Advantages Of Rasing Biracial Children (Written By Charlene Lam)
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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 childs 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 childrens 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 deemphasizing 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 oneselfs 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 (qtd Sung 110) points out that “the uncategorized 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 Sungs 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 childrens physical appearance can be a strong factor on how one was perceived and received and how duality can adversely affect a childs 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 races cultural customs and practices. Root points out that if parents ignore the problem of race, or discuss the problem superficially by saying “Were all members of the human race,” Race doesnt 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 Sungs research in the