On Being Amorphous: Autoethnography, Genealogy, and a Multiracial Identity

Qualitative Inquiry

Volumn 9, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 20-48

  Gatson, Sarah N ^a  

^a TEXAS A AND M UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

ethnography; identity formation; race

Indexed keywords

EID: 21544470005     PISSN: 10778004     EISSN: 15527565     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1077800402239338     Document Type: Article

References (79)

1. Alexander, B.K. (2000, January). Skin Flint (or, The Garbage Man’s Kid): A generative autobiographical performance based on Tami Spry’s Tattoo Stories. Text and Performance Quarterly, 20, 97-114.
2. Amegroid Society of America. (1998). The Amegroid Society of America website. Retrieved January 1, 1998, from http://www.ameribiz.com/asa/
3. American heritage dictionary (2nd ed.). (1991). New York: Houghton Mifflin.
4. Bates, D. (1986). The long shadow of Little Rock. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. (Original work published 1962)
5. Bell, D. (1992). Faces at the bottom of the well: The permanence of racism. New York: Basic Books.
6. Birch, M.A. (2001). Birch bio. Unpublished manuscript (in the collection of the author).
7. Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language & symbolic power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
8. Bourdieu, P. (1994). Structures, habitus, power: Basis for a theory for symbolic power. In N.B. Dirks, G. Eley, & S.B. Ortner (Eds.), Culture, power, history: A reader in contemporary social theory (pp. 155-199). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
9. Bourdieu, P. (1999). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1977)
10. Burawoy, M. (1991). Ethnography unbound: Power and resistance in the modern metropolis. Berkeley: University of California Press.
11. Burawoy, M. (2000). Global ethnography: Forces, connections, and imaginations in a postmodern world. Berkeley: University of California Press.
12. Byrd, C.M. (1997, November-December). Leftist socialism or multiracial libertarianism: Our community’s two choices? Interracial Voice. Retrieved January 1, 1998, from http://www.webcom.com/intvoice/editor13.html
13. Byrne, D. (1997, April 23). Editorial regarding Tiger Woods. Chicago Sun-Times, p. 43.
14. Caws, P. (1995). Identity: Cultural, transcultural, and multicultural. In D.T. Goldberg (Ed.), Multiculturalism: A critical reader (pp. 371-387). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
15. Collins, P.H. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge.
16. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. (1880). Tenth census of the United States. Worcester County, Massachusetts (Sheet number unreadable. Enumerator: unreadable. Photocopy of microfilm, duplicated by Lineages, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT). Collection of the author.
17. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. (1900, June 13). Twelfth census of the United States. Lapile Township, Union County, Arkansas (Sheet number 9. Enumerator: Albert E. Rowland. Photocopy of microfilm, duplicated by Lineages, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT). Collection of the author.
18. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. (1910 a, May 4). Thirteenth census of the United States. Lapile Township, Union County, Arkansas (Sheet number: unreadable. Enumerator: unreadable. Photocopy of microfilm, duplicated by Lineages, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT). Collection of the author.
19. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. (1910 b, May 14). Thirteenth census of the United States. Ward 6, Precinct 2, Union Parish, Louisiana (Sheet Number 24, A. Enumerator: John A. Shaver. Photocopy of microfilm, duplicated by Lineages, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT). Collection of the author.
20. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. (1920, February 2). Fourteenth census of the United States. Ward 6, Precinct 2, Union Parish, Louisiana (Sheet number 9, A. Enumerator: Brown. Photocopy of microfilm, duplicated by Lineages, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT). Collection of the author.
21. Derrida, J. (1991). From Of Grammatology. In P. Kamul (Ed.), A Derrida reader: Between the blinds (pp. 31-58). New York: Columbia University Press.
