Mixed Race Students in College : Kaitlin McCune

Okay, so I didn't know exactly what I wanted to make my blog about so I decided to surf the web for anything that may relate to our class in general. I came across an article pertaining to a book called Mixed Race Students in College: The Ecology of Race, Identity, and Community on Campus by Kristen A. Renn. In the book she tries to display the different experiences and identities of mixed race students who try to break down racial categories and ethnic divides that still exist all around them. She also presents her findings from research she did on a variety of 56 mixed race students at many different colleges. In the book, the main focus and question that Renn is attempting to answer, as described in the article by Raechele Pope, Danielle Johnson, and Jason Jakubowski, is "Do mixed race students have different experiences, needs, and expectations than both monoracial white students and students of color?"

This question is a difficult one to answer I think since the college experience is different for everyone. Mixed race students' experiences, needs, and expectations depend heavily on the demographics of their school, its diversity, and how accepting peers are of varying cultural backgrounds. Although the novels we have taken a look at in class so far do not necessarily deal with mixed race individuals on college campuses, they do, however, involve different experiences of mixed race individuals in a school environment. Birdie, for example, had a much different experience at Nkruma than she did at her predominately white school in New Hampshire. Her needs to be accepted and her expectations of who she should be were very different from each other, and were influenced by the contexts of her situation and the racial background of her peers. Birdie's experiences, needs, and expectations were very distinctive from the white students' and students' of color. Unlike them, she did not already have an identity or race predetermined for her by her skin color, so it took her a long time to figure out where she would belong and how she would define herself.

Maibelle Chung, as a young girl, also wanted to have a certain identity at her school that was impossible because of her phenotypic characteristics. Even now in the novel she is struggling with who she is supposed to be. Maibelle, Birdie, and many others had to endure a lot because of their mixed race identities. It's hard to determine just how school, peers, or in connection to the article, college experiences differ among mixed race students and just how they might affect them. I think it's important for us to be aware of the various ethnicities and races, or mixed races present at Miami. After reading the article and researching the book a little I started asking myself the same question, which Renn strives to explain, except about Miami students: "Do mixed race students at Miami have different experiences, needs, and expectations than both monoracial white students and students of color?" What I'd like to believe is far from what actually occurs I'm sure.

If you'd like to take a closer look at the article about the book, which I mainly referenced, here is the direct link: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3752/is_200507/ai_n14826892/pg_1