Mothering ‘Outsider’ Children
White Women in Black/White Interracial Families in Ireland
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13081909 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Patti O’malley (0000-0002-9269-9570, University of Bedfordshire, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 27-27 |
| Publication date | 2022-04-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Genealogy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2313-5778 • E-ISSN: 2313-5778 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/genealogy6020027 |
| OpenAlex | W4224298735 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 28 |
The mixed-race family constellation has emerged as a regular feature of the Irish familial landscape. Such a demographic change invariably leads to the increased presence of white women who are mothering across racialised boundaries. Moreover, in the Irish context, the racial category of whiteness is privileged at a structural level and remains a central organising principle of Irishness as a mode of national belonging. This paper, therefore, sets out to address the specific gap in the literature related to the racialised experiences of the white mother of mixed-race (i.e., black African/white Irish) children in contemporary Ireland as these women are, in effect, mothering ‘outsider’ children in a context of white supremacy. More specifically, how does the positioning of these women’s mixed-race children impact their subjectivities as mothers categorised normatively as white and Irish? Framed by critical whiteness literature, this paper draws on in-depth interviews with twelve white Irish mothers. Data analysis broadly revealed three themes as relates to the women’s negotiations of the racialising discourses and practices which impact their family units. Findings suggest that these women no longer occupy the default position of whiteness as a category of racial privilege and a condition of ‘structured invisibility’. Perhaps, most significantly, the lived reality of these women disturbs the hegemonic conflation of the categories white and Irish. This paper, therefore, extends our theoretical understanding of both whiteness and mixed-race studies
Context (archaeology · Hegemony · Invisibility · Irish · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Privilege (computing · Race (biology · Social science · Sociology · White (mutation · White privilege · White supremacy · Gender Studies · History · Irish and British Studies · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
The Crises of Multiculturalism
Understanding Everyday Racism
Real Bodies
Whiteness
White Women, Race Matters
Girl Interrupted
Irish and white-ish mixed “race” identity and the scopic regime of whiteness
White women in interracial families
Racial and Ethnic Identity Development in White Mothers of Biracial, Black-White Children
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Narratives from a Nottingham council estate
A White Side of Black Britain
Confession, catharsis, or cure? Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research
Whiteness and Diasporic Irishness
The specificity of Irish racism
Racializing Culture Is Ordinary1
Reconstructing deconstructing 'race
Experiences of racism and the changing nature of white privilege among lone white mothers of mixed-parentage children in the UK
The future of whiteness
Ireland
Pride politics and multiculturalist citizenship
From wave to tsunami
Surfing the third wave of whiteness studies
Researching white mothers of mixed-parentage children
The Gap Between Whites and Whiteness
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |