The historical problematization of "mixed race" in psychological and human-scientific discourses.

Teo, Thomas (2004) The historical problematization of "mixed race" in psychological and human-scientific discourses. , in Winston, Andrew, Eds. Defining difference: Race and racism in the history of psychology, pages pp. 79-108. American Psychological Association.

Abstract

This paper reconstructs techniques of problematization regarding "mixed race" from Enlightenment inspired anthropological discourses to the North-American psychological discourses of the present time. Two central techniques of problematization are discussed. The conceptual technique of problematization, used in bio-psychological discourse at the beginning of the 20th century, transformed a lack of evidence into invoking metaphysical concepts such as disharmony. Sociological and social-psychological discourses changed problems of society with hybridity into problems of individuals. The empirical technique of problematization refers to the repeated testing of the inferiority of hybrid groups, for example of the "mulatto hypothesis." Finally, it is shown how multiracial academics in the contemporary discourse shifted the discourse by focusing on problems that biracial people experience within society. It is suggested that the reconstruction of hybridity illustrates the epistemological and ethical shortcomings of a paradigm that considers humans as objects and not as subjects of research.