Multiracial Students & Transracial Adoptees

Finding Their Place in Racial Justice Activism on

Campus
NASPA Annual Conference
March 4, 2018

Benjamin Jose Beltran, Trinity Washington University (he/him)

Nick Franco, Ph.D., Eastern Washington University (they/them)
Willa Kurland, South Seattle College (she/her)
Russell Nelson, University of California, Irvine (he/him)
Hannah White, University of Arizona (she/her)
AGENDA
● Introductions
● Overview of multiracial identity and transracial adoptee identity
○ Identity development, experiences/challenges, key concepts, history, etc.
● Identity reflection activity
● Overview of student activism
○ Relevant literature and experiences
● Case studies
● Discussion and closing
OBJECTIVES

After participating in this workshop, attendees will be able to:

● Define multiracial, transracial adoptee, and monoracism

● Identify at least two challenges or common experiences that multiracial students and
transracial adoptee students experience in higher education

● Articulate at least two ways racial monoracism and microaggressions can impact multiracial
and transracial adoptee students’ participation in racial justice activism;

● Identify at least two strategies for supporting multiracial and transracial adoptee students
who are engaging in racial justice activism; and
● Summarize one’s perspective of the racial dynamics and complexities of multiracial
individuals engaged in activism.
KEY TERMS

● Multiracial
● Biracial
● Race, ethnicity, & nationality
● Monoracism
● Transracial
● Activism
MULTIRACIAL IDENTITY
HISTORY OF MULTIRACIALITY
● 1790: First U.S. Census conducted

● Late 19th and early 20th centuries: Race was assumed to

be biological, based on phenotypical features (Shih &
Sanchez, 2009)
○ The “one-drop” or “hypodescent” rule
HISTORY OF MULTIRACIALITY
● 1967: Loving v. Virginia bans anti-miscegenation laws

● Late 20th and early 21st centuries: Race is a social

construct and racial categories are not “fixed, immutable
categories” (Shih & Sanchez, 2009)
● 2000: The U.S. Census allowed individuals to select more
than one race for the first time
○ There still was not a category to select “multiracial”
MONORACISM: Multiracial Microaggressions

● 5 themes
○ Exclusion and isolation

○ Exoticization and objectification

○ Assumption of a monoracial identity

○ Denial of a multiracial reality

○ Pathologizing of multiracial identity and experiences

Johnston & Nadal (2010)

 MONORACISM: Multiracial Microaggressions

Exclusion and Isolation

Example Message

A multiracial person is told, “You have to You are not being authentic, because you don’t
choose; you can’t be both.” fit.

A multiracial person has trouble filling out a You do not fit monoracial society’s norms.
form that asks for a single race only.

A multiracial person is not accepted by You have a second-class status because of your
grandparent(s) or relatives because of their multiracial identity.
parents’ interracial relationship.

Johnston & Nadal (2010)

 MONORACISM: Multiracial Microaggressions

Exoticization and Objectification

Example Message

A multiracial person is asked, “What are you?” You are not normal, and it is okay to ask you
about it.

A multiracial person is told, “Mixed-race people Your features are exotic and beautiful and can
are so beautiful.” be sexually objectified.

A multiracial person is told “We all will be like You are the poster child for a post-racial society
you someday.” or the “racialized ideal.”

Johnston & Nadal (2010)

 MONORACISM: Multiracial Microaggressions

Assumption of Monoracial Identity

Example Message

A multiracial person witnesses comments others Everyone in the group must be monoracial; it’s
might not say if they knew how the person okay to make comments about other groups.
identified racially.

A multiracial person’s mother is assumed to be You must not be related to either one of your
nanny or babysitter, or father is assumed to be parents because you do not look like them.
an older boyfriend.

Johnston & Nadal (2010)

 MONORACISM: Multiracial Microaggressions

Denial of Multiracial Reality

Example Message

A multiracial person’s mother is subjected to How you choose to identify does not matter; it’s
competition over “claims” from different racial about who claims you.
or ethnic groups.

