Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 7-15-2010 Navigating Racial Boundaries: The One-Drop Rule and Mixed-Race Jamaicans in South Florida Sharon E. Placide Florida International University, [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FI10081209 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Placide, Sharon E., "Navigating Racial Boundaries: The One-Drop Rule and Mixed-Race Jamaicans in South Florida" (2010). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 259. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/259 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida NAVIGATING RACIAL BOUNDARIES: THE ONE-DROP RULE AND MIXED-RACE JAMAICANS IN SOUTH FLORIDA A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in COMPARATIVE SOCIOLOGY by Sharon E. Placide 2010 To: Dean Kenneth Furton College of Arts and Sciences This dissertation, written by Sharon E. Placide, and entitled Navigating Racial Boundaries: The One-Drop Rule and Mixed-Race Jamaicans in South Florida, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this dissertation and recommend that it be approved. ______________________________________ Jean Muteba Rahier ______________________________________ Dionne Stephens _____________________________________ Alex Stepick ______________________________________ Sarah J. Mahler, Major Professor Date of Defense: July 15, 2010 The dissertation of Sharon E. Placide is approved. ______________________________________ Dean Kenneth Furton College of Arts and Sciences ______________________________________ Interim Dean Kevin O’Shea University Graduate School Florida International University, 2010 ii DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my grandmother, Dorcas Elizabeth Fraser, who taught me the value of discipline, hard work and perseverance; and to my mother, D. Arlene Walters, who always believed I could accomplish anything - provided I was prepared to work hard enough. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I could not have come through this process successfully without the encouragement and support of many individuals. First, thanks to my many friends who helped me recruit participants for this study. Thanks to my closest friend, Cynthia Allen- Pearson, who because of her mixed racial ancestry by virtue of her white grandfather, and her marriage to a “brown” Jamaican, has been able to provide much insight about color in contemporary Jamaica. I am thankful for my key informant, Dana, who introduced me to the struggles of racially mixed Jamaicans in the U.S. I thank the members of my dissertation group, ”Team Mahler,” for their honest feedback and advice over the years. Particular mention goes to Team Mahler members, Dr. Anne Braseby, and Tekla Nicolas who never tired of reading my chapters and who challenged my ideas, forcing me to think, rethink, and refine my arguments. I am grateful for the support, advice, and critique provided by my committee: Dr. Alex Stepick, Dr. Jean Muteba Rahier, and Dr. Dionne Stephens. Of course, I am especially grateful for my major professor, Dr. Sarah Mahler, who went far beyond the call of duty in her role as dissertation advisor. Her close attention to my work, her very high standards, and her constant encouragement, have all been invaluable to me. She has been as interested in my well-being as she has been in my professional development. I am extremely thankful, too, for my husband, Seymour: for his inexhaustible patience, for bearing with me through many challenging and uncertain times, and for just being there. iv ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION NAVIGATING RACIAL BOUNDARIES: THE ONE-DROP RULE AND MIXED-RACE JAMAICANS IN SOUTH FLORIDA by Sharon E. Placide Florida International University, 2010 Miami, Florida Professor Sarah J. Mahler, Major Professor Like many West Indians, mixed-race Jamaican immigrants enter the United States with fluid notions about race and racial identifications that reflect socio-political events in their home country and that conflict with the more rigid constructions of race they encounter in the U.S. This dissertation explores the experiences of racially mixed Jamaicans in South Florida and the impact of those experiences on their racial self- characterizations through the boundary-work theoretical framework. Specifically, the study examines the impact of participants’ exposure to the one-drop rule in the U.S., by which racial identification has been historically determined by the existence or non- existence of black forebears. Employing qualitative data collected through both focus group and face-to-face semi-structured interviews, the study analyzes mixed-race Jamaicans’ encounters in the U.S. with racial boundaries, and the boundary-work that reinforces them, as well their response to these encounters. Through their stories, the dissertation examines participants’ efforts to navigate racial boundaries through choices of various racial identifications. Further, it discusses the ways in which structural forces and individual agency have interacted in the formation of these identifications. The study v finds that in spite of participants’ expressed preference for non-racialism, and despite their objections to rigid racial categories, in seeking to carve out alternative identities, they are participating in the boundary-making of which they are so critical. