Mothering, Mixed Families and Racialised Boundaries

Ravinder Barn, Vicki Harman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780415733748
• eBook ISBN: 9781317432562
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This pioneering volume draws together theoretical and empirical contributions analyzing the experiences of white mothers in interracial families in Britain, Canada and the USA. The growth of the mixed race population reflects an increasingly racially and culturally heterogeneous society, shaped by powerful forces of globalisation and migration. Mixed family formations are becoming increasingly common through marriage, relationships and adoption, and there is also increasing social recognition of interracial families through the inclusion of mixed categories in Census data and other official statistics. The changing demographic make-up of Britain and other Western countries raises important questions about identity, belonging and the changing nature of family life. It also connects with theoretical and empirical discussions about the significance of 'race' in contemporary society.

In exploring mothering across racialised boundaries, this volume offers new insights and perspectives. The notion of racialisation is invoked to argue that, while the notion of race does not exist in any meaningful sense, it continues to operate as a social process. This crucial resource will appeal to academics, researchers, policy makers, practitioners and undergraduate and postgraduate students.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Mothering across racialized boundaries: introduction

Ravinder Barn and Vicki Harman

Abstract

This introduction to the special issue ‘Mothering across Racialized boundaries’ begins by drawing attention to the symbolic importance of the inclusion of an interracial family in a sequence in the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony. Following this, figures from the 2011 census in England and Wales are discussed in order to highlight increasing ethnic diversity and the growing number of people with mixed or multiple heritage. We consider the increasing social acceptance of interracial relationships as well as enduring stereotypes and critical questions asked of white mothers’ parenting across racialized boundaries. We highlight the key themes from the literature relating to mothers in interracial families and introduce the papers featured in this volume.

Introduction

The opening ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games directed by Danny Boyle portrayed an image of a confident multicultural Britain. It also incorporated a sequence devoted to popular music and culture from the 1960s to the twenty-first century. In this sequence a young black man, Frankie (Henrique Costa), and a young woman of mixed-parentage, June (Jasmine Breinburg), were shown to be falling in love as they travelled through a series of musical eras. The sequence also featured June’s black father and white mother as well as other friends and family. Reflecting on this portrayal, Diane Abbott (2012), a British Labour Party politician, remarked on the symbolic importance of this scene:

At no other point in Britain’s history would an important ceremony like this revolve around a mixed-race family and a non-white young couple. And there is no other country in Europe that would have such a couple as symbolising youth in general. The high profile given to this young couple shows how far Britain has come in its attitude to race.

Although most media accounts of the ceremony were indeed positive, the following day the Daily Mail published an article by Rick Dewsbury criticizing the portrayal of a happy middle-class interracial couple as ‘politically correct’ and ‘absurdly unrealistic’. The article said that it must have been a ‘challenge’ for the organizers to find an ‘educated white middle-aged mother and black father living together with a happy family in such a set up’ (for further discussion, see Mix-d 2012). Commentators were quick to note that the Olympic Games features high-profile athletes from this very background, such as the British heptathlete Jessica Ennis, and the article was subsequently altered and then removed completely. This example reveals an interesting dynamic of a simultaneous normality and discomfort concerning ethnic diversity in general and in interracial families in particular. As well as drawing attention to the increasingly prominent portrayal of mixed families and relationships, it suggests that Britain still has a way to go before interracial families are accepted without reference to stereotypes in relation to lower-class status, lack of education or unhappiness.

Government statistics in Britain, Canada and the USA point to the increasing racial and cultural heterogeneity and the growth of the mixed-race population, reflecting wider processes of globalization and migration. At the same time, there is increasing social recognition of interracial families through the inclusion of mixed categories in census data and other official statistics. For example, the results of the 2011 census in England and Wales revealed that mixed/multiple-ethnic groups accounted for over one million people (2.2 per cent of the population). Of the pre-set mixed categories white and black Caribbean, white and Asian, white and black African and any other mixed, white and black Caribbean continued to be the largest. The growth of the mixed population can be located in a wider context where England and Wales is becoming increasingly ethnically diverse, with more people identifying with a minority ethnic group (ONS 2012). The 2011 census figures showed that the white British group has fallen from 87.5 per cent in 2001 to 80.5 per cent in 2011 (ONS 2012). The largest group following white British was any other white (4.4 per cent), which reflects an increase in people from Poland and other European countries in the last decade. Asian/Asian British (including Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese and other Asian) accounted for 7.5 per cent of the population. Black/black British (which includes African, Caribbean and other Black) accounted for 3.3 per cent of the population of England and Wales. The census also showed considerable regional variation with London being the most ethnically diverse, with the highest proportions of minority ethnic groups and the lowest proportion of the white ethnic British group, at 44.9 per cent (ONS 2012). The changing demographic make-up of Britain and other western countries raises important questions about identity, belonging and the changing nature of family life. It also connects with theoretical and empirical discussions about the significance of race in contemporary society.

