This is a book about a controversial topic—race policy and multiracial Americans. Simply mentioning the term “multiracial” can draw strong reactions among social commentators and scholars today. As Rainier Spencer (2014: 166) puts it:

Many civil rights groups, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Urban League, view the creation of a multiracial category (and its support by opponents of civil rights and affirmative action policies such as Newt Gingrich) as a potential threat to race policies established to protect and assist monoracial racial minorities. On the other hand, many multiracial organizations and advocates for a multiracial category within the US Census and other demographic instruments understand the need to address racial discrimination but also “believe in an all-inclusive society, where all individuals are afforded the dignity and autonomy to identify themselves in the ways they believe represent them” (Swirl, no date [a]: para 3). They aim to “create supportive and inclusive communities for all people” (MAVIN, 2014: paras 2, 4) and “have created a home for those who refuse to be boxed into ‘choosing just one’” (Swirl, no date[b]: para 2). While acknowledging and working to combat all acts of racism in society, they aim a spotlight on racial issues that impact multiracial persons because of their mixed heritage.

The acknowledgment of persons who identify as multiracial and the issues related to them are the foci of the newly recognized field of critical mixed race (CMR) studies. While building on the work of critical race and ethnic studies, CMR scholars “place mixed race at the critical center of focus” (Daniel, 2014: 1). CMR scholars both stress the social construction of racial categories “that are continuously being created, inhabited, contested, transformed, and destroyed” and challenge “racial essentialism and racial hierarchy” (Daniel et al, 2014: 8).