constructions.
We take a social constructionist perspec-
tive on race. We believe that "race" has
evolved out of a historical need to create a
hierarchy that would maintain the status
quo of White supremacy and privilege in the
United States. The need to develop a racial
identity is a direct response to this hierarchy
and the oppression that has resulted from it.
Helms (1995) stated:
Racial identity theory evolves out of the tra-
dition of treating race as a sociopolitical and
. . . cultural construction . . . racial classifica-
tions are assumed to be not biological reali-
ties, but rather sociopolitical and economic
conveniences, membership in which is deter-
mined by socially defined inclusion criteria,
(p. 181)
This perspective is supported by anthropo-
logical and biological studies of racial
groups that have found more variation
within groups than between them (Zucker-
man, 1990), suggesting that races are not
biologically distinct. Thus, we presume that
the physical characteristics often used to de-
fine racial categories bear no significance
other than to suggest social realities.
Racial/Ethnic Identity Theory and
Research: A Framework
11. Racial/ethnic identity is a complex, multidi-
mensional construct. Attitudes about race/
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184 G l L L E M , C O H N , A N D T H R O N E
ethnicity are fundamental to healthy psycho-
logical functioning for people whose ethnic
groups are poorly represented and are the
object of societal denigration (Phinney,
1990). Phinney conceptualized ethnic iden-
tity development as being analogous to Erik-
son's ego identity development (Phinney,
1990; Phinney & Tarver, 1988). In this
model, identity is achieved through crisis,
s e a r c h / e x p l o r a t i o n , and c o m m i t m e n t
(Phinney & Alipuria, 1990). Marcia (1980)
posited four ego identity statuses based on
various combinations of exploration/search
and commitment, which Phinney (1990) in-
corporated into her own theory of ethnic
identity development. In her unexamined eth-
nic identity status, there is either little
16. thought or exploration given to ethnicity
(Marcia's diffuse status) or an acceptance of
socially or familially ascribed ethnic atti-
tudes (Marcia's foreclosure status). Ethnic
identity search is triggered by an encounter
that forces one to deal with ethnicity and
actively explore it (Marcia's moratorium sta-
tus). Finally, ethnic identity achievement in-
volves a deeper understanding and appre-
ciation for one's ethnic group (or groups),
accepting being ethnically different from
the dominant group, and coming to terms
with the lower or minority status of one's
group (Marcia's achieved identity). The re-
sult of this process is a "confident sense of
self as a member of an ethnic group" (Phin-
ney & Alipuria, 1990, p. 172).
Phinney and her colleagues found evi-
dence of these stages in Black and White
eighth graders (Phinney & Tarver, 1988)
and in Asian American, Black, Hispanic, and
White college students (Phinney & Alipuria,
1990). She also found change in ethnic
identity statuses over time in a longitudinal
study of Asian American, Black, and His-
panic 16-19-year-olds (Phinney & Chavira,
1992), which suggests a stagewise progres-
sion through the statuses. She observed that
all racial/ethnic identity models have ele-
ments of these three stages in common
(Phinney, 1990). For this reason, her model
provides the framework for our analysis of
the RID of our participants.
Because Black is the identity into which
17. biracial people have been forced by current
racial identity models and by the principle
of hypodescent, we discuss Black racial iden-
tity theory as currently conceptualized by
Cross (1995a, 1995b) and Helms (1995). In
their Preencounter/Conformity status, the
person holds racial attitudes that range from
low salience of race to anti-Black, self-hating
attitudes. People in this status may idealize
Eurocentric cultural norms. In the Encoun-
ter/Dissonance status, the person experi-
ences a racial encounter or series of encoun-
ters that initiates a metamorphosis of
identity and a questioning of his or her be-
liefs about race. In the I m m e r s i o n /
Emersion status, the person "immerses him-
or herself in the world of Blackness" (Cross,
1995b, p. 107), denigrating all that is White
and idealizing all that is Black. This is an
externally defined, oppositional identity,
based more on opposition to White stan-
dards than on the affirmation of what it is to
be Black. The Internalization status occurs
when the person has resolved the disso-
nance of the previous statuses, bases her or
his identity on personal experience, and de-
velops, according to Jackson (1976), a "total
identity matrix" in which multiple identity
demands are balanced and synthesized (as
cited in Cross, 1995b, p. 116). Although the
RID statuses seem to develop sequentially in
many people, measurement of racial iden-
tity attitudes suggests that these statuses are
not mutually exclusive and that a person
may display attitudes characteristic of more
than one status at a time (Helms, 1995).