Although race has been discredited as an objective biological category, sociologists have drawn attention to the way that it has been difficult to lay to rest. Howard Winant (2006, p. 987), for example, argues that the concept of race ‘persists, as idea, as practice, as identity, and as social structure’. One area where notions of race as well as ethnicity and identity continue to emerge is in relation to the social significance attached to mixed relationships and mixed or interracial families. Such family formations are becoming increasingly common through marriage, relationships and/or adoption. On one hand, the increasing number of interracial families can be seen to challenge notions of fixed, mutually exclusive groups with sharp distinctions between them (Hochschild and Weaver 2010). Such family relationships appear to illustrate the permeability and socially constructed nature of race. On the other hand, discussions of interracial families can sometimes imply that there are pure races that can be mixed or alternatively preserved. Similarly, the attention given to mixed relationships, including the concerns for the children that are sometimes articulated (e.g. will they have identity problems? Can they be happy?) can be seen to reify the notion of fixed and separate groups. Some writers have seen interracial relationships as a ‘barometer’ for relationships between minority and majority groups, suggesting that the greater social acceptance of minorities leads to more interracial relationships (Fryer 2007).

Within the academic literature, areas for exploration have included the visibility of interracial relationships in society (Okitikpi 2009) and the social construction of mixed race (Olumide 2002); the extent to which mixed-parentage and minority ethnic adopted children and interracial families experience racism (Tizard and Phoenix 2002; Okitikpi 2009; Harman 2010a; Barn and Kirton 2012); and the way in which such experiences are negotiated by white mothers (Banks 1996; Barn 1999; Harman 2010a; Caballero and Edwards 2010). Another key area for research has been the identity positions available to young people (Prevatt Goldstein 1999; Barn 2000; Tizard and Phoenix 2002; Barn and Harman 2006) and the way in which interracial identities are negotiated and/or transmitted within families and their wider support networks (Twine 2004; Tyler 2005; Caballero, Edwards and Puthussery 2008; Twine 2010). Furthermore, research has explored the nature and appropriateness of professional involvement in families’ lives, with particular reference to social work (Banks 1996; Barn 1999, 2000; Okitikpi 2009; Harman 2010b). Scholarly work in this area has tended to focus primarily on the situation of children and in particular how they ‘cope’ with their mixed-ethnicity status or adjust in transracial adoptive family settings. In contrast, the experiences of white mothers of such children have traditionally received less attention, although arguably this is increasing. It has been noted that a critical gaze has been directed at white mothers of mixed-parentage children from sections of academic, media and professional audiences (Caballero and Edwards 2010). Given this, there is a need for a greater understanding of the experiences that mothers face in their day-to-day parenting.

This volume draws together theoretical and empirical contributions analysing the experiences of white mothers in interracial families in Britain, Canada and the USA. The collection of papers emerged out of a one-day conference titled ‘Mothering across racialized boundaries’, organized by the special issue editors at Royal Holloway, University of London in April 2010. Mothering was chosen as a particular focus for this special issue because although gender roles have changed considerably in western countries, much of the day-to-day parenting work continues to be done by women. Furthermore, white women have historically been seen as guardians of the ‘purity’ of the population (Ware 1992). As such, they have faced criticism and censure when involved in relationships with men from minority ethnic backgrounds, even though there is a growing discourse of ordinariness around mixed relationships (Caballero et al. 2012).

