Exploring the Multi-Racial Experience

with Rev. Dr. Richard Talley

OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION

1. Define and discuss race
   A. The power and influence of race
   B. Not post-racial
   C. Racial ambiguity in mixed race people
   D. Miscategorization, misnaming
2. Effect
   A. One box is difficult to check
   B. Multiracial identity
   C. Acceptance/rejection, othering
3. Stereotypes of multiracial individuals
   A. Colorism i.e., skin tone hair, physical features
   B. Mentally deficiency
   C. Alcohol/drug use
   D. School attendance
   E. Relationships
   F. Marginal Man Theory
4. Race and Health
   A. Changing racial identity
   B. Social identity threat/Coping
   C. Microaggressions and impact of microaggressions
   D. Challenges of developing racial and self-identity
5. SOLUTIONS
   A. Call to action

PRESENTER

I define myself as a multiethnic individual.  My ancestry from both parents’ lineage is quite diverse.  My father is Native American, African American, and European, and my mother is Spanish, North African, and Eastern European. I have defined myself as a multiethnic individual partially due to the ancestry and the definitions contrasting multiracial and multiethnic.

On my birth certificate I was noted as Negro, due to the fact that my father s who had dark skin was with my mother, who was ascribed as white.   I was listed as Negro on my birth certificate due to the fact of the “one-drop” rule that stated that one drop of Negro blood determined that individual’s race.  What was confusing and caused conflicting concepts were the multiple racial identities in both families and trying to identify with my father’s black skin and my mother’s white skin while I have brown skin.

Current Interest and Experience

I became interested in exploring my multiracial history and background while in high school.  From that exploration I decided to self-proclaim my race as a multiracial human being.  It was many years later while studying for my master’s degree in psychology learning the many theories of identity development that I realized that none of the theories included me, an individual of multiple racial ancestry. Most of the theories were for monoracial individuals.  I began to do further research of multiracial identity development theories and also found that most of them also excluded me. I did find later theories that did include people of multiple races, cultures and ethnicities. I connected spirituality, both native and what I learned in seminary to every aspect of my life, artistic, social justice, inclusivity and diversity, and social equality of all human beings.

My dissertation addressed my processes of developing both racial and self-identity and the challenges that I encountered from both the majority and minority races, including microaggressions, exclusion, “othering”, bullying, and physical violence.

My dissertation has now become a book; Born Between the Lines: The Experiences of a Multiracial Individual and I have presented workshops and lectures to religious organization and civic groups on that topic I am excited to have been offered the opportunity to present a lecture/workshop to the INTA.

The Rev. Richard Talley, Ph.D.