Identity, Fluidity, and Groupism: The Construction of Multiraciality in Education Discourse

Overview & Synopsis

As the attention to multiraciality has grown among Millennial college students, an emerging body of literature on multiraciality has developed in the area of student affairs education; it is this literature that is the focus of this analysis. The author's choice to concentrate on student affairs education discourse is two-fold. First, critical education scholars have largely ignored student affairs education scholarship and practice. As an area of education that significantly shapes the experiences of college students across the United States, it is her hope that this work contributes to addressing this lacuna. Second, although an increased attention to multiraciality can be evidenced in scholarship across different levels of education, the literature on college students currently represents the largest body of work in one specific area. Having said that, Osei-Kofi proposes that whether the current literature on multiraciality in education concerns early childhood education, teacher education, or higher education, it is characterized by shared assumptions about multiraciality, which allows for a study of the student affairs education literature to serve as an important starting point to look critically at the implications of this discourse on all levels of education. The author aims to demonstrate that dominant discourse on multiraciality in education reifies "race," reinforces racial categorization, and generally ignores structural realities. She argues that it is a discourse wherein "race" is viewed as something that objectively exists within each of us, and where multiraciality is viewed as constituting a unique and distinct racial category of people.