"You have more of a choice now as to how you identify yourself," said Lambe, whose parents are white and Asian. "Because of that, those of us who are mixed or biracial want to create our own community, instead of being forced into a category."
The choice to which Lambe refers, and the factors that influence it, are explored by Rockquemore and University of Alabama-Huntsville Assistant Professor of Sociology David Brunsma in Beyond Black. Their project focused on offspring of black-white unions, she explains, "because blacks and whites continue to be the two groups with the greatest social distance, the most spatial separation and the strongest taboos against interracial marriage."
Rockquemore and Brunsma's research used survey data and in-depth interviews with biracial undergraduates attending Detroit-area colleges. Those conversations give voice to the complexities of biracial identity, and how it can be influenced by physical appearance, friends and acquaintances, surroundings, situation and other factors.
Chris, for example, described herself as "biracial, but I experience the world as a black woman," largely because of her appearance.
Kathy, more light-skinned and with features most likely to identify her as white, talked of being stigmatized by many black students who interpret her biracial self-identification as trying to establish herself as "better than" or "beyond" black.
"It is one thing for someone to consider himself or herself as biracial, or black, or white," said Rockquemore. "How that identity is validated - if it is - by family, friends, acquaintances or in certain situations, is another matter."
Some respondents, however, said being biracial meant they would alter their behaviors or mannerisms to suit the situation. One student Rockquemore interviewed in a cafeteria spoke to her using black vernacular and body language, but when joined by white friends, she recalled, "he stiffened his back and used more standard English."
Yet there was nothing affected or false about the young man's actions, Rockquemore adds. "It felt completely natural to him. For biracial people like him, their self-understanding is based on this fluidity of identity. They see it as a gift, a way to move more comfortably through the world."
Based on the surveys and interviews, Rockquemore and Brunsma found four major variations on biracial identity. The "border" identity, which fit Kathy, encompasses both socially accepted racial categorizations of black and white yet includes an additional element from its combination. The "protean," as demonstrated by the young man in the cafeteria, involves multiple identities and personas that can be called up in appropriate contexts.
A small number of respondents asserted a "singular" identity as either black or white, rather than biracial. But some chose what the researchers termed a "transcendent" identity, consciously denying having any racial identity at all.
"This option proved to be more complex than we thought," said Rockquemore. "We assumed beforehand that these students were white in appearance, with no real experience of racial stratification, and perhaps filled with youthful idealism. But those whom we interviewed were not exclusively white in appearance, and some had known discrimination. They intellectualized those situations as part of broad societal problem, one in which they were deeply imbedded."