Positive Assumptions About Biracial Children example essay topic

According to 2000 U.S. census, 2.4% of the US population which report themselves as people who have two or more races. (United States). The number of interracial couples has reached to 1.6 million, which account for almost 4% of U.S. marriages. (Fletcher, par. 3). In a melting pot country like the United States, where immigration and emigration rates are high, inter-cultural marriage has become an inevitable by- product of mobility.

Interracial marriage refers to a marriage which consists of couples with two different racial backgrounds. For example, a Chinese women married to an American. While the intermarried couples have to adapt their racial differences, their cultural background would assert a significant influence on the development of their offspring. In addition, society has also held different views on them. Children raised in a interracial family are often believed to encounter problems like a feelings of alienation, a sense of low-esteem, loss of self- identity, culture and tradition, which may cause personality disorders and affect the child's social behaviors. However, there are also positive assumptions about biracial children like better language ability and higher adaptability to the society.

In my research paper, I will look into how intermarriage influences the development of a child and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of a child raised in a family with different racial backgrounds. Identity is a fundamental question that intrudes in biracial children's minds. Since a biracial child usually inherits some traits from the maternal side and some from the paternal side, a biracial child is an amalgam of both races. Therefore, a seemingly simple question, "Who are you?" can create a difficult situation for them. From the studies by Betty Lee Sung, she found out that biracial children have presented themselves in various ways. For example, a black - white adolescent girl would wear two distinct hairstyles, sometimes an Afro hairdo and sometimes straight, to represent her black and white identifications.

(Rose 49). A lady with Chinese white parentage presented herself as "I am only half Chinese", trying to de emphasizing her Asian identity and emphasizing her Caucasian heritage. (Sung 110). In some cases, the subject was not willing to define himself and he simply let others to define him. (Sung 110). The case studies indicate that biracial children easily fall into the trap of duality, confusion about oneself's identification, and it leads to different problems like alienation, loneliness, which they are subjected to in daily life.

The concept of duality is reflected upon by both oneself and the society. Rose points out parents' perception on the child is very important and significant for a child to determine his / her own identity. If "they are unified in their perception of him, he is more likely to have an integrated sense of self". (Rose 57) The child in Harris family has clearly demonstrated that the parental influence in the sense of the identification of both black and white in a child. (Rose 57) With a unified view from her parents, she has a good sense of who she is and her identification is not fragmented.

A sense of identity is a dynamic process. In addition to the influence from parents in a biracial family, a sense of identity also involves interactions between the society and the child. It is an unavoidable fact that our society tends to categorize people racially or ethnically according to their physical appearance. Even for ourselves, we could subconsciously engage in like-attract-like phenomenon in our daily life. For instance, I notice that in the international school that I went to in Hong Kong, Chinese students would tend to sit together for lunch or dinner while "black" students would tend to congregate together at the other end of the dining hall. While segregation of a "pure" group does not seem have any problem with it, biracial children may find it hard to find a group that they are attached to.

George Kich (qt d Sung 110) points out that "the un categorized biracial person is an outsider to every group. This marginal position has meant confusion, rejection and alienation". Rose also makes a similar statement which asserts that "a youngster who is unable to integrate his experiences may enter into a state of conflict with his parents (rebellion), or with society (alienation), or with himself (identity crisis)". (Rose 59) In some cases, a biracial child would feel shame at their parents.

In Sung's case study 29 (Sung 104), a child whose one parent is a minority group member feels shame to his biracial identity and wants to hide the fact from the public. He refused to walk or be seen with his parents in the street, he always ran far ahead of them. From the above examples, we could see that biracial children's physical appearance can be a strong factor on how one was perceived and received and how duality can adversely affect a child's behavior. Racism can be a burden for a biracial child.

Even in a so-called cultural melting pot in America, biracial children are also easily subject to racist insults. It is important for parents to provide positive models of their respective race and access to their respective race's cultural customs and practices. Root points out that if parents ignore the problem of race, or discuss the problem superficially by saying "We " re all members of the human race", Race doesn't matter", or "we all bleed the same color", the child could not develop a proper idea on how to cope with racial insults. The child will have a higher chance of getting unpleasant experience like being bullied, teased, labeled, or subjected to racist attacks both at school and in his social zone. (Root 153). However, with proper parenting methods, the biracial children can aware of their dual identity and understand that they can be member of the two races.

From his research on Japanese white in America, Kich has proposed a Three Stage Progression model which describes the process of a biracial children in recognizing his / her dual heritage. (Sung 112) Besides facing the external pressure from the society, biracial children may also suffer from the internal pressure from the family members, in particular, their grandparents. In several instances, biracial children whom have their grandparents object the marriage of their parents are also rejected by their grandparents. The grandparents who distance the interracial couples would also distance their biracial children. And some biracial children claim that they never seen their grandparents before. However, more often, a biracial child would be a key to the reconciliation of the interracial couples to their parents.

