The social construction of mixed race

I have a question I was pondering earlier today -- what makes someone "mixed race"? The easiest comparison is between Colin Powell and Barack Obama. I'm so used to hearing about Obama being "mixed race" (often by people with a race-baiting agenda) but then he's also routinely described as "black". Whereas Colin Powell probably has a greater percentage of European ancestry than Obama, but I've never heard his race described as anything other than "black".

What I'm wondering is if my hypothesis is correct that "mixed race" seems to exclusively be applied to people with a white parent and a black parent -- that folks who have been "mixed" going back more generations just tend to get lumped in with the "black" category. Does that describe how race is generally constructed, or is that just something I came up with on my own?

Yeah, I think you're probably right that a person who has parents of different races is more likely to be perceived as mixed race. I think it's often highly politically charged, though. Take Tiger Woods, for example. He is more Asian than African-American, but I think he's very much perceived as being black vs. mixed-race.

When he was very young and newly famous, I saw him on Oprah, explaining that he made up a word to describe himself, which was "Cablanasian" (Caucasian, Black, Asian). Oprah got all wide-eyed at him, and tried to save him by pointing out that it won't be taken well if it looks like he's trying to be "not black." I felt bad for him at the time, because clearly he identifies with his mother's race as much as his dad's, but the public perceives what it wants to perceive, and he had to kind of learn the hard way that their perception and his might not be the same.

I think that in practice you're right: mixed race has come to replace the old, racist term "Mulatto." With the insistence upon the 'one drop' theory of race, it was possible for the terms Quadroon, or Octaroon, to fall into disuse: Without a white parent, there was no penalty, nor insult to a parent, in simply calling the person involved black.

Looking at this story about one of the dramatic mixed black and white fraternal twins recently born, you'll see that the writer takes the time to point out that both parents are "mixed race" and then specify each had one white and one black parent.

Having said that, ISTR reading some articles about Colin Powell that made the point that he had white ancestry as well as black. But I wouldn't know where to find them, now.

I think Exy is right, but I find Sarah's story odd as I always considered Tiger Mixed Race as he tended to make a point that his mom was Asian. It seems pretty arrogant of Oprah to lecture him on his background.

I wonder how many non-Yankee fans consider Derek Jeter Mixed Race. He doesn't identify as black or mixed or white. He is just Derek Jeter. But his Dad is a black and his Mom is white. I've heard Mariah Carey identify as mixed but Halle Berry seems to identify as black. I understand they both had a black and a white parent. I think these days it is more about how the person identifies themselves.

Colin Powell to the best of my knowledge has not bothered to identify himself one way or another. I have always seen him identified as black by the press.