The Age of Independence: Interracial Unions, Same-Sex Unions, and the Changing American Family

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:59:00 +0000

Michael Rosenfeld’s The Age of Independence is refreshing, yet scholarly application of demography. Though demography is often seen as merely a slew of statistics flat on a page, in actuality it is the soul of society spelled out as best we can. So do not fear the potential for academic formulaic boredom; it may be there, but it is adeptly soared over into a realm of accessible, interesting, and relevant information about the changing American family.

Rosenfeld argues that the substantial rise in inter-racial and same-sex families starting in the 1960s stems from what he coins the “independent life stage,” and that these changes have further reverberations throughout almost every level of society. Essentially, Rosenfeld reasons that the other elements (beyond this independent life stage) were all lined-up by the '60s, and that’s why the introduction of the independent life stage in the '60s initiated the rise towards interracial and same-sex unions.

The independent life stage is in essence the life of a single, college–educated, twenty-something: not living at home, exposed to a wider world through leaving home to go off to college and learning about and with people beyond their native communities. Extrapolating the independent life stage from census data is complex because there are no questions directed at assessing it yet. Though this is Rosenfeld’s niche of demographic expertise, there is unfortunately only enough data available to make hypotheses based on general themes.

Nuggets of information, like how more twenty-somethings are not living with their parents in greater numbers than in the past, are the gems that anyone can take away and truly appreciate, regardless of their educational background. The media flurry around this phantom phenomenon is an example of when something is rarer, people take greater note of it.

Rosenfeld aims to provoke sociologists and others to reflect on the independent life stage and its further influence; the book also serves as a call to arms to demographers to push for new questions in the decennial census to evaluate the independent life stage. But this is only the beginning—Rosenfeld sees great change in our collective American future, and we must learn as much as we can to prepare.

Written by: Nicole Levitz, February 11th 2010

Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering

admin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:34:00 +0000

By Suzanne Kamata

Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing

Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering is a collection of essays by twenty different women who are all raising children in a multicultural environment. The children in this book mainly fall into three categories: they are of mixed racial heritage, they are being raised in a country to which their parents have immigrated, or they have been adopted by parents from another culture. Being multiracial myself and having been raised in an army town where interracial relationships, foreign mothers, and multiracial children are fairly common, I was interested to see what Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering had to say.

Overall, I found the stories in the book to be very hit or miss. Some were moving and touched on issues that multicultural families sometimes face. One stand out is “Fade to Brown,” the story of a woman of mixed race who worries how her daughters’ differing skin colors (one is light, the other dark) will affect their relationship with each other and their cultural identity. It’s an insightful story, dealing with real concerns and specific problems that many people of mixed race can relate to.

Other stories in the collection are less on target. For instance, “Dr. Bucket in Bishkek” has nothing to do with raising children in a foreign country or culture. Instead, it is an amusing tale about an English woman’s experiences while being pregnant in Kyrgyzstan. While it makes for a good fish-out-of-water story, the essay has little to do with the central theme of the collection. Many of the stories were also centered more on how the mother was reacting to the family’s environment or circumstance instead of focusing on the children. These stories were more about bad marriages and personal prejudices than about mothers coping with unusual situations.

My main problem with many of these stories is that due to the way they were written, they just did not feel real. Don’t get me wrong—the writing is good, but it’s all very fanciful and poetic, making the work seem more like fiction than a relating of real life events. Instead of flowery prose, I would have preferred straightforward accounts of the obstacles and triumphs these mothers have encountered. In the end, Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering is worth a look for the better stories, but be prepared to have to wade through the bad ones as well.

Written by: Victoria Kroeger, April 28th 2009