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 Spurious IssuesRace And Multiracial Identity Politics In The United Statesby Rainier Spencer Aug 12, 1999
DescriptionRecent times have seen the rise of a movement lobbying for explicit recognition of multiracial identity as separate from any other racial category. Factions in this movement have petitioned the government for the addition of a federal multiracial category to the census and to other official forms. While these attempts have as yet been unsuccessful, the potential impact of such a change cannot be overstated. Rainier Spencer takes up the claims of multiracial activists, subjecting their arguments to a level of scholarly rigor they have heretofore not been required to meet. Demonstrating that the twin justifications for a federal multiracial category—accuracy and self-esteem—are inherently contradictory, Spencer presents an absorbing analysis of race, multirace, and categorization that shakes the very foundations of racial identity on all sides. Spurious Issues is a critical examination of multiracial identity politics in the United States, and of the specific issues surrounding federal racial classification. It is also a book about race generally, an extended argument that invites and challenges its readers to assume a skeptical position in regard to one of the most widely accepted but rarely analyzed components of life in the United States. Reviews”Spurious Issues accomplishes the theoretical work of breaking the impasse between historicizing race into pure contingency and reifying discrimination into total identity.” ”…thoughtful, well documented and challenging.” “The author effectively shows how the socially constructed view of race is ultimately based on phenotypes. Readers see how various groups are invested in these definitions for either self-identity or politics and have argued for or against revising racial categories within government bureaucracies.” Selling TerritoryWorld |
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