A multiracial person is accused of “acting or You’re not allowed to act white, even if you are.
wanting to be white.”

Johnston & Nadal (2010)

 MONORACISM: Multiracial Microaggressions

Pathologizing of Multiracial Identity and Experiences

Example Message

A multiracial person overhears someone say, If you identify as multiracial, then you must be
“All multiracial people have issues.” confused about your identity.

A multiracial person is told, “You are a mistake.” Interracial families are not normal and must be
because they accidentally got pregnant

Johnston & Nadal (2010)

MULTIRACIAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT

● Monoracial Identity: The individual identifies with one of the racial categories that makes
up their heritage background. Forty-eight percent of Renn’s (2004) participants identified as
having a monoracial identity.

● Multiple Monoracial Identities: An individual identifies with two or more racial categories
that make up their heritage background. Within a given time and place, both personal and
contextual factors influence how an individual chooses to identify. Forty-eight percent of
the participants also self-identified with this identity pattern.

● Multiracial Identity: An individual identifies as part of a “multiracial” or “mixed” racial

category, instead of identifying with one racial or other racial categories. According to Renn
(2008), over eighty-nine percent of students from her 2004 study identified as part of a
multiracial group.

Renn (2004; 2008)

MULTIRACIAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT

● Extraracial Identity: Individuals choose to “opt out” of racial categorization or not to identify
with one of the racial categories presented in the U.S. Census. One-fourth of the students
that Renn (2004) interviewed identified with this category, and saw race as a social
construct with no biological roots.

● Situational Identity: An individual identifies differently depending on the situation or

context, reinforcing the notion that racial identity is both fluid and contextual. Sixty-one
percent of Renn’s (2004) participants identified in different ways depending on varying
contexts.

Renn (2004; 2008)

MULTIRACIAL STUDENT ORGANIZATION ADVISING & SUPPORT

● Common struggles: ● Strategies for support:

○ Heterogeneous nature of the ○ Cultivate dialogue between multiracial
umbrella group and monoracial student groups

○ Different goals between leaders ○ Discuss differences between race,

and members ethnicity, and culture

○ Different ○ Help students focus on the mission and

experiences/perspectives goals of the organization

○ Conflicts with monoracial student ○ Be open to change

of color groups

○ High turnover rate

TRANSRACIAL ADOPTEE IDENTITY
KEY TERMS RELATED TO TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION

● Transracial adoption ● White privilege

● Transcultural adoption ● Assimilation

● Transnational adoption ● Racial isolation

● Domestic adoption ● Racial imposter syndrome

● International adoption ● Code switching

BRIEF HISTORY OF TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION

● War, policy, poverty, family planning

● Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994 (MEPA)

○ Children in foster care cannot be placed solely based on race or national origin

○ States are required to make an effort to recruit foster/adoptive parents who

represent racial and ethnic backgrounds of children

● 1996: MEPA was amended by the Removal of Barriers to Interethnic Adoption Provisions
(IEP)

○ Prohibits delays in adoption placement based on race, noncompliance is violation of

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act
● Hague Convention/Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000

○ aims to prevent abduction, sale, human trafficking

Donaldson Adoption Institute (2008)
NATIONAL SURVEY OF ADOPTIVE PARENTS

● Children adopted internationally are

most likely to be in transracial
placements (84%)

● The racial distribution of children also

varies by type of adoption

● Children adopted from foster care most

likely to be black (35%) and those
adopted internationally least likely to be
black (3%)
● The majority of children adopted
internationally are Asian (59%)

Vandivere, Malm, & Radel (2009)

TRANSRACIAL ADOPTEES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

● Overall lack of visibility and data of transracial adoptees on college

campuses
○ How do transracial adoptees fit into cultural centers?