18. Helms (1995; Helms & Cook, 1999) be-
lieved that her model of racial identity
theory can be applied to all people of color,
including biracial people. Cross and Jackson
(Oldershaw, 1994) expressed discomfort
with developing minority identity theories
that are one-size-fits-all. Cross (1991) sug-
gested that it is problematic to judge even
Black people against a monoracial standard
and to draw conclusions about their mental
health on the basis of the assumption that a
monoracial reference group orientation in-
dicates healthy identity resolution. He sug-
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gested "that the mentally healthy person has
some reference group or groups to which he
or she is anchored, but one's emotional
health does not require that it be the refer-
23. ence group to which one is publicly as-
cribed" (p. 126). We believe that applying
monoracial models to biracial people and
relegating them to the "least sophisticated
status" as Helms did (see Helms, 1995, p.
186; Helms & Cook, 1999, p. 86-87) is
equivalent to judging Blacks by White stan-
dards and finding them deficient; it ignores
the complexity of biracial experiences.
To counter efforts to squeeze biracial
people into existing monoracial models of
racial identity, several authors have at-
tempted to explore and conceptualize what
happens in the course of identity develop-
ment for biracial people (see Table 1). Most
of these models suggest that healthy biracial
identity development (BiRID) moves from a
nonracially defined personal identity
through an externally defined monoracial
identity perspective, often involving some
identity ambivalence and struggle, to an in-
ternally defined multicultural one. These
models have merit because they were de-
rived from research using nonclinical
samples of biracial people and they take
their unique statuses and experiences into
account.
Method
Through case studies, we demonstrate that
biracial people do not fit comfortably into
monoracial categories, and we raise ques-
tions about the plausibility of applying
24. monoracial theories to biracial people. This
TABLE 1 Summary of Models of Biracial Identity Development
Model Stages"
Poston (1990)
Jacobs" (1992)
Kich (1992)
Kerwin and Ponterotto
(1995)
1. Personal identity
2. Choice of group categorization (monoracial identity)
3. Enmeshment and denial (guilt over denial of one parent's
heritage)
4. Appreciation of multiple identity and exploration of heritages
(monoracial
identity)
5. Integration and valuing of multicultural identity
1. Precolor constancy—color viewed nonevaluatively (up to
4>/2 years old)
2. Postcolor constancy—biracial label and racial ambivalence—
rejects one group
and then the other (4!/2 years and older)
3. Biracial identity based on parentage, not color, with a unified
ego identity (age
8-12 years) and renewed racial ambivalence in adolescence
25. 1. Awareness of differentness and dissonance between self-
perceptions and others'
perceptions of them (3-10 years)
2. Struggle for acceptance from others as a way to understand
self (age 8-late
adolescence)
3. Self-acceptance and assertion of a valued biracial/bicultural
identity (adult)
1. Awareness of parental physical differences (preschool)
2. Begin use of descriptive terms and labels provided by family
to define self (entry
to school)
3. Awareness that physical appearance represents group
membership—may be
triggered by event (preadolescence)
4. Pressure from peers to choose causes conflict over
identifying with only one
parent—dating brings race to forefront (adolescence)
5. Immersion in one culture and rejection of the other gives way
to increasing
resistance to pressure to identify monoracially (college/young
adult)
6. Ongoing integration of biracial identity and increasing
interpersonal flexibility if
earlier stages successfully resolved (adult)
"Models vary in number of stages. ^Jacobs's study included
only preadolescent participants under 12 years old.
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186 G l L L E M , C O H N , A N D T H R O N E
goal is consistent with Neuman's (1997) be-
lief that qualitative methods allow us to
eliminate a theory (Black RID) by showing
that an array of evidence contradicts it and
renders it less plausible as an explanation
for a particular phenomenon (BiRID).
We used a semistructured interview
schedule designed to elicit life experiences
related to racial awareness and RID. We
composed the open-ended questions in con-
sultation with biracial friends and family. We
asked the informants about their current
identity; about parent, family, and peer in-
fluences on their identity development; and
about their experiences of being biracial.
Data Analysis
31. A three-woman team consisting of an Afri-
can American, a visually impaired European
American, and a multiracial woman con-
ducted the data analysis. We used grounded
theory analysis in which themes and patterns
in the data are identified, and then hypoth-
eses are developed inductively and con-
firmed or modified using the data (Huber-
man & Miles, 1994). With each pass through
the transcripts, we collected new data and
gained new insights, moving from vague
ideas and descriptions of concrete details to
an explanatory analysis with causal state-
ments (Huberman &: Miles, 1994; Neuman,
1997). This method allows for complexity of
concept development based on intimate fa-
miliarity with the data (Strauss & Corbin,
1994).
Limitations of the Study
First, although the presentation of only two
cases allows for a greater understanding of
the depth and complexity of the experi-
ences of being biracial, it is not expected to
provide the breadth of understanding that
can be obtained from a much larger sample.
Second, the interviewer is a Black woman,
which may have influenced how the partici-
pants responded to her questions. Finally,
we use a research design that relies on ret-
rospective recall, which may be subject to
memory distortion. However, our purpose is
not to obtain objective truth; we are more
concerned with achieving an empathic un-
32. derstanding of participants' lived experi-
ences. It is understood that the findings de-
scribed herein may not be applicable to
other biracial individuals, particularly those
who are demographically different from our
2 participants, Jacqueline and Adolphus.