22. Du Bois, W.E.B. (1995). Propaganda and world war. In D.L. Lewis (Ed.), W.E.B. Du Bois: A reader (pp. 388-408). New York: Henry Holt. (Original work published 1940)
23. Dyson, M.E. (1994). Essentialism and the complexities of racial identity. In D.T. Goldberg (Ed.), Multiculturalism: A critical reader (pp. 218-229). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
24. Espiritu, Y.L. (2001, August). Possibilities of a multiracial Asian American. Paper presented at the American Sociological Association meetings, Anaheim, CA.
25. Frankenberg, R. (1996). “When we are capable of stopping, we begin to see”: Being White, seeing Whiteness. In B. Thompson & S. Tyagi (Eds.), Names we call home: Autobiography on racial identity (pp. 3-17). London: Routledge.
26. Gatson, S.N. (1990, October). Attitudes towards Black-White interracial marriage: A preliminary investigation (Associated Colleges of the Midwest Minority Summer Research Presentations). Grinell, IA: Grinell College.
27. Gatson, S.N. (1995, September). Racial formation—Today: Review essay: Maureen Reddy, Crossing the Color Line: Race, Parenting, and Culture; Judy Scales-Trent, Notes of a White Black Woman: Race, Color, Community; Gregory Howard Williams, Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black. Contemporary Sociology, 24, 599-601.
28. Gatson, S.N. (1996, February). Email letter to Charles Michael Byrd. Retrieved November 15, 2000, from http://www.webcom.com/intvoice/letter05.html
29. Gatson, S.N. (2000, August). Public representations of multiracial identity: Three options. Paper presented at the Association of Black Sociologists’ meetings, Washington, D.C.
30. Gatson, S.N. (2001, August). Amorphousness, political alliance, and the problem of multiracials. Paper presented at the American Sociological Association meetings, Anaheim, CA.
31. Geertz, C. (2000 a). The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books. (Original work published 1973)
32. Geertz, C. (2000 b). Local knowledge. New York: Basic Books. (Original work published 1983)
33. Haizlip, S.T. (1994). The sweeter the juice: A family memoir in Black and White. New York: Simon & Schuster.
34. Hall, L.K.C. (1996). Eating salt. In B. Thompson & S. Tyagi (Eds.), Names we call home: Autobiography on racial identity (pp. 241-252). London: Routledge.
35. Hall, R.E. (2001 a). Identity development across the lifespan: A biracial model. Social Science Journal, 38, 119-123.
36. Hall, R.E. (2001 b). The Tiger Woods phenomenon: A note on biracial identity. Social Science Journal, 38, 333-336.
37. hooks, b. (1990). Yearning: Race, gender, and cultural politics. Boston: South End.
38. hooks, b. (1995). Killing rage: Ending racism. New York: Henry Holt.
39. Hunter, R. (Producer), & Sirk, D. (Director). (1959). Imitation of life [Film]. Universal City, CA: Universal Pictures.
40. Ignatiev, N. (1995). How the Irish became White. New York: Routledge.
41. Keith, M., & Pile, S. (1993 a). Conclusion: Towards new radical geographies. In M. Keith & S. Pile (Eds.), Place and the politics of identity (pp. 220-226). London: Routledge.
42. Keith, M., & Pile, S. (1993 b). Introduction Part 1 & Part 2. In M. Keith & S. Pile (Eds.), Place and the politics of identity (pp. 1-40). London: Routledge.
43. King, D.K. (1988). Multiple jeopardy, multiple consciousness: The context of a Black feminist ideology. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 14, 42-72.
44. Laemmle, C., Jr. (Producer), & Stahl, J.M. (Director). (1934). Imitation of life [Film]. Universal City, CA: Universal Pictures.
45. Letherby, G., & Zdrodowski, D. (1995). “Dear researcher”: The use of correspondence as a method within feminist qualitative research. Gender & Society, 9, 576-594.
46. Lionnet, F. (1991). Autoethnography: The an-archic style of Dust Tracks on a Road. In D. LaCapra (Ed.), The bounds of race: Perspectives in hegemony and resistance (pp. 164-195). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
47. Lopez, N. (1996). White by law: Legal constructions of race. New York: New York University Press.
48. Lorde, A. (1984). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches by Audre Lorde. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press.
49. Marcus, G. (2000). Ethnography through thick and thin. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
50. McCray, C.A. (1998). Freedom’s child: The life of a confederate general’s Black daughter. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
