Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Sociology Dissertations Department of Sociology 8-21-2008 "Who Do You Think You're Border Patrolling?": Negotiating "Multiracial" Identities and "Interracial" Relationships Melinda Anne Mills Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/sociology_diss Recommended Citation Mills, Melinda Anne, ""Who Do You Think You're Border Patrolling?": Negotiating "Multiracial" Identities and "Interracial" Relationships." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2008. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/sociology_diss/37 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Sociology at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU’RE BORDER PATROLLING?”: NEGOTIATING “MULTIRACIAL” IDENTITIES AND “INTERRACIAL” RELATIONSHIPS by MELINDA MILLS Under the Direction of Charles Gallagher ABSTRACT Research on racial border patrolling has demonstrated how people police racial borders in order to maintain socially constructed differences and reinforce divisions between racial groups and their members. Existing literature on border patrolling has primarily focused on white/black couples and multiracial families, with discussions contrasting “white border patrolling” and “black border patrolling,” in terms of differential motivations, intentions, and