Race Remixed
Black and White and Married in the Deep South:
A Shifting Image
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/us/20race.html
By SUSAN SAULNY
Published: March 19, 2011
HATTIESBURG, Miss. For generations here in the deepest South, there
had been a great taboo: publicly crossing the color line for love.
Less than 45 years ago, marriage between blacks and whites was
illegal, and it has been frowned upon for much of the time since.
So when a great job beckoned about an hour's drive north of the Gulf
Coast, Jeffrey Norwood, a black college basketball coach, had
reservations. He was in a serious relationship with a woman who was
white and Asian.
"You're thinking about a life in South Mississippi?" his father said
in a skeptical voice, recalling days when a black man could face
mortal danger just being seen with a woman of another race,
regardless of intentions. "Are you sure?"
But on visits to Hattiesburg, the younger Mr. Norwood said he liked
what he saw: growing diversity. So he moved, married, and, with his
wife, had a baby girl who was counted on the last census as black,
white and Asian. Taylor Rae Norwood, 3, is one of thousands of
mixed-race children who have made this state home to one of the
country's most rapidly expanding multiracial populations, up 70
percent between 2000 and 2010, according to new data from the Census Bureau.
In the first comprehensive accounting of multiracial Americans since
statistics were first collected about them in 2000, reporting from
the 2010 census, made public in recent days, shows that the nation's
mixed-race population is growing far more quickly than many
demographers had estimated, particularly in the South and parts of
the Midwest. That conclusion is based on the bureau's analysis of 42
states; the data from the remaining eight states will be released this week.
In North Carolina, the mixed-race population doubled. In Georgia, it
expanded by more than 80 percent, and by nearly as much in Kentucky
and Tennessee. In Indiana, Iowa and South Dakota, the multiracial
population increased by about 70 percent.
"Anything over 50 percent is impressive," said William H. Frey, a
sociologist and demographer at the Brookings Institution. "The fact
that even states like Mississippi were able to see a large explosion
of residents identifying as both black and white tells us something
that people would not have predicted 10 or 20 years ago."
Census officials were expecting a national multiracial growth rate of
about 35 percent since 2000, when seven million people 2.4 percent
of the population chose more than one race. Officials have not yet
announced a national growth rate, but it seems sure to be closer to
50 percent.
The contour and the shade of the change are not uniform. In states
like California, Hawaii and Oklahoma, where people of mixed race
already made up a significant percentage of the total, the increases
were smaller than in places like Mississippi, where there were far
fewer mixed-race people to start with. In Hawaii, for instance
where the multiracial group accounts for 23 percent of the
population, highest of any state the growth since 2000 was 23.6 percent.
Also, in Hawaii, the predominant mix is Asian and white and native
Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, while in Oklahoma, it is American Indian
and white. In Mississippi, the most common mix is black and white
historically and today the two groups least likely to intermarry,
sociologists say, because of the enduring social and economic
distance between them. (It was also against the law until 1967.)
Mississippi led the nation in the growth of mixed marriages for most
of the last decade, according to Mr. Frey's analysis of the American
Community Survey. Still, multiracial people are a tiny percentage of
the state's population: 34,000, about 1.1 percent. And many here
complain of enduring racial inequities.
There was an uproar last year over comments by Gov. Haley Barbour
suggesting that the civil rights era in Mississippi, with its
sometimes fatal strife, was not that bad. And some are rankled that
the state flag still contains a miniature version of the Confederate
battle standard.
Nonetheless, many here also see progress, something akin to "a door
opening," in the words of one resident.
"Racial attitudes are changing," said Marvin King, a professor of
political science at the University of Mississippi who is black,
married to a white woman, and the father of a 2-year-old biracial
daughter. "Day in, day out, there is certainly not the hostility
there was years ago, and I think you see that in that there are more
interracial relationships, and people don't fear those relationships.
They don't have to hide those relationships anymore."
Mr. Norwood and his wife, Patty Norwood, agreed. "It's been really
smooth here," said Mr. Norwood, 48, a Hattiesburg resident for 11
years and a men's basketball coach at William Carey University. He
had been most recently coaching at a college in the culturally
diverse area of Cajun Louisiana. "I think some people who may not
have been comfortable with this in the past have no choice now. I
mean, people always told me, the farther south you go, the more
racism you'll feel. But that has not been true."
Mrs. Norwood, 39, a photographer who is Thai and Chinese on her
mother's side and white on her father's, added: "I think if people
see that you are genuine and in love, and that you are comfortable
with yourselves, they are put at ease."
And unlike in many states, Mississippi's population has not grown
much over the last decade, suggesting to researchers that any change
in culture is happening not primarily as a result of newcomers.
(Mississippi's population grew by 3.8 percent since 2000. In
contrast, North Carolina's grew 18.46 percent.)
"North Carolina grew rapidly with Hispanics and blacks and people
coming in from out of state and changing things," Mr. Frey said. "In
Mississippi, I think it's changed from within."
Changing Identities
The share of the multiracial population under the age of 18 in
Mississippi is higher than its share of youth in the general
population, suggesting that much of the growth in the mixed-race
group can be explained by recent births. But in Mississippi and in
other states, some growth may also be a result of older Americans who
once identified themselves as black or some other single race
expanding the way they think about their identity.
