 The Rise of Mixed Parentage: A Sociological and Demographic Phenomenon to Be Reckoned WithRichard Alba, Brenden Beck and Duygu Basaran Sahin The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2018, vol. 677, issue 1, 26-38 Abstract: Ethno-racially mixed parentage is rising in frequency, creating a strong challenge to both census classification schemes and, indeed, to common conceptions of ethnicity and race. Majority (white) and minority (nonwhite or Hispanic) parentage predominates among individuals with mixed-family backgrounds. Yet in public presentations of census data and population projections, individuals with mixed backgrounds are generally classified as nonwhite. We analyze 2013 American Community Survey data and summarize the results of important studies to argue that individuals from mixed majority-minority backgrounds resemble whites more than they do minorities in terms of some key social characteristics and experiences, such as where they grow up and their social affiliations as adults. Those with a black parent are an important exception. An implication of this analysis is that census classification practices for mixed individuals risk distorting conceptions of the current population, especially its youthful portion, and promoting misunderstandings of ethno-racial change. Keywords: ethnicity and race; ethno-racial mixing; population change; diversity; census data; population projections (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:677:y:2018:i:1:p:26-38 Access Statistics for this article More articles in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |
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