Racial Mislabeling in Multiracial Individuals: Implications for Professional Counseling and Education

Abstract

Williams (1999) discussed the importance of claiming the "I" in her account of growing up in the 1950s as a Biracial individual in America. She asserted that individuals should choose for themselves how to identify racially and reject the social constructions of race that push individuals into racial boxes. Still, Williams failed to recognize the challenges that individuals face when others reject this alternative classification. For example, Biracial individuals racially classified themselves based on their assumptions of how others perceived their race (Brunsma & Rockquemore, 2001). Pressure to conform to socially constructed racial categories subverted the empowerment that Williams (1999) spoke of to claim the “I” (Giamo, Schmitt, & Outten, 2012; Terry & Winston, 2010).