Looking in the Cultural Mirror

How understanding race and culture helps us answer the question: "Who am I?"

by Jefferson Fish, Ph.D.

What is An Inter-racial Family Like?

Experiences raising a child in a family like Barack Obama's

Published on December 14, 2009 by Jefferson Fish, Ph.D. in Looking in the Cultural Mirror

The author and his 3 year old daughter with the Krikati

Welcome to Looking in the Cultural Mirror.

To get to my first post, click on Dreams from My Daughter. The piece deals with issues relevant to my daughter's growing up in our family--which is similar in significant ways to the one Barack Obama grew up in. (We lived in Brazil and spent time with the Krikati Indians.) It discusses four different adaptations of "Third Culture Kids," and discusses concerns such as raising a bi-racial child, living in another culture, the parental perspective of anthropologists, and the development of cultural identity; and it concludes with thoughts about my daughter's and Barack Obama's choices of marital partners.

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In future posts I'll be discussing issues related to race and culture-broadly defined. Topics will include the concept of race in the US and other cultures, comparisons of what is known about human biological variation with everyday beliefs about "race," and a variety of other non-race-related matters relevant to culture, behavior, and social issues.

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Tags: adaptations, anthropologists, barack obama, choices, cultural identity, cultures, dreams, human biological variation, intermarriage, marital partners, mirror, multiracial children, parental perspective, race and culture, racial identity, social issues, third culture kids

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How Come Other Folks All Look Alike?

Jefferson M. Fish, Ph.D., is the author or editor of eleven books--most recently The Concept of Race and Psychotherapy--and numerous other publications on race, culture, therapy, drug policy, and other topics. He is a retired psychology professor.

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