Portrays the diverse experiences and identities of mixed race college students.
"It's kind of an odd thing, really, because it's not like I'm one or the other, or like I fit here or there, but I kind of also fit everywhere. And nowhere. All at once. You know?" - Florence
"My racial identity, I would have to say, is multiracial. I am of the future. I believe there is going to come a day when a very, very large majority of everybody in the world is going to be mixed with more than one race. It's going to be multiracial for everybody. Everybody and their mother!" - Jack
Kristen A. Renn offers a new perspective on racial identity in the United States, that of mixed race college students making sense of the paradox of deconstructing racial categories while living on campuses sharply divided by race and ethnicity. Focusing on how peer culture shapes identity in public and private spaces, the book presents the findings of a qualitative research study involving fifty-six undergraduates from a variety of institutions. Renn uses an innovative ecology model to examine campus peer cultures and documents five patterns of multiracial identity that illustrate possibilities for integrating notions of identity construction (and deconstruction) with the highly salient nature of race in higher education. One of the most ambitious scholarly attempts to date to portray the diverse experiences and identities of mixed race college students, the book also discusses implications for higher education practice, policy, theory, and research.
"It offers a clear conceptual framework, thorough literature review, captivating stories, and meaningful applications to higher education practice and policy … By reading [it] … we are provided additional insight into the lives of mixed race students and how best to address and facilitate their academic and social development." — Journal of College Student Development
"The very solid research design features ethnographic methods and grounded theory to shed light on the experiences, interests, needs, and developmental influences that mixed raced students have. Plusses of the author's appropriate and detailed framework feature the use of classic scholarship (i.e., Bronfenbrenner) and thorough literature research. The major findings include a typology of identity patterns and the notion that a singular racial identity is not always reasonable or desirable." — CHOICE
Kristen A. Renn is Assistant Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education at Michigan State University.
Preface
1. The Context of Mixed Race Students in American Higher Education
2. The Ecology of Multiracial Identity on Campus—An Analytic Framework and Research Design
3. Patterns of Multiracial Identity among College Students
4. I'm Black—Monoracial Identity
5. I'm Asian and Latina—Multiple Monoracial Identities
6. I'm Mixed—Multiracial Identity
7. I Don't Check Any Boxes—Extraracial Identity
8. It Depends—Situational Identity
9. From Patterns to Practice—What Mixed Race Identity Patterns Mean for Educational Practice
Appendix A: Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity
Appendix B: Summary of Study Participants
Appendix C: Interview and Focus Group Protocols
Notes
References
Index