However, by demonstrating that the theo-
ries of Black identity development and reso-
lution discussed earlier misrepresent two bi-
racial people, it becomes questionable
whether they can be applied to any biracial
people.
Case Studies
Jacqueline
Jacqueline was a 17-year-old, short, attrac-
tive, light-skinned young woman with wavy/
curly brown hair whom one might assume to
be a light-skinned African American or
Latina. She spoke in a quiet, matter-of-fact
tone as she discussed her life. Although not
overly talkative, she was willing to discuss the
details of her experiences without being
prompted. She seemed to be a strong-willed
young woman who is bright and thoughtful
about her identity and her experiences
growing up biracial.
Jacqueline was raised in a working-to-
middle-class family in which her mother, a
White woman of German and Scottish-Irish
descent, is the primary breadwinner. Her Af-
rican American stepfather is a retired mili-
tary serviceman and the homemaker. Her
33. biological father, also African American,
died of liver cancer when she was 1 year old.
Jacqueline never knew her stepfather's
family. He was cut off from them. She knows
much more about her mother's family, who
were opposed to her mother's marriage to a
Black man:
They were completely against [the marriage].
I don't even think they wanted her to have
Black friends, let alone a Black boyfriend. . . .
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B L A C K I D E N T I T Y I N B I R A C I A L B L A C K / W
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But they were accepting of my brother and
myself being their grandkids.
During her early years, she spent a great
amount of time in the summers with her
German immigrant grandmother and Scot-
38. tish-Irish American grandfather. She re-
ceived much more exposure to her Euro-
pean heritage than to her African American
heritage.
When asked about her relationship with
her mother and stepfather, she indicated
that her mother has always been very active
in her schooling and with her friends. In
contrast, she really does not have a relation-
ship with her stepfather because he is very
closed about his feelings and thoughts:
Well my father . . . he um, basically taught me
to stand up for myself, and . . . um . . . don't
let anyone control any part of your life . . . it's
up to you, everything . . . he's real indepen-
dent when it comes to that. My mom, on the
other hand, she's . . . be nice to people. If
someone does something wrong to you,
smile at them . . . because it makes them
more agitated. . . . Everything was just . . . be
nice, and be calm, and in school . . . just con-
form . . . to whatever the major group is doing
unless it's wrong.
She described her composite style drawn
from her parents' different styles of coping:
Well in school, [I do] like she says most of the
time . . . well I don't conform to like, peers, or
whatever, but I don't go against the teachers
deliberately either. That kind of thing . . . but
I do stand up for myself. . . like if a teacher
was, you know, saying something out of the
ordinary to me I would say something out of
39. the ordinary to them . . . cause, you know, it's
only right . . . she hates that . . . but my dad
applauds it.
Jacqueline said that up until the sixth grade,
she had no awareness that her family was
different and that her parents were of dif-
ferent races:
It was Mom and Dad; that was it. I didn't even
really notice them as being Black and White.
Just didn't cross my mind until I got to sixth
grade and came home one day. Cause, um,
some—somebody had called me a name or
something like that. [Someone had called
her a wigger, a "White nigger."] . . . mom was
like, oh, people are just mean, you just have
to get over it. My dad, he was like, well, the
world sees you as being Black. So that's what
you are . . . and at the time I didn't know. I
didn't feel myself to be anything.
Jacqueline attended an all-White school up
to the sixth grade where most of her friends
were White. She experienced another en-
counter at a friend's house in which her
friend's father made a comment about
Black people, calling them "niggers." She
said, "And I just looked at him and he said,
'Oh, well you're different.'"
It was at this point in her life that she
began to grapple with identity for the first
time, largely at her stepfather's urging:
40. He thought I had to choose between the
two. . . . He said I won't be accepted by the
Whites cause I'm not White enough and I
won't be accepted by the Blacks because I'm
not Black enough and they look upon me as
being different.
These sixth-grade experiences were the cata-
lyst for a new racial awareness and the be-
ginning of a theme that permeates Jacque-
line's history—her stepfather urging her to
take on the identity that society will ascribe
to her because of her looks, and her mother
wanting her to have more White friends and
to feel more affinity with Whites. She said,
When I was going through I guess that iden-
tity crisis where I was trying on different
roles? My mom . . . had got offended at one
point because . . . like, on, on all applications
I always put Black and I didn't put White—
she felt as though I didn't acknowledge her.
