Mixed Race Responsibilities: Rethinking Multiracial Identity Through Ethical Philosophy Open Access
Westbrook, Daniel (Spring 2026)
Abstract
To be “mixed race” is to be many things to many different people and even to oneself. The multiple levels of “ontology”—here suggestive of an account or accounts of “being” broadly construed—at work in mixed race experiences consist at least of several of the following factors: (1) inhabiting a uniquely racialized identity shaped by a history of social taboos and legal sanctions against “race-mixing,” or miscegenation, (2) possessing a body which often resists racial categorization or accurate interpretation of one’s lineage, (3) facing unique pressures to “perform” one’s race to express political allegiance to chosen kinship or community circles, and (4) having your personal identity frequently epistemologically challenged, metaphysically questioned, or even rendered ethically suspicious by those who more comfortably fit within, and even normatively subscribe to, traditional categories and schemas of racialization. Taking these collective factors seriously suggests that “mixed race” is still a critical site for philosophical intervention into problematic contemporary beliefs and practices regarding “race” itself despite “mixed race” scholarship and activism having fallen out of the socio-political zeitgeist since the 90’s and early 2000’s. This is especially true for those of us who are, in fact, “mixed race” today.
Against this backdrop, my dissertation thus has a modest albeit important thesis: a novel account of mixed racial identity, one rooted in ethically concerned action and a social theory of identity formation, should prove a lucrative tool for both inhabiting mixed racial identities from within and for thinking about people identifiable as mixed race from without. That is, my intervention into contemporary issues relative to “mixed race” is an alternative offering to scholarship on theories of self and identity, one which blends the philosophical traditions of American pragmatism and 20th century continental philosophy to theorize “mixed race” through ethical engagement and commitment within racialized community life. My approach to self-formation through a Foucaultian and existentialist interpretation of “call and response” as a practice conducted within a pragmatist account of selfhood provides the basis upon which any identities, but particularly mixed race identities, can and should be responsibly claimed and understood.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Mixed Race Identity as Mixed Race Ethics: an Introduction
· Prologue – Family Ties and a Box of Crayons………………………………………………….1
· Mixed Race Identity as Mixed Race Ethics – The Topic and Scope of the Project……..9
· Mixed Race Problems and Challenges – Why This Topic Matters Today………………..13
· “Call and Response” Ethics for Mixed Race Identity – A Preliminary Sketch…………..25
· Concluding Remarks…………………………………………………………………………………36
Chapter 2
A Selective Review of Literature on Mixed Race Identity
· General Remarks……………………………………………………………………………………...40
· Some Brief and Recent Historical Context………………………………………………………42
· “Identity” Through Philosophy and the Mixed Race Experience…………………………..45
· “Identity” in the Borderlands: The Multiplicitous Self, “Being-Between,” and Mixed Race Theory………………61
· For the Family – The Fundamental Relationality of “Mixed Race”……..…………………73
· Additional Criticisms of “Mixed Race” and Closing Remarks……………………………..79
Chapter 3
The Onto-Ethics of Call and Response for Mixed Race Selves
· Forging Identities Through Ethically Concerned Conduct – A Humanist Approach…..90
o Existentialism and Pragmatism: Roots in a Humanist Metaphysics…………..93
o From Humanist Metaphysics to a Sociogenic Account of the Self……………103
· Call and Response: Identity Formation Through Responsibility………………………….113
o Call and Response as Predicated on Parrhesia…………………………………….115
o Modalities of Being within Call and Response………………………………………120
· The Ethical Dimensions of Mixed Race Identity Re-Visited…………………………………127
· Call and Response as an Onto-Ethical Basis for Mixed Race Identity…………………..134
o The Basic Framework, Summarized…………………………………………………….135
o Application Through Example…………………………………………………………….139
o Proposed Fluidity in Ethnoracial Identification, With Consideration for Some Objections…..145
Chapter 4
Normative Concerns, and Problems from the Mixed Race Experience Revisited
· General Remarks………………………………………………………………………………………….156
· On Changing One’s Ethnoracial Identity…………………………………………………………...157
· “Transracialism” and the Case of Rachel Dolezal………………………………………………..163
· The Ethical Refusal of Whiteness as Necessary for Mixed Race Selves…………………........182
· Further Concerns and Applications…………………………………………………………………...199
o Application I: “But What Are You, Really?,” Revisited………………………………....................200
o Application II: The Coherence and Efficacy of Mixed Identities Themselves, Revisited……...214
· Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………..225
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………….235
References………………………………………………………………………………………………..243
End Notes………………………………………………………………………………………………….244
About this Dissertation
| School | |
|---|---|
| Department | |
| Degree | |
| Submission | |
| Language |
|
| Research Field | |
| Keyword | |
| Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor | |
| Committee Members |
Primary PDF
| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Mixed Race Responsibilities: Rethinking Multiracial Identity Through Ethical Philosophy () | 2026-04-01 09:57:56 -0400 |
|
Supplemental Files
| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Actions |
|---|