Reinscribing the Racial Order: Reflected Whiteness and the Anticipated Racial Hierarchy among Multiracial Americans

Abstract

This article explores how multiracial adults with white ancestry anticipate being included in whiteness, meaning whether they expect others to perceive them as white in daily situations. Instead of viewing multiraciality as inherently blurring boundaries, the study treats a standard reflected-race question as a way to assess anticipated access to a racial boundary that confers resources. Using data from the Racial Ascription and Assertion in Contextual Experiences Study (RAACES), a factorial vignette survey of 297 U.S.-born multiracial adults, I analyze four white–nonwhite pairs (White–Black, White–Latinx, White–Asian, and White–Native American). Logistic regression and predicted probabilities reveal significant, consistent differences among groups: White–Asian and especially White–Native Americans are much more likely to expect inclusion in whiteness than White–Latinx and White–Black respondents, aligning with a tri-racial hierarchy. Experimental manipulations of setting, racial makeup, familiarity, and partner interaction cause only minor changes in expectations. Within-person analysis shows that about 80 percent of respondents give the same white versus nonwhite answers across different scenarios example work, shopping, and social gatherings. These findings indicate that expectations of access to whiteness function as enduring cognitive schemas closely tied to ancestry rather than highly context-dependent judgments. The study advances understanding of symbolic boundaries, racial cognition, and stratification by showing how racial hierarchy is internalized and maintained through anticipatory classification. It also emphasizes the importance of disaggregating multiracial categories and employing factorial vignette methods to uncover the cognitive foundations of racial inequality.