SREXXX10.1177/2332649214552730Sociology of Race and EthnicityKramer et al. 552730research-article2014 Racial Identity Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 2015, Vol. 1(2) 270 –286 When Change Doesn’t © American Sociological Association 2014 DOI: 10.1177/2332649214552730 Matter: Racial Identity sre.sagepub.com (In)consistency and Adolescent Well-being Rory Kramer1, Ruth Burke2, and Camille Z. Charles2 Abstract Most theories of racial self-identity argue that a racially inconsistent identity indicates emotional distress and internal turmoil. However, empirical research on racial identity and consistency indicates that racial inconsistency is more common than previously believed, and some argue that it can be a positive adaptation for individuals. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, we explore the degree to which racial identity inconsistency is associated with emotional, social, and academic outcomes. We find that racial inconsistency is not associated with negative outcomes for individuals and, via access to white privilege, may be associated with benefits for some individuals. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for theories of racial identity. Keywords multiracial, identity, adolescence, mental health, education In 2000, the U.S. Census began allowing respon- categorized easily. Unfortunately, due to the perni- dents to identify with more than one racial group. ciousness of the one-drop rule, social scientists For most of the twentieth century, multiraciality often ignore the multiracial experience; until was generally irrelevant to the dichotomous racial recently, much of the research on multiracial iden- hierarchy of society; regardless of racial admixture, tity has relied on unproven and undertheorized the one-drop rule of racial classification, or hypo- assumptions (Rockquemore, Brunsma, and descent, categorized multiracial individuals into Delgado 2009). monoracial categories (Davis 1991; López 1996). Early theories of multiracial identity assumed The historic change in Census 2000 accompanied that multiracials would find themselves on the out- increasing interest in the multiracial population of skirts of society (Park 1928). Park’s “marginal the United States, fueled in part by the increasing man”—much like the “tragic mulatto” in works of rates of interracial marriage since the 1960s, increased immigration, the public success of 1Department of Sociology and Criminology, Villanova famous multiracial people (e.g., Halle Berry, University, Villanova, PA, USA Mariah Carey, Derek Jeter, President Barack 2Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, Obama), and advances in survey methods that bet- Philadelphia, PA, USA ter capture the reality of multiracial identity. Corresponding Author: Consequently, multiracial identity now directly Rory Kramer, Department of Sociology and challenges traditional understandings of race in Criminology, Villanova University, 800 E. Lancaster society and demonstrates the inadequacy of assum- Ave., Villanova, PA 19085, USA. ing that race is static and that all individuals can be Email: [email protected] Kramer et al. 271 popular culture (e.g., in the novels Passing and psychology that leads to mental distress but also to Quality, the musical Show Boat, and the films being more socially enterprising and aggressive Imitation of Life and Pinky)—is unable to find a than monoracial individuals (Cheng and Lively home in either the privileged white community or 2009; Goldberg 2012). Stonequist (1935, 1937) the underprivileged black community. Subsequent extended Park’s theory, positing three stages of theories asserted that the marginalization experi- identity formation: (1) preparation, during which enced by multiracial individuals provokes a crisis of time multiracial individuals familiarize themselves identity but that eventually they reach a point of with their different cultures; (2) crisis, when multi- identity consistency (e.g., Erickson 1968; Phinney racial individuals feel conflicted about their multi- 1990; Poston 1990; Stonequist 1937), either embrac- racial heritage, realizing their precarious social ing multiple heritages or becoming consistently status; and finally (3) resolution of the identity cri- monoracial. Implicitly, these theories suggested that sis, which takes one of three forms: assimilation an inconsistent racial identity—one that changes into the dominant culture (of which multiracial across contexts—indicates an identity crisis and that people may never feel a part given their mixed race crisis is the source of inner conflict. According to heritage), assimilation into a minority culture, or Park (1928:893), the marginal man exhibits an forming/joining a new multiracial group. One of “inner turmoil” that can