When Jacqueline entered junior high, she
spent a lonely seventh-grade year. She lost
touch with the White friends who entered
junior high with her. She said,
Like I had the White friends I brought over
from elementary school. But I didn't really
consider them friends once we got to junior
high. It was like a difference between us. So I
was basically a loner in 7th grade. Yeah, it was
awful. . . . I had real low self-esteem. But
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188 G l L L E M , C O H N , A N D T H R O N E
schoolwise I was great. I always did love
school. But as far as social, I used to walk with
my head down. . . . But my dad . . . had a
discussion with me about how, you know, be
proud of who you are. Who cares what other
people think. . . . now I, I can care less what
someone thinks of me. And, walk with your
head up and be proud of who you are—don't
care—and he just—um, he turned it all
around to ... you're this greatest thing in the
world and everyone's jealous of you so of
course they're gonna act like this. That's how
he was.
But then I was like "yeah, yeah," you know,
cause I thought I was an ugly duckling. I
hated myself. I thought my shape of my body
was just awful. My appearance, my voice—
hated everything. And when I felt—it was
when I was in the car with my mom and
people would look in the car—they were
46. looking at me because I was like so different
and so much, I thought, uglier than everyone
else because I wasn't like everyone else.
Jacqueline believed her difference was evi-
dence of her ugliness. Her stepfather's sup-
port and encouragement helped to turn this
around:
Then I made like a conscious decision that
when I would go to the eighth grade I
wouldn't care what the people thought,
'cause like a lot of the Black people didn't
like me because I was light skinned. I was one
of the only like mixed kids. There was maybe
about five of them in my school. So I just
made the conscious effort to just not care
what they thought and after I got over being
so self-conscious about who I was, . . . I had
friends from both, both sides.
In the eighth grade, once she began to make
connections with Black students, she re-
ceived a lot of pressure to join the Black
student organization. She did not want to
join because she did not consider herself
just Black and because of the strong anti-
White bent of the group. She felt, again, the
pressure to choose between racial loyalties.
I didn't choose. I stayed in the group and I
just voiced my opinion all the time. And we
never got out of meetings on time because
Jacqueline had to get her last word about why
everything was wrong.
47. So Jacqueline became the voice of racial har-
mony and reason in the Black organization,
not accepting Black students' efforts to ex-
clude or put down Whites. At the same time,
she was also beginning to identify more vis-
ibly as Black, and, in her words,
I think I took it to the extreme. Like the ste-
reotypical Black female that kind of—I
wanted the jet black hair. I didn't want brown
hair. I didn't want to wear normal clothes. I
wanted to wear the clothes that fall o f f . . . so
I just took it to the extreme at one point.
Although she didn't see herself as just Black
at this point, having recognized how much
this hurt her mother, she was strongly iden-
tifying with Black students as her reference
group. She later put it into context and ex-
plained that, as she made more Black
friends and spent more time at their homes,
she began to feel much more comfortable
with Blacks than with Whites:
Because most of my Black friends, like when
I come in, they just accept you as part of their
family, and once you come around so often,
they just consider you part of the family. It's
just, "oh, hi, Miss Jacqueline, hello, have a
seat. Eat dinner." . . . I think it's more a re-
laxed atmosphere than in, you know, White
houses. I feel as though [in White houses,
you] sit on the couch, sit proper. Just sit
there. But in the other—you can roll around
on the floor, play with the kids. There's always
48. like a lot of kids around.
At the time of the interview, Jacqueline iden-
tified as Black, but if asked further what she
was, she explained that she was biracial with
a stronger sense of comfort and connection
to Black people. She prefers dating Black
men and says that she would like her chil-
dren to identify as Black. She accepts both
parts of her heritage: "like if someone says
'you're acting so White,' well, I can't help
that, I am. I say stuff like that." Her friend-
ship network is multicultural and she says
"to me it's, um, you talk to people that are
nice to you—and, no matter what race it is,
it shouldn't matter." She does not allow
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53. is also able to see both the benefits and
problems of being biracial. She describes
one benefit:
I'm happy being mixed cause to me it seems
like Whites have like a one-sided view of how
things are being and so do Blacks. If you're
mixed, you, you know, have both sides 'cause
it's in the same household, you see it both
ways.
The major problems she sees with being
biracial are the struggle to acquire an
identity and the discrimination that she
experienced:
When I was young, and couldn't—and didn't
know where—what identity to turn to—when
I was confronted with that little problem [the
"wigger" incident] . . . it took a while to forget
cause when you're so young I guess you're
impressionable to comments like that. I think
that's the only negative thing in childhood.
She sees being biracial as the ideal and su-
perior position to being White or Black. She
concludes that
It's like best to be of a biracial—just because
you get—you experience so much. And it's—
to me I think it would be hard to be preju-
diced against either one of what your parents
are because that's part of you, too. I don't
think you can show too much prejudice
against it. So I think if a lot more people were
biracial, you know, there would be less preju-
54. dice. I think that's the 100 percent best
choice to go.
Adolphus
Adolphus is a handsome 19-year-old of me-
dium height and build, with short-cropped,
dark brown hair, who appears to be Latino.
