Comments on: Social status shapes racial identity

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:04:00 +0000

But the study looked at both – there were shifts in how the interviewers categorised the interviewees and how the interviewees identified themselves.

By: Javiera

Javiera — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:01:51 +0000

Hello, you might want to clarify the title to reflect that the study is about categorization, something assigned by others, as opposed to identity which is something the subject constructs. There is a long literature on the social construction of race – see Omi and Winant 1994 is the best place to start if you’re interested – but little empirical research, which makes this very interesting. Thank you for the post.

By: Mike Reeves-McMillan

Mike Reeves-McMillan — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:46:13 +0000

This immediately reminds me of an incident in New Zealand, where I live. A murder suspect was described by police, who were searching for him, as “Maori” (the native people), even though his appearance would not have led most people to classify him as such. Offense was (I think rightly) taken.
There’s a lot of racial mixing in NZ, and most if not all Maori people have some European ancestry, while a lot of people who look entirely European have enough Maori ancestry to qualify for various things which are reserved for Maori if they want to.
It would be interesting to see a similar study here to the one you describe and see if people who were imprisoned, poor or unemployed were more likely to be described, or describe themselves, as Maori than the same people who were in a better situation. My guess is yes.

By: subterranean

subterranean — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:59:37 +0000

was michael jackson part of the study?

By: Dima

Dima — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:55:36 +0000

This sounds really interesting. One thing that I cannot understand, though, is how did the people who change the way they describe themselves did it. Did they describe themselves in 1979 as “white” and in 1980 as “black”? Or was it the change between “white”/”black” to “other”/”multiracial”?

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:17:15 +0000

Interesting. The underlying idea is pretty normal to me, but then I grew up in Trinidad, where, like in Brazil, it’s long been recognised that race can change with social class. Given the legacy of the “one drop rule” in the US and the history of a binary approach to race, it doesn’t surprise me in the least…many African Americans are near-white (think Mariah Carey, for example), would be “near white” in a society that didn’t have a binary approach to race…

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:49:27 +0000

Whoa, weird. We should totally get on that whole “switching gender” bit though.