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Title: Amalgamations, New and Old: : The Stratification of America's Mixed Black/White Population

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2004

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Abstract: This research focuses explicitly on the life chances of biracial black/whites. I contrast the "new" biracials, those born to interracial parents in the post Civil Rights era, to the "old" biracials, the lighter-skinned descendants of the original mulatto elite. Both groups have occupied privileged positions relative to monoracial blacks within educational and occupational institutions. For the old biracials, this privilege derives both from the inherited advantages of the mulatto elite and from the independent signifcance of skin tonewithin the black community. I show that the skin tone privileges of lighter-skinned blacks declined for cohorts coming of age during and after the Civil Rights era. This decline marked the end of a system of stratifcation which characterized the black population for over a century and indicates that the new biracial advantage over monoracial blacks in educational outcomes is not a result of skin tone privileges within the black population. These new biracials differ from the old in that they have access to intimate white relatives within their family networks. The new biracial advantage may potentially result from white cultural resources and racial ambiguity. On the other hand, the new biracial advantage may stem from the selectivity of highly-educated parents into interracial unions. I show that the new biracial advantage over monoracial blacks in educational outcomes is largely explained by their relatively privileged family backgrounds. These advantages, and not racial ambiguity, result in higher grades and lower rates of drop out and grade retention, although they do not fully explain differences in standardized test scores. In order to understand the new biracial advantage, we must understand the dynamics of class/race assortative mating in the immediately prior generation. This pattern of interracial union formation is most accurately described as one of lower-class isolation. While traditional models of status exchange, educational homogamy, and differential propensity are all supported to some extent by the data, these patterns work to produce an overall pattern which universally excludes blacks with a high school degree or less from interracial unions, regardless of their potential partner's education. This finding points to the possibility of greater isolation for lower class blacks as interracialunions increase and to a generational bifurcation of the black class structure directly tied to issues of racial identity.

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Authors: Gullickson, Aaron

Institution: University of California, Berkeley

Department: Graduate Group in Sociology and Demography

Advisor: Michael Hout

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Publisher Location: Berkley, CA

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Race and Ethnicity

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