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ERIC Number: ED336970
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1987
Pages: 11
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
"It's Only Half of Me." The Interracial Child: The Need for Balance.
Hatcher, Carol L.
Multiethnic living is practiced by a growing number of Americans. Some of the issues that research has looked at in this context include identity confusion, child-rearing complications, developing friendships within and across ethnic lines, emotional disturbance, dealing with ethnic heritage, school performance, and need for school services. In the study described in this paper, 7 interracial children were asked to share their thoughts about being interracial; 6 of the youngsters were 14 to 16 years old and one was 11. The children represented a variety of cultural groups. All had experienced racism in some form. They experimented with identity roles related to ethnicity and race in their adolescence. They perceived a broad sense of ancestral roots to be the benefit of an interracial heritage. These children realized that many of their experiences had been based on skin color, and felt it humorous that there was so much ignorance about physical characteristics. The school dealt with the children as single-race individuals. There was always some anxiety about introducing their biracial family to others, and the older ones were concerned about identifying their race for others. They appeared to like themselves and were comfortable with multiethnic living. The paper concludes by offering some guidelines for school treatment of multiethnic students. An 11-item bibliography is included. (MSE)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Practitioners; Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A
Note: In: Theory, Research and Applications: Selected Papers from the Annual Meeting of the National Association for Bilingual Education (16th, Denver, Colorado, March 30-April 3, 1987); see FL 019 511.