He was talkative throughout the interview,
speaking in assertive tones. He often devi-
ated from the topic at hand to explain an
event in great detail and frequently had to
be brought back on track. He spoke like
someone with unyielding beliefs about the
issues we were discussing, although as the
interview continued, a sense of his vulner-
ability became more apparent. He was
raised by working-class parents. His mother
is a White woman of Italian descent from
Brooklyn, New York, and his father is a Black
man of Louisiana Creole descent. Adolphus
moved back and forth between his parents
several times throughout his childhood and
adolescent years. His parents were divorced
when he was 5 years old and from then until
the 5th grade, Adolphus lived with his fa-
ther. From the 5th to the 9th grades he lived
with his mother; and because he was having
difficulty in his relationship with her, he
moved back to his father's from the 9th to
the llth grades. Then, because of his fa-
ther's financial troubles, Adolphus moved in
with his mother in the 12th grade.
The families of both parents accepted
55. the marriage. His mother and paternal
grandmother got along well. He indicated
that there was a high degree of racial iden-
tity confusion within his father's family. He
attributed this confusion to his grand-
mother, whose ethnic heritage is unclear.
She was raised by a man, a Jewish man that
owned a furniture store, but he owned a lot
of s t u f f . . . so he was like real powerful. So he
in fact married a Black woman . . . they claim
my grandma's adopted. She might not even
be. She has two different birth certificates
from two different states. So nobody knows
anything about my grandmother. My grand-
mother was a little bit darker 'an me but she
had, she had nappy hair . . . she used to say
she was Spanish, but she wasn't. And so when
the kids were growing up, she fed this into
the kids too, so now the kids don't identify at
all either.
Adolphus believes that his grandmother's
confusion regarding her identity has created
a legacy of confusion for her descendants.
This legacy left him to struggle with his iden-
tity alone with no one to talk to about it
because neither parent could or would af-
firm his identity.
And then, um, it's hard with my parents, be-
cause my parents have always told me you're
not White and you're not Black. And I said,
well, what am I? We don't know what you are
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but you're not White and you're not Black.
And my dad, my dad, he doesn't say he's
Black either.
Adolphus seems disturbed by his grand-
mother's lack of identity and is determined
not to let his own family "grow up all con-
fused" about identity. His belief is so strong
that he has gone so far as to advise friends
not to date interracially: "Don't have no
kids, 'cause your kids is gonna grow up
fucked up. Trust me, don't have no kids."
Adolphus grew up in predominately low-
income Black neighborhoods with little ex-
posure to White people. Until about the
sixth or seventh grade, he had little aware-
ness that his family's racial composition was
unusual. At that time he began to question
his racial identity.
61. When you're little, [you don't] realize anyway
about race. It's not even a big deal. But when
you hit—well, it must have been about when
I hit about sixth, seventh grade things started
changing. . . . So at that point, um, I never
really had to make a choice because all of my
friends have always been Black—always. . . .
So once race started becoming an issue I, I
mean I always fit in fine. I've always been
around Black people although that started to
change in high school. It got a little bit more
difficult for me because my hair is straight
and I am so light that they, you know . . .
they're still my friends, but they, you know,
start calling me cracker and White boy and
whatnot.
He began to feel conflicted about racial
identity as his (Black) peers began to tease
him about his appearance. This disturbed
him because he did not like being associated
with Whites. Despite their teasing, Adolphus
remained devoted to his friends.
They didn't change. . . .They didn't really
change 'cause they were still the same
friends. They were still very um, very loving
to me . . . like one of my friends . . . he
was the worst one. Always, White, White,
White, White boy. But when it came down to
it, he was always there for me. I mean, any-
time. . . . Yeah, and it just bothered me be-
cause I didn't like hearing that because, not a
lot of Black people like White people, so
you're around Black people all the time and
62. they're calling you White, which you know is
something despised. You don't want to be
something despised, you know.
At around the age of 14, Adolphus began
behaving more culturally Black, perhaps in
response to the name-calling, and this
caused tensions between him and his
mother. He attributes this to his association
with a gang and his increasing use of Black
slang. Adolphus believes that his mother felt
he was behaving in a "one-sided" manner,
favoring his Black heritage over his White
heritage.
I was growing, um, into a teenager or adult or
whatever . .. stage that is in your life, 14 years
old. Used to get into fights with my mom a
lot. . . .Um, she didn't like the way I was start-
ing to carry myself, ah, and I think I, my lan-
guage started changing. Not, not that I was
swearing but my language started, you know,
more of a more of accent. (Slang?). Yeah,
and it just started changing and so she just,
everything I started identifying with was defi-
nitely to one side. . . . I think it was hurting
her and real angry to her that I wasn't iden-
tifying with her.
He also indicated that his mother "couldn't
fathom" that he could not get along with
Whites and that he believed that Whites
would not accept him.
While involved with gang activity, Adol-
phus began to feel that his association with
63. this peer group was having a negative effect
on him.
On my own I was like, this is, this is not right.
This is not cool. Um, saw a lot of my friends
get arrested. Saw a lot of my friends get shot.
Saw a lot of my friends shoot other people. I
was like, no, this isn't cool. This is not right.
So, I needed a way out of that school. . . . So
I took myself out . . . for a long time I didn't
even talk to none of my old friends cause I
just couldn't ah, I'm, I'm, I'm real susceptible
to peer pressure.
Adolphus severed his relationships with
gang members by choosing to attend a dif-
ferent high school for the 10th grade.
Throughout that year his academic perfor-
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sion, and he began to think more about his
future. He made the decision to attend a
private school for the llth grade.
See, I had real bad grades 9th grade. And I
had real bad grades 10th grade . . . they were
at the point where I was starting to think,
what am I gonna do when I graduate from
high school? . . . I was like, what can I do to
uplift my situation?
This setting was different from any Adol-
phus had previously experienced, because
he was one of the few people of color in the
private school. This experience increased
his race consciousness to the point of recog-
nizing how angry and resentful of Whites
and of his White heritage and traits he was.
I was like angry at—probably angry at White
people because I was . . . part White . . . and
in my being part White I didn't even get to
be born with the traits that . . . Black people
have . . . , it's not enough that I look White
because my skin is dark enough that you can
tell, he's not, he's not White. What is he? You
know, what is he? But at the same time, like
my hair. You know, my nose and my lips
maybe, but the hair and the hair—and the
hair—that's the first thing people look at any-
way to give something away, so I've always,
I've always been angry at my hair.
His straight hair disturbs him so much that
he keeps his hair cut extremely short to pre-
69. vent people from seeing how straight it is.
During his senior year in high school, he
and his mother became close.
By then my mom and I had became real close
because she started understanding . . . that
I'm different from her. Um, I'm not her and
I'm different from my father too. I'm . . .
I'm . . . I'm . . . I'm a product of both of them
and I ... I have different issues that I need to
deal with and whatnot and now she's real sup-
portive. And she understands that there's a
lot of racial issues, a lot of stuff that I have to
deal with that she never had to deal with.
According to Adolphus, his mother took
him to Italy with the hope of bolstering his
appreciation for his Italian heritage.
See, she took me to Italy for my senior gift,
hoping that that would open my eyes and it
did nothing for me. It did absolutely nothing
for me. Other than . . . a newfound respect
for White people. [Prior to this trip, I] ... was
seeing White people as oppressors and evil
people. . . . Then I realized well, wait a
minute, there's some, you know, there's some
cool White cats that you know, they, they're
making some nice art, you know, and they
wasn't interested in hurting anybody.
Despite his newfound appreciation for the
contributions made by Whites, Adolphus ad-
mitted that he still has difficulty interacting
with Whites.
70. O t h e r t h a n m y m o t h e r a n d a f e w
friends . . . , I've never associated with White
people. I see that—that's a lack of experience
for me that I need to overcome but at this
point in my life it's too difficult. . . . I don't
know what's going on in their world, and I
don't know how to get in their world, and I'm
not sure if I want to get in their world.
After graduating from high school, Adol-
phus attended a college on the East Coast
where he felt conspicuous because of his
ambiguous appearance. He described some
unpleasant incidents that took place on his
college campus, which he believes were ra-
cially motivated.
Walking around campus here—the White
people for some reason never mistake me as
being White. They know. And not only do
they know but I get looks and stuff out of the
corner of my eye. . . .You can feel when
there's tension. . . .You can feel it when
people don't like you. One night I was sleep-
ing here and . . . some people come in [the
dorm hallway] and I don't know who they
were but they were talking about me . . . and
I know that the next day . . . they were
up in my face smiling. So I mean, I know it
exists . . . another day my roommate claims
that some kid called him a nigger and we
went upstairs and confronted him about that.
And they were like that's, that's not right that
you guys have confronted us 'cause you know
we all have to live in the same house. Like
that's not the issue. The issue is if you have
71. said that word then we're gonna have a prob-
lem. Then there's gonna be a definite prob-
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lem that needs to be solved. . . . If you're
walking around here everyday thinking I'm a
nigger, then let me know. Let me know so I
know right where to put you.
In addition to feeling isolated from Whites,
Adolphus also felt a sense of isolation from
Blacks: "This place is racist. Wow! And I'm
not even talking. I'm not even talking about
White people. I'm talking about Blacks."
Dating in college seemed to exacerbate his
sense of isolation. He believed that rejec-
tions by Black women were due to his light
skin. He commented that he is now plagued
by that doubt whenever he approaches a
woman.
76. When I first got here. This girl—I thought
she was attractive so I walked up to her and I
start talking to her. . . . She was like, you're
too light skinned. Something like that. I said,
what? I said, what the fuck does that matter?
