Multiracial in America

Chapter 3: The Multiracial Identity Gap

Multiracial identity is not just the sum of the races on someone's family tree. It's more complicated than that.

How you were raised, how you see yourself and how the world sees you have a profound effect in shaping multiracial identity, the survey finds. For many mixed-race Americans, these powerful influences may be as important as racial background in shaping their racial identity.

In fact, when asked, "Do you consider yourself to be mixed race or multiracial, that is, more than one race, or not?," a substantial majority of Americans with a background that includes more than one race (61%) say that they do not consider themselves to be multiracial.

When asked why they don't identify as multiracial, about half (47%) say it is because they look like one race. An identical proportion say they were raised as one race, while about four-in-ten (39%) say they closely identify with a single race. And about a third (34%) say they never knew the family member or ancestor who was a different race. (Individuals were allowed to select multiple reasons.)

This multiracial "identity gap" plays out in distinctly different ways in different mixed-race groups.

A quarter of biracial adults with a white and American Indian background say they consider themselves multiracial, for example.

By contrast, seven-in-ten white and Asian biracial adults and 61% of those with a white and black background say they identify as multiracial. Multiracial adults with a white, black and American Indian racial background (50%) or a black and American Indian biracial background (33%) fall between these groups in terms of the share who say they identify as multiracial. Among Hispanics who count two or more races in their background, about six-in-ten (62%) say they consider themselves to be multiracial.

The survey also finds that the way in which people describe their own racial background doesn't always match the way they believe others see them. About nine-in-ten white and American Indian biracial adults (88%) believe that a stranger passing them on the street would say they were single-race white; only 2% say they would be seen as multiracial and 7% as American Indian only.

By contrast, six-in-ten Americans with a white and black background (61%) believe they are seen as black; only 19% say they would be seen as multiracial (an additional 7% say they would be perceived as white only). Among white and Asian biracial adults, 42% say others would perceive them as white and 23% think others see them as Asian. Two-in-ten say they would be seen as multiracial.

Measuring multiracial identity is complicated for other reasons. Many mixed-race Americans say that over the course of their lifetimes they have changed how they viewed their racial identity. According to the survey, about three-in-ten mixed-race adults (29%) who now report more than one race for themselves say they used to see themselves as just one race. But among those who did not report more than one race for themselves in this survey—but instead are included in the multiracial group because of the races they reported for their parents or grandparents—an identical share have switched their racial identity: 29% say they once saw themselves as more than one race but now see themselves as one race.

The survey also shows multiracial adults sometimes feel pressure to identify as a single race. About one-in-five mixed-race adults (21%) say they have been pressured by friends, family members or "society in general" to identify as a single race.

The remainder of this chapter examines in more detail the multiracial identity gap and how physical appearance, personal values, societal pressures and other factors help shape an individual's racial identity.

Sometimes I identify as white because it's easy. … Sometimes I just get tired of explaining who I am, and sometimes I just don't care to. I also recognize that since I look white I sometimes identify that way because I know that's what they think. White and American Indian biracial woman, age 27

A Mixed Racial Background, but Not Multiracial

Only about four-in-ten adults (39%) with a background including more than one race consider themselves to be multiracial, while the majority of these adults (61%) do not.

Among adults with multiple races in their background who do not consider themselves to be multiracial, about half say their physical appearance (47%) and/or family upbringing (47%)—nature and nurture—are among the reasons that they do not identify as multiracial. Some 39% say they closely identify with one race, and about a third (