lead to “spiritual instability, two stable identity outcomes is assumed: identify- intensified self-consciousness, restlessness, and ing either with a single racial group or with both or malaise” however, Park also claimed that marginal- all racial groups for the rest of their lives. No mat- ity can lead to innovation and creativity (Cheng and ter which identity one chooses, early theorists Lively 2009; Goldberg 2012). agreed that racial identity inconsistency—refusing Empirical research has suggested that individ- to permanently settle on a single label or cate- uals choose to identify differently across contexts gory—is a tension-filled stage on the road to during adolescence and into adulthood, thus embracing a consistent, and thus fully developed, destabilizing assumptions of the development and racial identity (Stonequist 1937). For decades, maintenance of a single, stable racial identity these theories were the consensus understanding of (Brown, Hitlin, and Elder 2006; Doyle and Kao multiracial identity. 2007; Harris and Sim 2002; Hitlin, Brown, and Newer theories have addressed multiracial Elder 2007; Khanna and Johnson 2010; Korgen identity development without assuming social mar- 1998). Specifically, this research argues that ginalization and crisis but maintain the belief that “marginal man” theories unjustifiably privilege racial identity consistency is a positive (and final) identity consistency. Nonetheless, sociological outcome. Rockquemore et al. (2009) identified this research to this point has not addressed the degree as the “variant approach” to multiracial identity, as to which racial identity inconsistency matters for it argues that multiracial individuals have unique individual outcomes (e.g., academic achievement, identity development processes. For example, emotional well-being, social adjustment) as sug- Poston’s (1990:154) theory of biracial identity pos- gested in Park’s (1928) original formulation. its that a multiracial person passes through five Instead, research indicates that inconsistency is stages of identity development, beginning with a quite common for multiracial individuals—but “personal identity . independent of his or her eth- whether and how it affects them is less well nic background,” and, after progressing through all understood. In this paper, we examine the degree five stages reaching a point of “integration,” to which multiracial adolescents with “inconsis- involving “recogni[tion] . of their [multiple] tent” identities exhibit psychological or academic ethnic identities”. Indeed, some in this field argue difficulties relative to their “consistently” identi- that for mixed individuals identifying solely as fying multiracial peers. “black” is an unhealthy end result compared with identifying consistently as “multiracial” (Gibbs LITERATURE REVIEW 1989; Khanna and Johnson 2010). These variant theories still assert that the healthiest, most fully Theories of Multiracial Identity formed racial identity of multiracial individuals In his theory of the “marginal man,” Robert Park ends with a consistent identity. Thus, we label both (1928) posited that multiracial individuals are iso- groups of theories as “stability- oriented theories” lated on the margins of society because they do not of multiracial identity as they privilege a stable fit into any monoracial group. To Park, multiracial identity as the logical end point of racial identity individuals have a unique, ambivalent social development. 272 Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 1(2) In their own work on multiracial identity, “for multiracial populations, how we measure Rockquemore and Brunsma (2002) recognized that really does matter” (97). multiracial identities may not be consistent over Further complicating matters, multiracial indi- time. Their “protean identity” is one in which indi- viduals who choose to identify as single-race (or viduals move between different racial identities who are forced to do so in certain surveys) vary in depending on context or mood. Racial identity how they report by age, family context, socioeco- inconsistency is destigmatized; not only is it com- nomic status, and their particular multiracial back- mon, it is also healthy. Root (1990, 1996, 2003) ground (Campbell 2007; Herman 2003). In similarly proposed an ecological model of racial interviews with multiracial adults, Khanna and identity development that orients inconsistency as Johnson (2010) found that multiracial identifiers a beneficial, healthy, and adaptively useful identity asserted a black identity instead of a multiracial for the individual. She argued that multiracial self- identity in some predominantly black contexts to identification is nonlinear, lacks a single endpoint, better fit in. and is contextually