Mixed-race individuals suffer from a lack of societal options

"I hate to break the news to you, but not all [mixed-race people are] so cute," Carmen Van Kreckhove said last night at the start of "Cute but Confused: Myths and Realities of Mixed Race Identity," a lecture on the misconceptions about people of more than one racial background.

Van Kreckhove, co-founder and president of New Demographic, a consulting firm that facilitates discussions on race and racism, addressed issues of racism against multiracial people during yesterday's presentation before a large audience in Frist 302.

Of Chinese and Belgian ancestry, Van Kreckhove presented several myths and stereotypes about multiracial people. For example, she said, many believe that "mixed people are all drop-dead gorgeous." She then countered these stereotypes and others, citing anecdotes from her own and her multiracial friends' experiences.

Van Kreckhove also countered myths associated with confusion about identity among mixed-race individuals. Van Kreckhove explained that the problem stems from a lack of options offered by society to these individuals, not from uncertainty about their own identities.

The 2000 Census was the first time that respondents could report to the U.S. government that they were of multiple racial backgrounds. More than 6.8 million Americans listed their ancestry as a combination of two or more cultures.

Van Kreckhove said she was pleased with the expanded options offered in the Census but noted that increased choices for self-identification have not trickled down to all standardized forms.

She also told a story of a mixed-race girl who faced uncertainty over which racial background to indicate when taking a standardized test. The girl's mother told her, "Tomorrow you check off white, and the next day you check off Asian," Van Kreckhove said.

Emily Persons '11 agreed that standardized options for indicating race are often limiting for those tracing their background to multiple races. She noted that the problem sometimes "applies to me ... standardized [tests] didn't have a bubble for 'other' or 'biracial.' "

Rachel Baldwin, assistant dean of undergraduate students, said that she is "racially Korean and black but raised in an Irish-Catholic family." Rather than pigeonholing herself in one group, Baldwin said she "identif[ies] with all three."

Van Kreckhove also discussed various forms of racism including outright racism, and racial self-hatred. She said that mixed-race persons are sometimes the victims of racism that occurs when others' ignorance over their multiracial identity leads them to express potentially racist views without realizing that the mixed-race person's background includes that particular group.

Van Kreckhove emphasized that identifying as a mixed-race person "is not a way to avoid racism by having both ways."

Hannibal Person '08, co-founder of the Union of Multiracial Multicultural Students (UMMS), said, "So much of what we want to do is to expand our network of communication." He added, "I'm impressed with the diversity of opinion."