"The reality is that there has been a long history of black and white
relationships they just weren't public," said Prof. Matthew Snipp,
a demographer in the sociology department at Stanford University.
Speaking about the mixed-race offspring of some of those
relationships, he added: "People have had an entire decade to think
about this since it was first a choice in 2000. Some of these figures
are not so much changes as corrections. In a sense, they're rendering
a more accurate portrait of their racial heritage that in the past
would have been suppressed."
Experts say there are some elements, like military service or time
spent on a college campus, that lay the groundwork for interracial
relationships. With the Camp Shelby military base on its southern
side and the University of Southern Mississippi as an anchor, perhaps
it is not a surprise that Hattiesburg, a city of about 50,000
residents, and its surrounding counties would show rapid mixed-race growth.
They are also part of Mississippi's coastal culture, which has
historically been more liberal and outward looking given the port
towns than the rest of the state. (Harrison County, south of
Hattiesburg and home to the Gulf Coast cities of Gulfport and Biloxi,
has the highest share of mixed-race residents in the state, according
to the 2010 census.)
Sonia Cherail Peeples, who is black, met her husband, Michael
Peeples, who is white, in the science building at the University of
Southern Mississippi in 2003, when they were both students.
Friendship ensued, then a crush. "I never dated a black girl before,"
Mr. Peeples confided. His family was "old Mississippi," living mostly
around Jackson. At one time, they ran a luggage company.
Sonia Peeples's ancestors were longtime Mississippians, too, but they
were sharecropping cotton.
The differences in the past did not matter in the present, they both agreed.
"I really never thought twice about it," Mrs. Peeples, 29, said of
dating Michael, 30. "Everyone was open to it and I thought: 'He has
potential. I could marry this guy!' "
And she did. Now they have two boys: Riley, 3, and Gannon, 5, who
Mrs. Peeples likes to say are "black, white and just right!"
"It's a generational thing," Mr. Peeples added, noting that his
mother has been hot and cold about the relationship over the years,
accepting his new family, then sometimes pulling away for a while,
only to return, drawn by her grandsons. "I think many older people
are set in their ways, but 40 years old or younger, you'll never get
the sense that something's wrong," he said.
After college, the couple moved to Denver, but eventually decided to
return to Hattiesburg, where Mr. Peeples works at a local dairy.
"I told the Realtor, 'Don't put us in a predominantly white or black
neighborhood,' " Mrs. Peeples recalled. "And sure enough, we have a
biracial kid next door."
According to the census, multiracial people are more likely to live
in neighborhoods that have a broad mix of races with a higher share
of whites than those who identify as black alone. This suggests they
enjoy higher socioeconomic status, Mr. Frey, the demographer, said.
Lingering Tensions
Still, for the Peeples family, there have been some testy moments.
There was the time when another parent at Gannon's school asked if
his terrible allergies had something to do with "race mixing." And
there was the hospital worker who treated Mrs. Peeples as though she
was trying to snatch a white baby when she took Riley, who had blond
curls, out of his crib in the nursery. "This is my baby! He just
looks like his dad," Mrs. Peeples, who has deep brown skin,
remembered scolding the woman.
But both Sonia and Michael Peeples are mindful that those few
incidents are insignificant in comparison to what previous
generations endured.
"I would not have wanted to live in my parents' or grandparents'
time," said Mrs. Peeples, a full-time homemaker. "We're teaching our
kids all of it, all their history. My 5-year-old asks, 'People who
looked like you, why did they treat them so bad?' It's hard to
explain to a biracial child in 2011. In a perfect world, race
wouldn't matter, but that day's a while off."
The Norwoods have also experienced minor tensions. A waitress at a
restaurant might abruptly decide that she cannot serve their table.
Even when they are locked arm in arm, someone might ask
incredulously, "Are you together?" Clerks at the supermarket want to
ring up their groceries separately.
But there is one place where they know that old thinking patterns are
being challenged: at their church.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called Sunday morning church
service the most segregated hour in America, but one would not know
that at Grace Temple Ministries, the neighborhood church where the
Norwoods worship and socialize with other mixed-race families. The
pastor is white and the assistant pastor is black, and the creative
arts pastor is Latino. During a recent sermon, the congregation's
guiding ethos on social issues was clear: "Let us not be guilty of
thinking as the culture and society decides," said the pastor, Dwayne
Higgason.
Unlike the Peepleses, Jeffrey and Patty Norwood did not seek a
diverse neighborhood, but found themselves in one anyway. In 2001,
they bought the first home built on a developing street before any
neighbors had even purchased lots. As houses sprang up, their
neighbors turned out to be black families, white families and mixes
of the two.
"Between our church and the neighborhood, this is the most diverse
place I've been," said Mr. Norwood, a native of Tupelo, Miss. "I've
never experienced anything quite like this."
Growing up in Victoria, Tex., Mrs. Norwood said she was never quite
sure what race to mark on forms, and she hardly ever saw people like herself
"I usually went with Asian because I could only check one box," Mrs.
Norwood said. "Our daughter's life will not be like that. She knows
what she is and she's exposed to a little bit of everything. The
times have certainly changed."
.
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