Is racial mismatch a problem for young ‘mixed race’ people in Britain? The findings of qualitative research.

Recent evidence concerning the racial identifications of ‘mixed race’ people suggests growing latitude in how they may identify. In this article, we examine whether mixed race young people believe that their chosen identifications are validated by others, and how they respond to others’ racial perceptions of them. While existing studies tend to assume that a disjuncture between self-identification and others’ perceptions of them is problematic, this was not necessarily the case among our respondents. While a racial mismatch between expressed and observed identifications was a common experience for these individuals, they varied considerably in terms of how they responded to such occurrences, so that they could feel: (1) misrecognized (and there were differential bases and experiences of misrecognition); (2) positive about the mismatch; or (3) indifferent to how others racially categorized them in their day-to-day interactions. Some differences in responses to such mismatch emerged among disparate types of mixed people. This study also found that we need to consider national identity, and other forms of belonging, in making sense of the diverse and often multilayered identifications and experiences of mixed race young people in Britain

The diversity and complexity of the everyday lives of mixed racial and ethnic families: implications for adoption and fostering practice and policy

Recent research on mixed racial and ethnic couple and lone parents in Britain indicates that not only are they a diverse group, but that they also have a diversity of ways of understanding their difference and creating a sense of belonging for their children (Caballero, Edwards and Puthussery, 2008; Caballero, 2010; Caballero, 2011). Such research strongly challenges the idea that there is – or should be – a single benchmark of how to raise children from mixed racial and ethnic backgrounds. Nevertheless, placement decisions for children from mixed racial and ethnic backgrounds are often still rooted in longstanding and politicised assumptions about their identities and how best to instil a positive and healthy sense of self (Phoenix, 1999; Okitikpi, 2005; Goodyer and Okitikpi, 2007; Patel 2008).Drawing on three recent studies exploring the everyday experiences of lone and couple parents of mixed racial and ethnic children, this paper discusses the ways in which mixed racial and ethnic children who are not in the care system experience difference and belonging within their families and how they negotiate and manage these factors. In particular, the paper illustrates the types of strategies and supports that parents draw on to give their children a positive sense of identity and belonging, as well as the ways in which other issues can be more significant for mixed racial and ethnic children and their parents than what they often see as ‘ordinary’ internal family difference.Arguing that the demographics and experiences of mixed racial and ethnic families are much more diverse and complex than is commonly imagined, the authors thus ask to what extent do policies and practice around the placement of mixed racial and ethnic children reflect the lives of those families outside the care system and, moreover, in what ways can or should the experiences of these families inform policy and practice for those within it? The paper points to a number of implications for adoption and fostering practice and policies emerging from a more multifaceted understanding of the everyday lives of racially and ethnically mixed families as presented by the authors<br/

Is there a mixed race group in Britain? The diversity of multiracial identification and experience

In contemporary British society, references to ‘mixed race’ people and to various forms of mixing abound. But to what extent can we say that there is ‘a’ mixed race group in Britain today? If such a group exists, what commonalities underlie the experience of being mixed? In addressing this question, I draw on a study of the racial identifications of different types of mixed young people in Britain. I find that the meanings and significance of race and mixedness in these young people’s lives can vary considerably both across and within specific mixed groups. In conclusion, I argue that while there is evidence of a growing consciousness and interest in being mixed, we cannot (yet) speak of a coherent mixed group or experience in Britain

Social work and the two cultures: the art and science of practice

- - Summary Recent explorations of the nature of contemporary social work, tending to differentiate managerial and techno-rational practices from ‘real’ relationship-based interventions, are suggestive of there being an art and a science of social work, echoing Snow’s argument in his ‘Two Cultures’ lecture of 1959 about the especially English tendency to damaging divisions in academia. The concept, and the dangers Snow identified, are revisited and applied to social work in this theoretical article, with the science of practice being located in evidence-informed approaches and its art in relationship-based work. - Findings Social work has long incorporated approaches which draw on the strengths of the humanities and science ‘cultures’ respectively, and recognises what each has to offer; it may also be considered to some extent as belonging to a ‘Third Culture’, along with other applied fields. Common to any culture, however, as applied within the profession, must be its ethical base. - Applications As Snow noted, polarity between art and science can lead to common ground being lost which in social work may ultimately disadvantage service users. The professional value base provides the basis for a ‘social work culture’ as long as this is not itself divided by unconstructive schisms

'Keeping the story alive' : is ethnic and racial dilution inevitable for multiracial people and their children?

This paper explores how multiracial parents with White partners articulate narratives of ethnic and racial ‘dilution’ and cultural loss in relation to the socialization of their children. In our broader study of how multiracial parents raise their children, we found that parents commonly spoke of concerns around dilution and generational change in relation to four key themes: the loss of cultural knowledge and diminishing practices that connected parents and their children to a minority ancestry; the embodiment of White-appearing children and the implications of this for family relationships; the use of biological or genetic discourses in relation to reduced blood quantum; and concerns amongst Black/White participants about whitening and the loss of racial consciousness. Parental understandings of dilution varied greatly; some expressed sadness at ‘inevitable’ loss; others were more philosophical about generational change; and others still proactively countered loss through strategies to connect their children to their minority heritages. We show that despite growing awareness of the social constructedness of race and an emergent cosmopolitanism among these parents, discourses of genetics, cultural lineage, and the ‘naturalness’ of race continue to hold sway amongst many multiracial parents