You know. I got angry. I was, what the hell
does that matter? . . . And she, she asked me
one day. She asked me what I was and I told
her. And she said, "not Black." So how you
gonna tell me what I am. I mean, you ain't fly
then. Go on. Go ahead with yourself. I mean,
man. How you gonna tell me. But I mean, I
got that a couple of times to the point where
now, when I, when I approach a lady here
now, I don't even know.
This experience profoundly changed his
perspective on relationships with Blacks, es-
pecially Black women: "I always, now I always
refer back to that question. Is that because,
you know, I'm light skinned? And that was
never in my head before." He feels that hav-
ing to deal with people's reactions to him
being biracial is hard and hinders his devel-
opment. It makes him feel tense and lonely,
and it's "painful to be in solitude all the
time." Sometimes he questions his own san-
ity and feels like he's losing his mind. He has
considered leaving school to return home
where he feels more comfortable. Through
this experience, his mother has been an im-
portant support for him.
Now, now I can talk to my mom about any-
thing now and she said, . . . it's not a Black
thing. It's not a White thing. It's just igno-
77. rance. She said a lot of people grow up igno-
rant . . . and she said don't worry cause you'll
meet, you'll meet a educated person and . . .
and educated people can look past color and
that's . . . that's . . . that's . . . that's what you
should look for. If anybody's ignorant then
you don't need them anyway because you're
beyond that . . . you're too intelligent for
them. You'll surpass them in a relationship
anyway. They won't be able to keep up with
you.
Adolphus identified as Black at the time of the
interview, and his feelings about being biracial
appear to be somewhat contradictory:
There's nothing wrong with being bira-
cial . . . biracial doesn't exist to me. . . . I do
feel that there's a problem when you're real
light and you don't carry on the [Black]
traits. Because then you're not accepted by
either side and that's . . . shameful. That's
sad. . . . It's hell.
Discussion
Both participants have a Black father and a
White mother and both identify as Black.
Both had an unexplored, nonracially de-
fined personal identity until the sixth grade,
which is consistent with the biracial identity
models as well as the Phinney (1990) and
Cross/Helms (Cross, 1995b; Helms, 1995)
models. Unlike Helms's Black model, there
was no evidence of idealization of Eurocen-
78. tric cultural norms or denigration of Black
c u l t u r e . Both reported having White
friends, but neither seemed to idealize
Whiteness.
Both participants had encounter experi-
ences in the sixth or seventh grade. How-
ever, what followed these encounters differs
for the two individuals. For Jacqueline, these
encounters thrust her into a painful period
of low self-esteem during the seventh grade,
which she refers to as her "identity crisis."
This crisis differed from the Cross/Helms
encounter/dissonance stage in that she did
not express guilt about overvaluing Whites.
Beyond the encounter stage, Jacqueline's
experience differed substantially from the
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83. perience a classic immersion status: She did
not denigrate Whites and she did not ideal-
ize Blacks. Instead, she began to identify as
biracial or mixed and she spoke up for
Whites in the Black student organization. At
the same time, she was immersing herself in
Black culture through her behavior, her
dress, and her choice of almost exclusively
Black friends in high school. She did not see
this immersion as a rejection of Whites, nor
was her defense of Whites in all-Black set-
tings during this time a preencounter ideal-
ization. This was not an oppositional Black
identity. She was aware of the importance of
maintaining her loyalty to her White heri-
tage because of her close tie with her
mother, and because she knew how much it
hurt her mother when she failed to acknowl-
edge her mother's contribution to her heri-
tage. She saw this period as an exploration
of Black heritage and culture to which she
had previously not been exposed. This next
step after her encounters and dissonance
was consistent with biracial identity models,
which involve exploring externally defined
monoracial identity perspectives with some
ambivalence and struggle, eventually com-
mitting to an internally defined multiracial
one.
The forthright style that Jacqueline
learned from her stepfather seems signifi-
cant in her ability to defend her biracial
identity against challengers. She is aware of
the implications of color and cultural differ-
ences but does not allow them to dictate her
84. relationships. She is well adjusted and likes
being biracial in spite of the social difficul-
ties she has encountered. She has a flexibil-
ity of identity that serves her well in her
mixed racial world. Her experience is con-
sistent with Field's (1996) findings that bira-
cial teens had diverse reference group ori-
entations and felt comfortable with their
mixed racial heritage.
