Copyright by Gregory Thomas Carter 2007 The Dissertation Committee for Gregory Thomas Carter Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: America’s New Racial Heroes: Mixed Race Americans and Ideas of Novelty, Progress, and Utopia Committee: Neil F. Foley, Supervisor Janet M. Davis John Hartigan Janet Staiger Shirley E. Thompson America’s New Racial Heroes: Mixed Race Americans and Ideas of Novelty, Progress, and Utopia by Gregory Thomas Carter, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2007 Dedication To my wife, Natasha B. Sugiyama Acknowledgements First, I want to thank the members of my dissertation committee for their support while conceiving and executing this project. Foremost among these is Neil Foley, who urged me to ask the underlying questions and gave me the latitude to explore the sources as I saw fit. Janet Davis, John Hartigan, Janet Staiger, and Shirley Thompson also offered reassurance regarding the significance of this work, as well as support with many academic matters over the past years. A friend once said that a dissertation committee should make one feel good as well as read and write on one’s behalf (and show up on time), and these scholars have done that and much more. As a sixth, at-large member of my committee, Shelley Fisher Fishkin gave valuable advice in the early stages of this project and continues to serve as a model of American Studies scholar, even away from the University of Texas. In addition to these six, I thank the faculty and staff of the Department of American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. I would be remiss to exclude anyone from this group, but for now I want to recognize those who have offered direct, advisory (or administrative) assistance to my graduate education: Cynthia Frese, Steven Hoelscher, Lisa Jaskolka, Nhi Lieu, and Mark Smith. Similarly, I owe thanks to the other programs at the University where I have worked as a Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, or Assistant Instructor; at the Center for African and African American v Studies, I thank Ted Gordon, Joni Jones, and Jin Lee, and at the Center for Asian American Studies, I thank Madeline Hsu and Barbara Jann. Likewise, I want to thank the professors for whom I have assisted in the classroom or on research projects: Julia Mickenberg, Mark Anthony Neal, Jim Sidbury, Juliet Walker, and Jennifer Wilks. Next are three categories likely to omit some names, and for this I apologize in advance. First, several alumni have been instrumental in helping me navigate the graduate school experience, including: Mary Beltrán, Cary Cordova, Carolyn De La Peña, Julie Dowling, John Haddad, Matt Hedstrom, Benita Heiskanen, Shaka McGlotten, Sarah Mullen, and Siva Vaidhyanathan. Second, among my classmates, I would like to acknowledge the survivors of the incoming class of 2001 and the Department of American Studies’ newly-minted Ph.D.’s: Kimberly Hamlin, Jason Mellard, Allison Perlman, Phil Tiemeyer, and Amy Nathan Wright. Third, beyond the University of Texas are many peers I have encountered through the American Studies Association. They are countless, but most relevant at this time are those who have shared panels with me at the 2004 and 2006 national conferences, helping me develop many of the ideas within: Ricardo Brown, Alexandra Cornelius, Bruce Dain, Shilpa Davé, Camilla Fojas, Neil Miller, LeiLani Nishime, Molly Rogers, and Kieu Linh Valverde. My own teaching has been instrumental in formulating some of the material in this dissertation, and my students in “Mixed Race Identity in American Culture” have been adept critics of positive ideas about racial mixing and racially mixed people. Under the threat of losing points, many can “name three instances in which speakers presented mixing, national identity, and newness in tandem, placing racial and ethnic mixing at the center of American identity.” I thank them all for their insight, candor, and hard work over the past three semesters. Among these students is a band who took it upon themselves to found Mixed Student Union at the University of Texas, in the spring of vi 2006. This group, which aims to “promote mixed-heritage awareness and racial integration, break down social/racial barriers, and build community at U.T.,” is the product of the hard work of its officers and members. For this I can take little credit. However, I thank them for providing the most vibrant testament to my work at the University of Texas. Lastly, I would like to thank those outside the ivory tower for their support. I hope that, through our daily email volleys, I have made office work more bearable for you, just as you have made academic work more bearable for me. Those who attended Natasha and my wedding also participate in the constellation of loved ones who made this project part of a balanced life. Likewise, family contact over the past six years has been indispensible in making this a manageable endeavor. In this, I think of my wife’s family (Iutaka Sugiyama, Lucia Sugiyama, Alex Sugiyama, and Tamzin Sugiyama) as well as my own. Finally, my mother, Clarice Carter, has been one of my greatest cheerleaders, consistently supportive through each phase of my graduate education. To her and all the others above (including whomever these pages overlook), I extend my deep gratitude. vii America’s New Racial Heroes: Mixed Race Americans and Ideas of Novelty, Progress, and Utopia Publication No._____________ Gregory Thomas Carter, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2007 Supervisor: Neil Foley My dissertation, “America’s New Racial Heroes,” is the first full-length intellectual history examining the fascination with mixed race people that has been concurrent with the stereotypes that pathologize them. Through five moments in United States history, this project asks what the idea of racially mixed people does for America, uncovering a set of vanguards who suggested that, rather than fear racial mixing, we should embrace it as a means to live up to ideals of equality and inclusion, thus benefiting the nation as a whole. Whether the subject is abolitionist Wendell Phillips’s defense of racial amalgamation, the popularity of the Melting Pot trope, Time Magazine’s 1993 New Face of America issue, or the promises of a “Multiracial” category on the 2000 census, similar notions regarding novelty, progress, and utopia repeat themselves. Rounding out “America’s New Racial Heroes” is an examination of contemporary praise of ambiguity at the same time Americans wish for quantifiable racial makeup. Overall, this project viii warns against the giddy hope that racially mixed people alone can solve America’s racial problems. I have several models in bringing together these five cases, including George M. Fredrickson’s The Black Image in the White Mind, Philip J. Deloria’s Playing Indian, and Robert Lee’s Orientals. Each of these shows how discourses of science, nationality, and popular culture shape the identities of dominant and minority groups concurrently. Like these works, my project brings together archival research, cultural studies readings, and theories of racial formation to examine how pro-mixing advocates situate themselves within their own contexts and resonate through time. This work on mixed race identity has many intersections with both fields, accentuating the richness that can result from comparative, ethnic studies work across disciplinary boundaries. ix Table of Contents Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 Chapter 1 Wendell Phillips: Unapologetic Abolitionist, Unreformed Amalgamationist ...........................................................................................26 Introduction ...................................................................................................26 From Brahmin to Radical ..............................................................................30 Marriage Law Petition and Europe ...............................................................33 The United States of the United Races and Beyond .....................................41 Phillips and Miscegenation ...........................................................................50 Conclusion ....................................................................................................57 Chapter 2 Israel Zangwill’s Melting Pot vs. Jean Toomer’s Stomach .................59 Chapter 3 The New Face of America: The Beauty, the Beast ..............................93 Chapter 4 Census 2000 and the End of Race as We Know It .............................127 Chapter 5 Praising Ambiguity, Preferring Certainty ..........................................166 Introduction .................................................................................................166 Tiger Woods: 100% Unambiguous .............................................................168 Mixed Race Models: Who’s the Fairest of Them All? ...............................173 DNAPrint: Racial Makeups ‘R’ Us ............................................................182 Conclusion ..................................................................................................197 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................199 Bibliography ........................................................................................................213