Mixed Race or Multiple Ethnicities?

In the article "Race" and the Construction of Human Identity, author Audrey Smedley (1998) provides historical information and analysis regarding the concept of "race" in the Americas, and to some extent, the world.   I found the article generally insightful and extremely interesting, but I was confused with the author's adamant position against people identifying as "mixed-race".  "The tragedy for "mixed" people is that powerful social lie, the assumption at the heart of "race", that a presumed biological essence is the basis of one's true identity". (Smedley, 1998).

My first reaction was surprise that the author, who had otherwise seemed critical and concerned with facts, would seem to target individuals for their identity.  I do not think that it is for anyone to ridicule or criticize another persons identity, and it is particularly insensitive to single out people who feel their personal story is too complicated to be summed up with one designation or another.  I thought that it was the author who was misunderstanding those who self-identify as "mixed-race" rather than the misunderstanding of the people she is criticizing.  However, thorough reading of the article and subsequent publications from the author somewhat mitigate the harshness of her accusations.  I think also that information and understandings regarding the entire topic are changing rapidly and frequently, so, as always, context is an important consideration.

At first it seemed to me that the author had a personal reaction, and some amount of hostility, towards those who self-identify as "mixed-race".  This led me to research the article, the author, and some of the authors more recent writings.  The always complex and contentious discussion of "race", culture, society, and science continues to be relevant and fascinating to many scholars and people in general, and is highly relevant, and personal, to many of us.  I am excited to read the authors newest book, The History of Race in North America (2011), which apparently is in it's 4th edition, although new DNA tests (autosomal) predict with more detail a persons total lineage, which is a crucial distinction from "race", or even ethnicity.  Of course, although some people still believe so, culture is not appearance, and this is precisely what the most recent DNA studies are showing.   Ultimately the answer is that people are people.  All humans share a majority of the same DNA, as tracing the human genome has confirmed.  It is the .01% that makes us all unique individuals.  The concept of "race" is clearly fabricated, and has been solely a tragic and evil tool implemented and enforced by "the powers that be", a way of consolidating power in the hands of the few and fomenting discord and exploitation of the majority.  In the past, damaging misinformation has been propagated in the name of science, so we should be vigilant and critical whenever science is brought into the discussion of racism. Although "race" is a false concept, haplotype and haplogroups are real.  Discovering the genetic markers that describe a person's lineage can provide important information about parentage, family history, and solve mysteries. Haplotype and haplogroup mapping, with understanding, can ultimately provide a deeper understanding of humanity, history, and proves that diversity  is a fundamental part of the human story. Haplogroups are basically geographic areas where a majority of people share (or shared) an abundance of haplotypes, genetic markers/mutations that can be found in every human around the world but are found most frequently in particular areas.  The presence of a particular haplogroup, or of multiple haplogroups, does not necessarily correspond to a persons appearance. 

To me, this is where the current findings get really interesting.  Autosomal DNA mapping shows that there appears to be the most genetic diversity in Africa (9 haplogroups) and Europe (9 haplogroups), 3 haplogroups found in Asia, 2 in the South Pacific, 1 in Native America, and 2 for West Asia (Middle/Near East and Caucasus).  Many Americans, of all lineages, are finding out more about their family origins (and themselves) through these autosomal DNA tests, which look at the totality of a persons admixture.  Some geographic areas and cultures (usually crossroads) show great admixture within the average person, while other, more isolated regions, show little admixture.  While probably not as interesting to people in static locations, for those of us from crossroads countries and creole cultures, finding out our roots is important and interesting.  It is a part of knowing who we are, and who we want to be.  Henry Lewis Gates, a noted scholar, television personality and director of the W. E. B. Du Bois  Institute for African and African American Studies at Harvard, stated:

"These admixture tests reveal surprising information about the complex genetic makeup of the African American community, and speak volumes about the hidden history of American racial and social relations encoded in our genes," Gates said. "Judging from these test results, the bottom line is that black and white Americans are inextricably interconnected at the level of their genomes, and African Americans are a profoundly 'mixed' people, far more than anyone thought possible before these DNA tests were invented."  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/17/vanessa-williams-ancestry-mail-order-dna-test_n_2698112.html

Mr. Gates has hosted several PBS specials tracing peoples ancestral roots, including Faces of America.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/ The many interviews of diverse Americans all share in common a joy of revelation that accompanies self discovery.

To bring this post back to my original questioning of why author Audrey Smedley considers self-identification of "mixed-race" a tragedy, I think that it comes to a matter of semantics rather than meaning, but the connection between words and meaning is monumental.  Even though many people identify as "mixed" and have no problem with the term, the implication with the word "mixed" is of separate elements being combined, when a more accurate word would be "multiple", as in multiple elements/haplogroups being present in one person.  I think this is in some way similar to the term "melting pot" being archaic compared to the modern term "multi-cultural".  I agree with Ms. Smedley in that that we should avoid the term "mixed" if the focus is on created differences, but I think that for many people distinction does not imply superiority or inferiority.  It should be stressed that no haplogroup is superior or inferior to any other; yet, they are distinct, and many of us possess significant amounts of multiple haplogroups, regardless of how any other may classify us.  For myself, I am the sum of 11 haplogroups, and I avoid marking down a "race" on any form other than "hispanic" (which is NOT a haplogroup).  I have always been uncomfortable with declaring a "race", including "more than one race".  Ms. Smedley and I are in agreement that "race" is a false construct.  I was in fact comforted recently when filling out a California application, and for the first time I was able to proudly check a new box: "Multiple Ethnicity".   I wonder if Ms. Smedley finds fault with those of us who self-identify as being of "multiple ethnicity".  I hope she would not, because that is what many of us are, and I think that this is a part of progress.  I think that, rather than representing a tragic misunderstanding of racial identification, that as more people discover their roots, more and more people will identify as being of multiple ethnicity.  Some American cities, and even states, now have substantial portions of their population self-identifying as "more than one race", and to me, besides it being a person's right to self-identify, a beauty of this is that the identification has multiple meanings.  I can project to a day when a majority of the entire population will self-identify as being of multiple ethnicity: distinct individuals, with far more in common than not.


Smedley, A. (1998). "Race" and the Construction of Human Identity. American Anthropologist, 100(3), 690-702.

Smedley, A. (2007). The History of Race...and Why It Matters. In understandingrace.org. Retrieved June 1, 2014, from http://www.understandingrace.org/resources/pdf/disease/smedley.pdf