ERIC Number: EJ1447028
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1534-8458
EISSN: EISSN-1532-7701
Available Date: N/A
Mixed-Heritage Individuals and Systemic Risk during Negotiation of Identity
Aurora Tsai; Brenda Straka; Daisuke Kimura
Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, v23 n6 p895-909 2024
Poststructuralist research in language and identity demonstrates how individuals exert agency to enact alternative identities, reshape power structures, and gain access to resources. However, this approach to agency carries immense risk for minoritized individuals, who must regularly negotiate their identities under systemic racism and linguistic discrimination. We focus on mixed-heritage individuals (MHIs), who are regularly questioned about or denied their ethnoracial identities through everyday microaggressions, and examine 293 MHIs' responses to open-ended survey questions, describing the strategies they use and risks experienced during negotiation of identity. Findings reveal MHIs use explanations, cultural capital, and linguistic styling to express ethnoracial identities; however, experiences of denial, objectification, racial imposter syndrome, and anxiety lead many to assess which situations are safe to enact their identities and which are not. Consequently, we discuss the importance of recognizing "systemic risk" during negotiation of identity for racialized individuals.
Descriptors: Multiracial Persons, Self Concept, Personal Autonomy, Racism, Coping, Experience, Cultural Capital, Anxiety, Attitudes, Adults, Interpersonal Relationship, Language Attitudes, Risk, Cultural Background
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
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Author Affiliations: N/A