On the other hand, the racial encoun-
ters that began in the 6th and 7th grades
thrust Adolphus into a classic Cross/Helms
immersion status in which he idealized a
gang-oriented definition of Blackness and
denigrated all that was White. This opposi-
tional posture was intensified when he was
accepted into a predominately White upper-
class private school in the llth grade where
he got "real racial" and fought with White
students whom he perceived as racist. Al-
though his trip to Italy awakened in him new
appreciation for White artistic contribu-
tions, it did not soften his anger at Whites as
a race. He recognized the need to explore
his White heritage, but he acknowledged
that it was too difficult for him. He main-
tained an externally defined monoracial
Black identity. This was accompanied by am-
bivalence and struggle with his White heri-
tage, which is consistent with the biracial
models of identity development. His experi-
ence of his mixed heritage caused him great
loneliness, anger, and disconnection, which
rendered him unable to move beyond the
85. Black immersion status to explore his mul-
tiracial identity. This could be due to a num-
ber of factors: his broken home and un-
stable parenting; his parents' lack of
information, support, and position regard-
ing his racial identity; and growing up in a
predominantly Black neighborhood where
he experienced pressure to disassociate him-
self from anything White. Although Adol-
phus experienced a classic immersion status
and got stuck there, his motivation for his
immersion attitudes is different from that of
monoracial Blacks. At his own admission, his
anger is at the White in himself because it
prevents him from having full membership
and acceptance in the Black community.
Adolphus is marginally adjusted, does
not feel accepted by Blacks or Whites, and
hates being biracial. He understands that
there are issues to be dealt with as a biracial
person, but he does not know how to deal
with them. Being biracial means being "con-
fused" and "growfing] up fucked up." Iden-
tifying as biracial would mean dealing with
being part White, which he has fought
against all of his life. He attempts to over-
come his negative reactions to Whites
through the use of his intellect by reading
and learning about White people and he
seems to have taken on Black identity to fit
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194 G I L L E M , C O R N , A N D T H R O N E
in, but these strategies are not working well
for him. He still has a lot of rage.
Jacqueline searched and achieved a
Black/multiracial identity, moving through
the identity process as predicted by the bi-
racial identity models. Her Black identity
represents her greater sense of comfort with
Black people, and her biracial identity rep-
resents her acceptance of her multiracial
heritage and her refusal to reject any part of
it. Adolphus foreclosed on his identity ex-
ploration (Marcia, 1980) by committing to
the Black racial identity that was required of
him by his peers. Although he has teetered
on the edge of moratorium status (Marcia,
1980), he decided that it was too difficult for
him to explore his White heritage. Perhaps
this is because continuing his identity search
might lead to abandoning his commitment
to a monoracial Black identity, which has
served as a safety net and a source of (mini-
mal) acceptance and belonging in a racially
hostile world.
91. Conclusions
We conclude that the Cross/Helms Black
RID model may not be an accurate repre-
sentation of RID for biracial people, even if
they are Black identified. The monoracial
identity models do not take into account the
complex forces that bear on biracial people
as they search for an identity in a monora-
cially defined world. Poston (1990) pointed
out that the monoracial identity models do
not allow for the integration of more than
one group identity. They imply that those
who are biracial must reject half of their
heritage, as Adolphus did at the expense of
being consumed by anger and disappoint-
ment with a Black identity betrayed by White
physical traits. Adolphus's rejection of bira-
cial identity represents a disconnection from
who he is, in contrast to Jacqueline, who em-
braces both heritages and experiences
greater connection to all of who she is. Field
(1996) found similar disconnection in her
White-identified biracial participants who
rejected their Black heritage and had lower
self-concept than Black or biracially identi-
fied participants.
Poston (1990) pointed out that current
racial identity models assume acceptance
from the minority group of origin, which is
not available for biracial people who are dis-
criminated against by both Blacks and
Whites. This was painfully demonstrated in
92. the case of Adolphus, who experienced
name calling from his Black friends, rejec-
tion from Black women, and racism from
White classmates.
Finally, the monoracial identity models
do not take into account that biracial Black/
White individuals have both a White and a
Black parent. In the context of a positive
relationship with a White parent, the expres-
sion of positive, accepting, or defensive atti-
tudes about Whites by biracial people may
not represent conformity attitudes as im-
plied by Helms (1995; Helms & Cook,
1999). It may simply represent that individu-
al's loyalty and love for her White parent, as
evidenced by Jacqueline. This love may be
potent enough to allow biracial individuals
to put oppressive experiences in perspective
and avoid generalizing their anger about op-
pression to all Whites (M. P. P. Root, per-
sonal communication, September 1998; C.
Thompson, personal communication, Janu-
ary 1999).
Instead of forcing biracial people to
choose, current research suggests that it is
better to support biracial people in explor-
ing both sides of their heritage in order to
develop positive biracial identities and
healthy psychological adjustment. In fact,
taking on a biracial identity is related to a
more positive sense of identity, fewer psy-
chological problems, and greater self-
confidence than adopting a monoracial la-
bel (Arnold, 1984; Watts, 1991). Root
93. (1990) suggested that regardless of how bi-
racial people identify, they must always ac-
cept both sides of their heritage, make their
own unforced choices, and develop ways to
deal with others' perceptions of them. They
need to cope within mainstream society
without sacrificing the integrity of their ra-
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B L A C K I D E N T I T Y I N B I R A C I A L B L A C K / W
H I T E P E O P L E 195
cial/ethnic identities (Brown, 1990). Our
case studies are consistent with these conclu-
sions.
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