Vol. 13 No. 4 (April 2003)
MIXED RACE AMERICA AND THE LAW: A READER, by Kevin R. Johnson (Editor). New York and London: New York University Press, 2003. 505 pp. Cloth $75.00. ISBN: 0-8147-4256-4. Paper $26.00. ISBN: 0-8147-4257-2.
Reviewed by Barbara L. Graham, Department of Political Science, University of Missouri-St. Louis. Email: barbara.graham@umsl.edu .
In MIXED RACE AMERICA AND THE LAW: A READER, Kevin R. Johnson has edited one of the most important and timely anthologies on the general topic of race mixture and the law. The anthology addresses a range of provocative issues concerning the mixed race experience and the law and its impact on mixed race peoples. For readers who are unfamiliar with the vast literature on the mixed race experience, I am confident that they will find this book=s interdisciplinary approach indispensable in its grappling with issues raised by multiracialism and the law. Johnson=s book, part of the Critical America Series published by New York University Press, takes critical race theory into another direction in its emphasis on mixed race scholarship. As with many of the writings of critical race theorists, Johnson=s book has seriously challenged the conventional wisdom of the black-white paradigm. The writings persuasively demonstrate that America has always been a mixed race society, that the law has played a major role in shaping racial categories, classification schemes, intermarriage, immigration and trans-racial adoption issues to name a few. Race is addressed as a social construct and Johnson – as well as the other contributors – acknowledges how law has not kept up with the fluid racial boundaries in the American context. This book covers the diversity of the mixed race experience in America, including African American, Indian, Latina(o) and Asian populations. Johnson argues in the introduction that “racial mixture will undoubtedly shape the future study of race and civil rights in the United States. As minorities of many different types intermarry and rates of immigration of diverse peoples to this country remain high, more racial mixtures and mixed race peoples will emerge.” The writings in the anthology take the reader on a journey in an effort to understand the complexities of racial mixture in the United States and abroad.
Johnson has carefully selected eighty-seven edited scholarly writings, primarily law review articles published in the 1990s and a few court cases. The reader is divided into twelve parts in an attempt to examine the complexities of racial categories and what they mean for a mixed race society. Part I addresses the history and slow demise of anti-miscegenation laws. The edited selections cover issues such as an historical overview of these laws, the history of racial identification and the regulation of interracial sex in colonial Virginia, and the relationship between lynchings and interracial relationships. As expected, Johnson includes writings on an analysis of LOVING v. VIRGINIA (1967) and its impact. Readers may be unfamiliar with an important precursor to LOVING, PEREZ v. SHARP (1948), where the California Supreme Court held that the state anti-miscegenation law violated the Constitution. Going beyond the white-black context, the other writings in Part I cover attempts to regulate intermarriage between Indians and whites and Asians and whites.
The selections in Part II “focuses on the legal aspects of racial formation and mixed race identity.” Two selections analyze the rule of the hypodescent, or the “one drop rule,” which classifies a person as African American if he or she has a black ancestor. Two other writings examine the difficulty associated with litigating racial classifications under the one drop rule. Other selections examine the complexity of mixed race identity by focusing on the experiences of a mixed African American-white male, the daughter of Afro-Cuban-Italian parents, and the hapa daughter of a Japanese father and half-German, half English mother. The last set of writings in Part II covers racial mixture in Latin America and the law of Indian identity.
Part III is devoted to the legal and personal impacts of efforts by mixed race persons to “pass” as white. In this section, an article shows how privilege and property is attached to “whiteness” in American society. Other articles examine the psychological, social and economic impact of passing for white. The fluidity of race is examined by one author in his attempt to understand Tiger Woods as a multiracial figure. Three writings analyze racial identity and racial mixture in Nicaragua, the Mexican American experience and the nexus between passing and the gay and lesbian experience. The last article addresses instances where whites have fraudulently attempted to portray themselves as minorities for affirmative action purposes.
Part IV offers a timely examination of the racial and ethnic classifications used by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. One article summarizes the history of racial classification by the Census Bureau, and another documents the growth in multiracial persons in the United States. The controversy surrounding the multiracial classification system for the 2000 census is examined as well as the consequences of the multiracial category movement (MCM). An examination of the impact of the new census categories on the voting rights of blacks and Hispanics is presented along with analyses of the census classification schemes for Hispanics, Filipinos and Indigenous communities.
The writings in Part V focus on the inheritance rights of mixed race persons. The nexus between race, gender, and property is presented along with an historical understanding of intestate succession and the law. The last article looks at the role of DNA analysis in the context of slave descendants and heirship jurisprudence. Part VI offers an interesting set of articles on the legal phenomenon known as “colorism”—discrimination based on skin color. These writings investigate the color hierarchy among African Americans and Latinos and show how darker skinned blacks and Latinos are routinely discriminated against on both an inter-racial and intra-racial basis. Part VII focuses on racial classification in the affirmative action context and illustrates the problematic nature of “box checking” for mixed race persons.
Part VIII focuses on legal issues raised in the race of the child in child custody and in trans-racial adoption. PALMORE v. SIDOTI (1984) is analyzed in addition to the implications of the “best interests of the child” test. The controversy surrounding race matching in adoption is examined along with problems presented in international adoptions. Several of the articles focus on legal issues surrounding Native American adoption.
Part IX focuses on how mixed race people are treated under U.S. immigration laws. An interesting article focuses on the United States’ obligation toward Amerasian children and the daunting problems these children face. Attention is also given to the differential treatment of mothers and fathers in the transmission of citizenship to their children. Part X examines the problem of racial mixture outside of the United States, where most of the writings are centered on the problem in Latin America and South Africa. This comparative treatment of racial mixture provides interesting insights on the broader question of whether the United States, especially given the multiracial category movement, is likely to move toward other racial classification schemes.
Interestingly, the writings in Part XI go back to the theme of intermarriage present in Part I and address the consequences and impact of intermarriage. The underlying question in these pieces is whether a mixed race society will lead to an end of racism. This question is raised against the findings of the 2000 census that documented the growth in the number of multiracial people. Part XII briefly examines the future of mixed race legal studies and whether critical mixed race studies will emerge as an important offshoot of critical race theory.
I think Johnson succeeded in his attempt to “bridge scholarship on the mixed race experience and the law.” For such an ambitious project, an editor must make hard choices on what to include and exclude—what at times must be a painful editing process. I found the selection of the scholarly articles to be excellent; unfortunately, there are too many of them for individual comment. Johnson went to great lengths to include a range of perspectives on mixed race scholarship and the law. There were a few writings in the anthology that I thought were too brief (less than a page or a few paragraphs) to convey the original author=s arguments. Unless the reader was already familiar with the work, he or she would have to resort to the original source. I wanted to see more of some of the writings, especially Stefancic=s bibliographic essay on AMultiracialism: A Bibliographic Essay and Critique@ at the end of the work. These minor criticisms aside, I would strongly recommend this anthology for undergraduate or graduate courses on race and the law, civil rights, or for courses with critical race theory leanings. The writings are edited in a manner that renders them accessible to undergraduate students, and, for the most part, scholarly legal jargon is kept to a minimum. Johnson also provides review questions at the end of each section that will serve as excellent in-class discussion questions or for essay exams. A suggested reading list is found at the end of each part as well. I think students and scholars alike will be thoroughly engaged by the provocative writings in this anthology.
CASE REFERENCES:
LOVING v. VIRGINIA, 388 US 1 (1967).
PALMORE v. SIDOTI, 466 US 429 (1984).
PEREZ v. SHARP, 32 Cal.2d 711 (1948).
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Copyright 2003 by the author, Barbara L. Graham.