Boundary Blurring? Racial Identification among the Children of Interracial Couples

For America's children, racial and ethnic identity is complicated by the fact that interracial couples define their children's racial and ethnic identity rather than the children themselves. The commonplace idea of racial self-identification in government surveys is a misnomer for America's children. In this paper, we use data, pooled annually, from the 2008 to 2014 American Community Survey to document (1) recent fertility patterns among interracially married couples, and (2) the racial or ethnic identification of the children from interracial marriages. A sizeable minority share of America's children from mixed-race marriages are identified by their parents as monoracial, which suggests that mixed-race children are seriously underreported. Moreover, the assignment of race is highly uneven across interracial marriages comprised of husbands and wives with different racial backgrounds. Our result suggest that children's racial identity reflects a kind of racial "tug-of-war" between parents who bring their own racial and cultural identities to marriages. The status or power of parents is often unequal, and this is played out in how children are identified as their biological offspring. For example, the parents from minority populations often have fewer claims on the race of their children. The racial and ethnic identities of children of interracial marriages, at a minimum, are highly subjective and complex.