This article reports on themes that emerged from qualitative interviews conducted from September 2020 to April 2021 with 19 partners in interracial and interethnic marriages who are raising children ages nine and younger in the United States. The purpose of the interviews was to explore how they navigate as a couple and as parents and what, if any, issues they may face in a racialized society. In exploring themes, care was taken to not look at this family formation through a deficit lens, as is so often the case (Doucet et al., 2019). Given the impact of parental influence when it comes to identity formation and associated behavioral health outcomes for children, it is critical for social workers to understand the experiences and challenges unique to interracial and interethnic parents in raising their children. Implications for social workers working with these families and their young children are included.
While some research has explored the voices of interracial couples and their children, few studies have focused specifically on children in the years predating adolescence (Stone & Dolbin-MacNab, 2017). For example, of the 29 studies on ethnic-racial socialization in children reviewed by Hughes et al. (2006), only 5 (17%) focused primarily on children under 10. In addition, very little attention has focused on raising young bi-ethnic children, i.e., children of Hispanic parents and people who identify as Black, Asian, or White non-Hispanic, nor has attention been paid to Asian-White and Asian-Black marriages (Hughes et al., 2006).
What Are You : Voices of Mixed-Race Young People download.zip
Limitations of the study include the nature of the sample, its size, and the fact that information was gathered at one point in time. Family relationships are dynamic and children in the sample were young, so developmental changes over time may not have been captured. Though there were similarities with other research findings, it is difficult to know about the level of intensity that accompanied this particular time in U.S. history. Further, the research team relied primarily, though not exclusively, on personal contacts. In cases where participants knew the interviewer, they may have given more socially desirable responses that might understate the extent of any struggles they and their spouse were experiencing or their children were experiencing. In cases where the advertisement for participants was shared via listservs, the participants self-selected based on their interest in participating in the research. These self-identified participants may be more attuned to issues of race and ethnicity and thus prone to have stronger opinions about how they want to engage in ethnic-racial socialization with their children than the broader population of people in interracial and interethnic marriages who social workers may also see. Their responses may have skewed the results away from passive ethnic-racial socialization. In addition, the sample was largely based around east coast metropolitan areas, which are more diverse than other regions of the country and thus may understate issues that other parents in interracial and interethnic marriages may experience in less diverse regions of the country. Also, the educational level of the sample was higher than the national average (U.S. Census, 2020, Table 1), and all participants were married. These two key variables, both related to financial well-being, suggest greater resources to deal with raising a multiracial child than is found in the literature (e.g., Rauktis et al., 2016) and the general population. Finally, multiple researchers conducted interviews. Even though all received the same training, the interpretation and asking of the questions may have differed from one interviewer to the next.
6. In an age when young people were not highly regarded, some texts show that God sees them differently. Joseph, for example, was one of the youngest of his family (cf. Gen 37:2-3), yet God showed him great things in dreams and when about twenty years old he outshone all his brothers in important affairs (cf. Gen 37-47).
41. Although many young people are happy to see a Church that is humble yet confident in her gifts and capable of offering fair and fraternal criticism, others want a Church that listens more, that does more than simply condemn the world. They do not want to see a Church that is silent and afraid to speak, but neither one that is always battling obsessively over two or three issues. To be credible to young people, there are times when she needs to regain her humility and simply listen, recognizing that what others have to say can provide some light to help her better understand the Gospel. A Church always on the defensive, which loses her humility and stops listening to others, which leaves no room for questions, loses her youth and turns into a museum. How, then, will she be able to respond to the dreams of young people? Even if she possesses the truth of the Gospel, this does not mean that she has completely understood it; rather, she is called to keep growing in her grasp of that inexhaustible treasure.[16]
58. Blessed Ceferino Namuncurá was a young Argentinian, the son of the chief of a remote tribe of indigenous peoples. He became a Salesian seminarian, filled with the desire to return to his tribe, bringing Jesus Christ to them. Ceferino died in 1905.
59. Blessed Isidore Bakanja was a layman from the Congo who bore witness to his faith. He was tortured at length for having proposed Christianity to other young people. Forgiving his executioner, Isidore died in 1909.
63. May these and so many other young people who perhaps in silence and hiddenness lived the Gospel to the full, intercede for the Church, so that she may be full of joyous, courageous and committed young people who can offer the world new testimonies of holiness.
73. Many young people are taken in by ideologies, used and exploited as cannon fodder or a strike force to destroy, terrify or ridicule others. Worse yet, many of them end up as individualists, hostile and distrustful of others; in this way, they become an easy target for the brutal and destructive strategies of political groups or economic powers.
75. As a Church, may we never fail to weep before these tragedies of our young. May we never become inured to them, for anyone incapable of tears cannot be a mother. We want to weep so that society itself can be more of a mother, so that in place of killing it can learn to give birth, to become a promise of life. We weep when we think of all those young people who have already lost their lives due to poverty and violence, and we ask society to learn to be a caring mother. None of this pain goes away; it stays with us, because the harsh reality can no longer be concealed. The worst thing we can do is adopt that worldly spirit whose solution is simply to anaesthetize young people with other messages, with other distractions, with trivial pursuits.
78. It is true that people in power offer some assistance, but often it comes at a high price. In many poor countries, economic aid provided by some richer countries or international agencies is usually tied to the acceptance of Western views of sexuality, marriage, life or social justice. This ideological colonization is especially harmful to the young. We also see how a certain kind of advertising teaches young people to be perpetually dissatisfied and contributes to the throwaway culture, in which young people themselves end up being discarded.
79. Our present-day culture exploits the image of the young. Beauty is associated with a youthful appearance, cosmetic treatments that hide the traces of time. Young bodies are constantly advertised as a means of selling products. The ideal of beauty is youth, but we need to realize that this has very little to do with young people. It only means that adults want to snatch youth for themselves, not that they respect, love and care for young people.
84. In some young people, we can see a desire for God, albeit still vague and far from knowledge of the God of revelation. In others, we can glimpse an ideal of human fraternity, which is no small thing. Many have a genuine desire to develop their talents in order to offer something to our world. In some, we see a special artistic sensitivity, or a yearning for harmony with nature. In others, perhaps, a great need to communicate. In many of them, we encounter a deep desire to live life differently. In all of this, we can find real starting points, inner resources open to a word of incentive, wisdom and encouragement.
100. Thank God, those who committed these horrible crimes are not the majority of priests, who carry out their ministry with fidelity and generosity. I ask young people to let themselves be inspired by this vast majority. And if you see a priest at risk, because he has lost the joy of his ministry, or seeks affective compensation, or is taking the wrong path, remind him of his commitment to God and his people, remind him of the Gospel and urge him to hold to his course. In this way, you will contribute greatly to something fundamental: preventing these atrocities from being repeated. This dark cloud also challenges all young people who love Jesus Christ and his Church: they can be a source of great healing if they employ their great capacity to bring about renewal, to urge and demand consistent witness, to keep dreaming and coming up with new ideas.
111. Putting all else aside, I now wish to speak to young people about what is essential, the one thing we should never keep quiet about. It is a message containing three great truths that all of us need constantly to keep hearing.
172. Other young people take part in social programmes that build houses for the homeless, or reclaim contaminated areas or offer various kinds of assistance to the needy. It would be helpful if this shared energy could be channelled and organized in a more stable way and with clear goals, so as to be even more effective. University students can apply their knowledge in an interdisciplinary way, together with young people of other churches or religions, in order to propose solutions to social problems. 2ff7e9595c
Comentários