TOWARDS A DIALOGIC UNDERSTANDING OF PRINT MEDIA STORIES ABOUT BLACK/WHITE INTERRACIAL FAMILIES by VICTOR KULKOSKY (Under the Direction of Dwight E. Brooks) ABSTRACT This thesis examines print media news stories about Black/White interracial families from 1990-2003. Using the concept of dialogism, I conduct a textual analysis of selected newspaper and news magazine stories to examine the dialogic interaction between dominant and resistant discourses of racial identity. My findings suggest that a multiracial identity project can be seen emerging in print media stories about interracial families, but the degree to which this project is visible depends on each journalist’s placement of individual voices and discourses within the narrative of each story. I find some evidence of a move from placing interracial families within narratives of conflict toward a more optimistic view of such families’ position in society. INDEX WORDS: Interracial marriage, Multiracial identity, Multiracial families, Race relations, Dialogism, Bakhtin, Media discourse, Newspapers, African American media, Interracial sexuality, Baha’i Faith TOWARDS A DIALOGIC UNDERSTANDING OF PRINT MEDIA STORIES ABOUT BLACK/WHITE INTERRACIAL FAMILIES by VICTOR KULKOSKY B.A., Fort Valley State University, 1998 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2003 © 2003 Victor Kulkosky All Rights Reserved TOWARDS A DIALOGIC UNDERSTANDING OF PRINT MEDIA STORIES ABOUT BLACK/WHITE INTERRACIAL FAMILIES by VICTOR KULKOSKY Major Professor: Dwight E. Brooks Committee: Carolina Acosta- Alzuru Ruth Ann Lariscy Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2003 iv DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my wife, Terri Lenisa Earl-Kulkosky, my son, Gregory Badi Earl-Kulkosky, and my niece, Alyson Simone Nicole Allen. Together, our little multiracial household journeys back and forth across the color line with as little tripping as we can manage. This project is also dedicated to all those interracial families, united in love and confused in racism, in the hopes that my work will, however slightly, alleviate the damage as they trip over the color line. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Isaac Newton, or someone else, at one time said something like, “If I have seen further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” The people I wish to acknowledge may not be giants, and I have merely used their shoulders from time to time as leverage to hop up and glimpse a little further than I might have without their help, but many thanks are due in any case. Dr. Dwight Brooks has been a tireless and patient guide through the many stages of this project. His enthusiasm for this project has at times exceeded my own, and his support and advice have been invaluable. Dr. Carolina Acosta-Alzuru has been a role model, unacknowledged until now, who demonstrated that it is possible to have a family and be a graduate student at the same time (though it has seemed impossible at times). Her interest in Bakhtin has helped me believe I am onto something worthwhile. Dr. Ruth Ann Lariscy deserves thanks for teaching the first course I took at Grady College and providing a positive beginning to my graduate studies. It was in Public Opinion that the ideas for this thesis germinated, and her continued interest in my work is much appreciated. Thanks also go out to Dr. Louise Benjamin, who taught Historical Methods, through which I explored the work of William Lloyd Garrison. Thanks also go to Dr. James Hamilton and Dr. Horace Newcomb for evaluating my reviews of their work. I also wish to acknowledge my undergraduate journalism instructors at Fort Valley State University, Dr. Anna Holloway, Dr. John Omachonu, Dan Archer and Justice York, for getting me on track. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................1 2 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................20 3 CHAPTER 3 THEORY & METHOD.........................................................................47 4 CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS............................................................................................87 5 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................125 EPILOGUE..................................................................................................................................133 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................138 NOTES.........................................................................................................................................149 APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................151 A NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE STORIES...........................................................151 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Justification and Purpose “To be means to communicate. Absolute death (nonbeing) is the state of being unheard, unrecognized, unremembered …” (Bakhtin, 1984, p. 287.) Who is allowed to speak, and with what words? It is possible to write a history of the United States centered on the recovered narratives of those groups and individuals who have suffered the kind of ontological erasure described in the epigraph above. Enslaved people and their freed descendants, Native Americans, women, sexually abused children, and various people deemed sexually deviant have all been silenced with greater or lesser success. Today, White and Black people in intimate relationships, and the multiracial children of those relationships, are speaking out, while at the same time searching for the words with which to speak. Although the situation of 21st Century interracial families pales in comparison to that of enslaved people and Native American survivors of genocide, their fight is intimately intertwined with America’s history of racial oppression. Today’s Black/White interracial families are the descendants of both the oppressors and the oppressed, except now the descendants are united in love. Their struggle to find their voice, which is at the same time a struggle to be heard, is the focus of this thesis. In particular, I will explore the relationship between people in Black/White interracial families and an institution that plays a major role in legitimizing the voices of those who wish to be heard: newspapers and other print news media. A strong impetus 2 for this project is my finding that critical media scholars have done little work that directly addresses questions of the relationship between interracial/multiracial identity and the media, as well as little work employing dialogism. I will ask, and begin to answer, three research questions: 1. What is the role of print media in the multiracial identity project? 2. What contributions can dialogism make to deeper understanding of the complex relationships between interracial/multiracial families, their identity project(s) and print media? 3. How might this deeper understanding offer possibilities for dismantling the dominant racial order and constructing a new, democratic and non-hierarchical racial order? In addition to addressing the above questions, this thesis will explore a few interlocking themes. (The various terms I have introduced will be explained below). One theme is interracial/multiracial families’ quest for a public voice, on their own terms. A second theme is the sexual subtext beneath the competing narratives of Black/White interracial relationships. A third theme is racial formation, racial projects and contemporary multiracial projects. The fourth theme is the interlaced trio of dialogism, media and identity. Multiracial People’s Quest for Voice People in interracial/multiracial families are engaged in a struggle to find their voice. More accurately, they are trying to establish both an inner voice, to talk about themselves to themselves; and a public voice, to tell their stories to anyone who will listen. Dalmage (2000, p. 20) describes the search for the inner multiracial voice: 3 “Because they do not quite fit into the historically created, officially named, and socially recognized categories, members of multiracial families are constantly fighting to identify themselves for themselves. A difficulty they face is the lack of language available to address their experiences.” This story is my story. I am White (Lithuanian, German, Irish, born in New Jersey, raised in New York City) and married to a Black woman (African, English, Cherokee, born and raised in Georgia). We have a son (born and raised in other parts of Georgia). My wife has a “white looking” half sister, who has seven nieces and nephews, some of whom add Dutch to the family tree. Finding answers to the question, “What are we?” is a family affair. Answering the question “What are you?” is a public matter. Yanow (2003, p. 193), describes the simultaneous search for the public voice: “Individuals who cannot find their identity in available categories become invisible, in a sense: without a label, without a vocabulary, their stories are untellable and they themselves are unnarratable.” While Dalmage