Still the tragic mulatto? Manufacturing multiracialization in magazine media, 1961-2011

Bibliographic Data

ID2147698
AuthorsSheena K Gardner (0000-0001-5694-8616, Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University, Starkville, USA), Sheena Gardner (0000-0003-1924-5270, Mississippi State University, corresponding author), M W Hughey (0000-0002-6456-5663, University of Connecticut)
Year2019
Volume42
Issue4
Pages645-665
Publication date2019-03-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnic and Racial Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-9870 • E-ISSN: 1466-4356
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01419870.2017.1380212
OpenAlexW2761701745
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited51

On the heels of the 2000 US Census allowance of multiracial categorization and with rising mainstream discussion of multiracial heritage, questions over the meanings of multiracialism are quite prevalent. Scholars have highlighted how mainstream-oriented and black-oriented media structure (multi)racial conflicts, concepts, and categories. However, sociological analysis has neither examined qualitative differences and nuance among multiracial-oriented media sources nor specified the precise qualitative themes, frames, and discourse of that representation across time and media format. A content analysis of mainstream-, black-, and multiracial-oriented magazine articles demonstrates how varied media sources differently drew upon, resisted, and reproduced distinct understandings of multiracialism to reproduce the dominance of the "Tragic Mulatto" trope. The implications for this study illuminate the import of multiracial self-esteem, the intersection of conservative political movements and black interest groups in the fight for and against a multiracial movement, and the paradoxical role of anti-black stereotypes in multiracial representations

Categorization · Dominance (genetics · Epistemology · Mainstream · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Sociology · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Race, History, and American Society