From Sung's research in the two China towns, she found that grandparents felt much attached to their grandchildren, neglecting the physical diff rence and their abandonment of the natural parents. (Sung 108) On the other hands, there are also positive perspectives on a child raised in a biracial family. Researchers have pointed out that biracial children have major advantages over children who are not biracial. One noticeable advantage is that biracial children are often bilingual or multilingual.

Referring to Paiget's model on child development, a child has a specific capacity of learning in different stages. (Piaget 136) In general, infant and children have a higher and more efficient language acquisition than that of adults. Being exposed to various language environments when they were young, biracial children acquire the languages more easily. For instance, as shown in Peter and Ann Marie family, a child raised with bilingual parents can speak both languages fluently later in his / her life. (Harding and Riley 83) Furthermore, in some cases, where the society and the interracial parents speak different languages, the child has a more possibility to be a multi-lingual. For instance, Antonie, whose mother speaks German and father speaks French, was brought up in Brazil.

(Harding and Riley 91) Under both influence from the family and the society, Antonie was able to speak and understand three languages. One may wonder if the child would have difficulties in dealing with different language systems but Harding and Riley asserts that the bilingual child has the " additional tasks of distinguishing the two language systems", and Mclaughlin (qt d. Harding and Riley 49) also suggests that this language speaking ability does not requires special language processing devices in our mind. In the world of rapid globalization, being able to speak than one language has an advantage of communicating with people from different cultural backgrounds and having more job opportunities.

In addition to linguistic advantage, biracial children seem to have a higher adaptability and flexibility in tackling daily problems than other children. Being raised in a two-cultural world, biracial children usually develop dual perspectives. This essential skill helps them to "live in both worlds" and is considered to be " a strength" in living in a society. (qt d. Rosenblatt, Karis and Powell 195) There is even a case showing that biracial children have an advantage over regular students. In areas like Minneapolis and St. Paul where magnet schools are found, biracial children have a higher opportunity to get into those schools than regular white children. (Rosenblatt, Karis and Powell 194) One may think that biracial children inherit different genes from parents from different cultures and this may lead to superiority of one trait over the other or a greater in the population.

However, Andreasen in his research paper summarizes from previous studies from scientists that approximately 85% of human genetic variation is between individuals within the same local populations. About 8% is between the local populations found within major 'racial' groups, and the remaining 7% is between "races". (Andreasen 2.2) Comparing the result, the genetic variation brought by individual person is much bigger than the difference among racial groups. This may suggest that interracial marriage is not the main source which produces offspring with greater genetic variety in a population.

Indeed, the mainstream theory in scientific world nowadays is that there are no sub-species, or race, in Homo sapiens. Race is often defined culturally, rather than genetically. In conclusion, children raised in a interracial family are more subjected to identity crisis and problems of duality. At times, they will suffer from pressure from both the society or within the family. Depending on different situation and circumstances, biracial children can either be very distant from their grandparents or have an attached relationship with them. Also, with proper family teaching during a young age, biracial children will have a positive view about their identity and their cultural heritage.

Provided with a bilingual or multicultural environment, biracial children usually learn more than one language when they are young and this has helped them better integrate into the society. In addition, the dual perspective that developed in biracial children has equipped them a better survival skill in the society. Moreover, there is no scientific evidence shown that intermarriage will prompt an increase a superiority of a trait or increase the in a population. The problem of the existence of human sub-species, race, and remains unresolved. Therefore, in spite of some problems that biracial children have to encounter, I believe that they share more advantages which may be key to success in living in the ever-changing society.

Having realized about some of the advantages and disadvantages of being biracial children, further research can be focused on the development in their adulthood and their influence on the society. At last, as reminded by Martin Luther King, Jr's wish in his famous speech" I Have a Dream": " I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character". (King), I also stress on the importance that we should not judge a person superficially by one's race but by one's personality. Work Consulted Fletcher, Michael. "The myth of melting pot". Washington Post 28 Dec. 1998.1 Nov. 2004 Harding, Edith and Philip Riley.

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Forty Studies That Changed Psychology. 5th ed. Hock, Roger. London: Person Education, 2002 Robin Andreasen. "A New Perspective on the Race Debate".

The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 49 (1998): 199. Vermont Online library. Expanded Academic ASAP. Middlebury College Library, 1 Nov. 2004, Romano, Dugan. Intercultural Marriage: Promises & Pitfall. 2nd ed.

Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press, 1997. Root, Maria P.P. Love's Revolution: Interracial Marriage. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 2001 Rose, Caroline. "Potential Role Conflicts in Black-White Marriages". Interracial marriage: Expectation and Realities. Ed.

Stuart, Edwin. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1973. Rosenblatt, Terr is Karis, and Richard Powell. Multiracial Couples: Black & White Voices.

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