ABSTRACT

If race is a social construct, how about mixed race? Does talking about mixed race further construct the notion of ‘unmixed/pure’ race? Though researchers suggest flexible and contextual identification practices of mixedrace individuals (Renn 2000; Rockquemore and Brunsma 2002), the flexibility and contextual nature of race identification by others, including their parents, is often erased as they are portrayed as statically monoracial. This chapter seeks to overcome this problem by examining utterances and actions of not just ‘mixed race’ but all individuals-‘mixed race’ or not-and tracing the moments that multiraciality is mentioned. Based on ethnographic fieldwork at a secondary school in Aotearoa/New Zealand in 1997-1998, this chapter examines interpellations of individuals and production of subjects at a school with a Māori-English bilingual unit. Though it is based on somewhat dated fieldwork, this study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the dynamics of race identification by providing a case study situated in that particular time period.