Seira Narita: Week Five Readings for ASA 115

The readings required for week four included “Doing the Mixed Race Dance: A Multiracial Vietnamese American Class Typology” by Kieu Linh Valverde, “The Impact of Internet Publishing and Online Communications on Mixed-Race Discourses” by Steven F. Riley and Glenn C. Robinson, “Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage” by Maria P.P. Root, “Eurasian Hybridity in Chinese Utopian Visions: From ‘One World’ to ‘A Society Based on Beauty’ and Beyond” by Emma Jinhua Teng, and “Beautiful Stereotypes: The Relationship Between Physical Attractiveness and Mixed Race Identity” by Jennifer Patrice Sims. The readings provided apply to the theme of "Traitors Strike Back, Venerations: Hybrid Vigor, Cultural Bridges, Golden People, Race Saviors, and Ideal Beauty" as these authors discuss racial hierarchies, going into detail about its history as well as the notions and stereotypes that exist in our contemporary society that maintain the rankings of these categorizations. They also explain the experiences of mixed race people in learning which personal information to disclose and withdraw in order to be accepted into certain communities. 

In “Eurasian Hybridity in Chinese Utopian Visions: From ‘One World’ to ‘A Society Based on Beauty’ and Beyond” by Emma Jinhua Teng, the concept of an “ideal race” was analyzed and defined as being a Eurasian mix, achieved through “hybridization”/"hybrid vigor" in order to select for positive traits from white and Asian people. This relates back to a past reading, "The Historical Problematization of ‘Mixed Race’ in Psychological and Human-Scientific Discourses" by Thomas Theo, as Teng clarifies the difference in the views held by those who want to maintain racial “purity,” while those such as Kang and Yi want to utilize intermarriage of the “superior races” to create the “ideal race” (142). However, both views only focus on the stereotypic traits of the “pure” races, whether they be physical or nonphysical, which ultimately contribute to the construction of the notion of “race.” So despite the perpetuation of these stereotypes and generalizations in our contemporary society, how are ways in which we can deconstruct the notion of “race” and thus the hierarchy built upon this foundation?