Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

What Are You? A Study Of Racial Ambiguity, Cindy Veronica Vargas

Wayne State University Theses

Most literature on racial ambiguity focuses on individuals of mixed-race. While this type of literature is invaluable in understanding racial identity and all of its intricacies, the experiences of single-race individuals are marginalized. How do people who are single race experience racial ambiguity? Do their experiences differ from those of mixed-race individuals? For this study, nineteen individuals (single and mixed-race) who consider themselves to be racially ambiguous were interviewed and asked open-ended questions. The transcribed and coded interviews yielded important information on their self-perceptions, what they get mistaken for, how it makes them feel, and how they deal with their …