A new way of classifying Americans by race certifies a new reality: the growing number of multiracial people and their political mobilization. The question is whether this step foretells the erasure of racial lines in America or just a redrawing of them.
References
1.
BeanFrank D.StevensGillian. America's Newcomers and the Dynamics of Diversity.New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2003. This book explores the significance of immigration for America, including its implications for loosening racial and ethnic boundaries.
2.
DavisJamesF.. Who is Black? One Nation's Definition.University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991. Davis details the history of the “one-drop rule” in the United States.
3.
GerstleGary. “Liberty, Coercion, and the Making of Americans.” In The Handbook of International Migration, edited by HirschmanCharlesKasinitzPhilipDeWindJosh. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1991. A history of racial categories and how they have changed.
4.
LoewenJames. The Mississippi Chinese: Between Black and White.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971. Loewen shows how Chinese immigrants changed their racial classification from almost black to almost white.
5.
NoblesMelissa. Shades of Citizenship: Race and the Census in Modern Politics.Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000. A history of racial categories in the Census in the United States.
6.
PerlmannJoelWatersMary C., eds. The New Race Question: How the Census Counts Multiracial Individuals.New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002. This anthology examines the history of racial enumeration, the likely effects of the Census change in the race question, and possible policy implications for the future.
7.
QianZhenchao. “Breaking the Racial Barriers: Variations in Interracial Marriage Between 1980 and 1990.”Demography34, 2 (1997), 263–276. This study illustrates the growing trends in interracial marriage.
8.
WatersMary C.“Multiple Ethnicities and Identity in the United States.” In We Are a People: Narrative and Multiplicity in Constructing Identity, edited by SpikardPaulBurroughsW. Jeffrey. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000. Waters examines the different ways interracial couples identify their children.