● Media misconceptions of the word “transracial”

○ Nkechi Amare Diallo (formally known as Rachel Dolezal)

● Very few student development theories related to transracial adoptees

SUPPORTING TRANSRACIAL ADOPTEE STUDENTS

● What are some ways that TRA and multiracial students experiences are
similar and different?

● How might racial justice activism be important for transracial adoptee

students in college?

● How can non-adoptee student affairs professionals to serve as effective

advisors for transracial adoptees?
SUPPORTING TRANSRACIAL ADOPTEE STUDENTS

Things to remembers:
● Transracial is a real term
● TRA community is not all APIDA adoptees
● TRA community is both domestic and international
● Adoptees want to connect with other adoptees
● Adoptees want to feel comfortable in their own
identity

There are resources!

● Do your research
● Syllabi
STUDENT & RACIAL JUSTICE ACTIVISM
STUDENT ACTIVISM

Student activism as a form of leadership

1. Opportunities for students to test their judgment under pressure in the face of opposition,
and in the fluid and swift changing circumstances so characteristic of political action.
2. Opportunities to exercise responsibilities required for leadership: public speaking, event
planning, debate, working with political institutions, dynamic teamwork, proposal-writing,
professional correspondence, managing-up,
3. Opportunities for students to test and sharpen their intuitive gifts, and to judge their impact
on others.
4. Exposure to new constituencies related to their activist movements
5. Exposure to the untidy world, where decisions must be made on inadequate information
and the soundest argument does not always win, where problems do not get fully solved or,
if solved, surface anew in another form. (p. 23)

(Eatch & Iannacone, 1996)

MULTIRACIAL CELEBRITY ACTIVISTS

“I do not care to drive further wedges between

Black people — or to reinforce colorism — but I
do believe the fact that the honorees on Ebony’s
front page are all lighter-skinned, biracial Black
people should not go without scrutiny. The
politics of skin color has significance and it strikes
me as odd that Ebony would not understand the
implications of such a decision in today’s racially
charged political climate.”

— Clutch Magazine
CASE STUDIES
 REFERENCES
Transracial adoption (n.d.). Adoption Network Law Center. Retrieved from https://adoptionnetwork.com/transracial-
adoption
Eatch, B., & Iannacone, J. (1996). The importance of students and their use of power through student activism. Colorado
State University Journal of Student Affairs, 5, 17-29.
Harper, S. R., & Quaye, S. J. (2007). Student organizations as venues for black identity expression and development among
African American male student leaders. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs/166
Johnston, M. P., & Nadal, K. L. (2010). Multiracial microaggressions: Exposing monoracism in everyday life and clinical
practice. In D. W. Sue (Ed.), Microaggressions and marginality: Manifestation, dynamics, and impact (pp. 123-144).
New York: Wiley & Sons.
Kendall, F. E. (2002). Understanding white privilege: Creating pathways to authentic relationships across race. New York:
Routledge.
Museus, S. D., & Park, J. J. (2015). The continuing significance of racism in the lives of Asian American college students.
Journal of College Student Development, 56(6), 551-569.
Ozaki, C. C., & Johnston, M. (2008). The space in between: Issues for multiracial student organizations and
advising. New directions for student services, 2008(123), 53-61.
Renn, K. A. (2004). Mixed race students in college: The ecology of race, identity, and community. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Shih, M., & Sanchez, D. T. (2009). When race becomes even more complex: Toward understanding the
landscape of multiracial identity and experiences. Journal of Social Issues, 65(1), 1-11.
Tucker, A. (2016, December). The adopted life. Retrieved from http://www.theadoptedlife.com/episodes/
 CONTACT INFORMATION
Benjamin Jose Beltran, Trinity Washington University
beltranb@trinitydc.edu

Nick Franco, Eastern Washington University

nfranco@ewu.edu

Willa Kurland, South Seattle College

kurlandw@seattleu.edu

Russell Nelson, University of California, Irvine

russelan@uci.edu

Hannah White, University of Arizona

hanwhite13@email.arizona.edu