In exploring mothering across racialized boundaries, we invoke the notion of racialization (Miles 1989) to make it clear that while race does not exist in any meaningful sense, it continues to operate as a social process, or as Byrne (2006) illustrates in her study of mothers of young children in London, as a perceptual practice. We are interested in the social processes through which race becomes significant for interracial families, and the various papers presented here provide insights into the salience of this in Britain, Canada and the USA. Influenced by processes of migration and integration, the nature of racism and ethnic identities change over time, with implications for the context in which parenting takes place. It cannot be assumed that historical axes of discrimination will necessarily remain salient at the current time. Multiraciality has gained increased visibility with the election of Barack Obama as the first black president of the USA, and this has informed media and academic discussions (Jolivette 2012). We recognize that the experiences of interracial families are not static but dynamic and fluid, but we argue that it is important to listen for continuities as well as change.

The growth in research on minority parents’ racial/cultural socialization practices has led to increased attention to how white parents in interracial families, particularly mothers, might engage in cultural competence practices (Vonk and Massatti 2008). Supporting the child to achieve cultural and racial competence is perceived as paramount, given the endurance of racism and colour discrimination in contemporary society. Parental attitudes and practices regarding racial and cultural identity, neighbourhood diversity and support networks are all held to be crucial in managing the tensions surrounding ‘lived culture’, essentialism and children’s own preferences. Equally, the contrasting experiences of children and young people are an important area of focus and have received some consideration, particularly in the area of transracial adoption and interracial families (Samuels 2009).

In the first contribution to this volume, Ravinder Barn draws upon empirical research collated in New York to explore the complexities of transracial adoption and parenting. Located within the framework of racial and cultural socialization, the paper identifies three key perspectives to understand the ideology and practices of adoptive mothers: humanitarianism, ambivalence(ism), and transculturalism. It is argued that the ways in which white adoptive mothers understand and experience diversity and difference influences their approach to racial/ethnic socialization, which in turn is mediated through family and community networks and societal discourses on race, power and hierarchy.

In the second paper, Channa Verbian introduces the complex issues and experiences of racialization in the lives of white Jewish mothers of children from black/white interracial, inter-religious relationships. Using life history inquiry as an overarching research method, her paper is informed by her own personal history, literary narratives from three Jewish-American women and interviews conducted with two Jewish-Canadian mothers. This paper makes a valuable contribution in drawing attention to the salience of religion as well as race for socialization practices and identity.

Joanne Britton’s article draws on the critical study of whiteness to emphasize the importance of examining white mothers’ racialized identity and argues that an understanding of the sense of belonging of children and young people in mixed-parentage families can be enhanced by doing so. She also discusses kinship relationships and wider social networks as two related areas of investigation that can help to shed light on the nature of whiteness in mixed-parentage families.

Vicki Harman’s paper contributes to a greater understanding of the support networks and social capital of lone white mothers of mixed- parentage children. She draws upon in-depth interviews with thirty mothers in Britain to analyse the range of informal support networks that mothers utilize in their parenting, including friends, family and support groups. Her findings suggest that close friendships between lone white mothers of mixed-parentage children were particularly valued for non-judgemental support and empathy, and it can be argued that such connections constitute a form of bonding capital. The paper also suggests that although racism impacted upon mothers’ support networks, lone parenthood led to an impetus to enlarge their support networks by reaching out to individuals and organizations that they felt would be supportive of their parenting.

Finally, Lisa McKenzie’s paper draws on findings from ethnographic research with thirty-five white mothers living on the St Ann’s council estate in Nottingham, UK. The study examined how this group of women find value for themselves and their families in a context where outsiders often represent the estate and its residents as spaces and people of little value. The findings illustrate that mixing is highly valued because it offers status on the St Ann’s estate and a chance to engage in a contemporary multicultural Britain.

Our interest in this special issue stems from the desire to examine the cultural and social contexts in which white mothers in interracial families negotiate parenting. Taken as a whole, the collection of papers draw attention to t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1. Mothering across racialized boundaries: introduction
• 2. ‘Doing the right thing’: transracial adoption in the USA
• 3. The experience of race in the lives of Jewish birth mothers of children from black/white interracial and inter-religious relationships: a Canadian perspective
• 4. Researching white mothers of mixed-parentage children: the significance of investigating whiteness
• 5. Social capital and the informal support networks of lone white mothers of mixed-parentage children
• 6. Narratives from a Nottingham council estate: a story of white working-class mothers with mixed-race children
• Index