51. Melungeon. (1998). The Melungeon home page. Retrieved January 1, 1998, from http://pluto.clinch.edu/appalachia/melungeon/
52. Mills, C.W. (1993). The sociological imagination. In C. Lemert (Ed.), Social theory: The multicultural and classical readings (pp. 379-382). Boulder, CO: Westview. (Original work published 1959)
53. Mitchell, M.A. (1997, April 23). The Cablinasian question. Chicago Sun-Times, p. 43.
54. Morsy, S.A. (1994). Beyond the honorary “White” classification of Egyptians: Societal identity in historical context. In S. Gregory & R. Sanjek (Eds.), Race (pp. 175-198). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
55. Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1994). Racial formation in the United States from the 1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge.
56. Pineau, E.L. (1992, April). A mirror of her own: Anais Nin’s autobiographical performances. Text and Performance Quarterly, 12, 97-112.
57. Pineau, E.L. (2000, January). Nursing Mother and articulating absence. Text and Performance Quarterly, 20, 1-19.
58. Rockquemore, K.A. (1998). Between Black and White: Exploring the “biracial” experience. Race and Society, 1.
59. Rodriguez, C.E. (1994). Challenging racial hegemony: Puerto Ricans in the United States. In S. Gregory & R. Sanjek (Eds.), Race (pp. 131-145). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
60. Sacks, K.B. (1994). How did Jews become White folks? In S. Gregory & R. Sanjek (Eds.), Race (pp. 78-102). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
61. Sanjek, R. (1994). Intermarriage and the future of races in the United States. In S. Gregory & R. Sanjek (Eds.), Race (pp. 103-129). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
62. Seltzer, R., & Smith, R.C. (1991). Color differences in the Afro-American community and the differences they make. Journal of Black Studies, 21, 279-286.
63. Sherin, I. (c.1985). Outline of Racicot/Rasco/Roscoe family and descendents. Unpublished manuscript (in the collection of the author).
64. Smedley, A. (1993). Race in North America: Origin and evolution of a worldview. Boulder, CO: Westview.
65. Smith, D.E. (1990). Texts, facts, and femininity: Exploring the relations of ruling. London: Routledge.
66. Smith, D.E. (1999). Writing the social: Critique, theory, and investigations. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
67. Soja, E., & Hooper, B. (1993). The space that difference makes: Some notes on the geographical margins of the new cultural politics. In M. Keith & S. Pile (Eds.), Place and the politics of identity (pp. 183-205). London: Routledge.
68. Spry, T. (2000, January). Tattoo stories: A postscript to Skins. Text and Performance Quarterly, 20, 84-96.
69. St. Augustine Historical Society. (1998). The St. Augustine Historical Society homepage. Retrieved January 1, 1998, from http://www.cp-tel.net/creole/index.html
70. Takaki, R. (1993). A different mirror: A history of multicultural America. Boston: Back Bay Books.
71. Thompson, B., & Tyagi, S. (1996). Introduction, storytelling as social conscience: The power of autobiography. In B. Thompson & S. Tyagi (Eds.), Names we call home: Autobiography on racial identity (pp. ix-xvii). London: Routledge.
72. Trouillot, M. (1994). Culture, color, and politics in Haiti. In S. Gregory & R. Sanjek (Eds.), Race (pp. 146-174). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
73. Wagatsuma, H. (1967). The social perception of skin color in Japan. Daedalus, 96, 407-443.
74. Waters, M. (1990). Ethnic options: Choosing identities in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
75. Williams, G.H. (1995). Life on the color line: The true story of a White boy who found out he was colored. New York: Dutton.
76. Williams, T., & Thornton, M.C. (2001, August). Multiracial Asian-Americans: The politics of racial identity politics. Paper presented at the American Sociological Association meetings, Anaheim, CA.
77. Willie, S. (1996). Playing the devil’s advocate: Defending a multiracial identity in fractured community. In B. Thompson & S. Tyagi (Eds.), Names we call home: Autobiography on racial identity (pp. 275-282). London: Routledge.
78. Winant, H. (1997). Racial dualism at century’s end. In W. Lubiano (Ed.), The house that race built (pp. 87-115). New York: Pantheon.
79. Woods, Sister F.J. (1972). Marginality and identity: A colored Creole family through ten generations. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.