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 1 Theoretical Framework 4 Rationale for Population and Location of Study 13 Research Methodology and Data Analysis 14 Defining Terms 24 Challenges and Limitations 26 Chapter Descriptions 28 II. THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF A RACIAL DICHOTOMY IN THE U.S 32 Race as a Social Construction 33 Section 1 Race and Mixed-Race During Slavery: The Social Construction of the One-Drop Rule 36 The Construction of Race During Slavery 36 Miscegenation and the Emergence of the One-Drop Rule 43 Section 2 The Rise and Crystallization of Bright Boundaries 49 Contesting Racial Boundaries: Abolitionists, Free Negroes and Slaves Oppose Slavery 50 White Response: Entrenchment of Racist Ideology 53 Emancipation and Reconstruction Blur Boundaries 56 Southern Whites Defend their Status, Strengthening Racial Divides 58 Crystallization of the Bright Boundary: The One-Drop Rule 62 Mulattoes, Blacks, and Boundary-Work 65 Science Supports the One-Drop Rule 66 Section 3 Blurring Racial Boundaries 71 The Civil Rights Movement and its Impact 71 The Multi-Racial Challenge to the One-Drop Rule 76 Why the One-Drop Rule Persists 79 Chapter Conclusion 82 III. THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF A COLOR HIERARCHY IN JAMAICA 84 Clarification of Terms: Color and Race 85 Section 1 Construction of Bright Boundaries: Formation of a Tripartite Color Hierarchy During Slavery (1655 to 1834) 87 African Slavery and the Beginnings of Race Ideology 87 The Impact of Demography 91 vii Miscegenation, Free Browns, and the Status Mixed Progeny (Slave and Free) 93 Free Browns Become Buffer 97 Section 2 Boundary Blurring: Color and Social Status from Abolition to the Independence (1834 to 1962) 100 Loss of Labor and Decline of the White Planting Class 100 Boundary-Blurring Continues: Rise of the Brown Class And Black Social Mobility 103 Complicating the Color Hierarchy: East Indians, Chinese, “Syrian” Immigrants 106 Creole Multiracialism Versus Black Nationalism 110 Persistence of a Color Hierarchy 119 Section 3 Boundary-Shifting: Race, Color and Social Status after Independence (1962 to present) 120 Boundary-Blurring: Race, Color, and Social Location 120 Color as Symbolic and Social Boundary 124 Chapter Conclusion 130 IV. OUT OF MANY, ONE PEOPLE: RACE AND COLOR IN JAMAICA 132 Race is Not Important 136 Intersectionality: Class Plus Race 155 Color Draws Boundaries in Jamaica 161 Chapter Conclusion 173 V. ENCOUNTERING BOUNDARIES AND BOUNDARY-WORK IN THE U.S 175 Race Draws Bright Boundaries in the U.S.: The Centrality of Race 177 Boundary Maintenance: Two Worlds 198 South Florida: Three Worlds? 207 Theoretical Discussion 216 Chapter Conclusion 225 VI. NAVIGATING RACIAL BOUNDARIES IN THE U.S. 228 I am Jamaican – Ethnic (Post-Racial) Identification 230 Racial Identification Choices 233 Factors Affecting Jamaicans’ Immigrants Racial Identifications 251 Choice or No Choice? The Impact of Structure on Agency and Vice Versa 270 Mixed-Race Jamaicans Doing Boundary-Work 276 Chapter Conclusion 287 VII. CONCLUSION 290 Findings 290 viii The Study’s Contributions 296 Limitations and Directions for Future Research 299 REFERENCES 302 APPENDICES 321 VITA 332 ix CHAPTER I Introduction Just over 15 years ago I had a memorable racial encounter with a colleague at my place of employment. The encounter involved a conversation with a colleague from another department in the university. This colleague, whom I’ll call Miriam1, was older than I (probably in her fifties), white, and American. During this conversation Miriam commented on the marriage of another co-worker, June, to a dark-skinned African American male. June was a light-skinned Jamaican female who, because of her light complexion and wavy rather than “kinky” hair, had often been characterized as “Puerto Rican” in the U.S. I learned then that Miriam had objected to this co-worker’s marriage on racial grounds. As she put it, “I thought June was white so when I learned she was about to marry Frank I was quite surprised.” It was clear that she did not approve of interracial marriages. So I went on to ask her about just that. “Well,” she said “it’s just that I am concerned about the children. They don’t fit in anywhere.” I recall being quite puzzled. I did not at all understand what my friend meant by that statement. What did “They don’t fit in anywhere” mean? Her statement implied to me that there are specific locations to which whites and blacks are assigned. I did not agree. So I challenged her on that account.