Prisons, Race Making, and the Changing American Racial Milieu

Abstract

Purpose

To examine the race making experiences of multiracial men in carceral facilities.

Methodology/approach

I interviewed 58 incarcerated multiracial males.

Findings

Officially, multiracial incarcerated people are ascribed monoracial labels. They describe the variables used by those who racially categorize them and how their expectations about how others see them influence their racial self-identity. It is possible, they report, to maintain a multiracial self-identity, even if it is unofficially. They also describe interacting with men outside their racial category, behavior that supports the color-blind ideology.

Originality/value

Previous work on race making in carceral facilities has been collected in California; the present data were collected in the northeast. In addition, this research is the first study to consider the experiences of race making among incarcerated multiracial people.

Citation

Furst, G. (2017), "Prisons, Race Making, and the Changing American Racial Milieu", Race, Ethnicity and Law (Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Vol. 22), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 175-196. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-613620170000022013