LAUSR

This special issue tackles the burgeoning field of critical mixed race studies, bringing together research that spans five continents and more than ten countries. While research on mixedness is growing, there is still much debate over what exactly mixed race means, and whether it is a useful term. Recently, the British Sociological Association identified ‘mixed race’ as ‘a misleading term’ arguing for ‘mixed parentage’, ‘dual heritage’, or ‘metis(se)’ since ‘the idea of race mixture or being “mixed race” is informed by a racial discourse that privileges the notion of essential races.’ (https://www.britsoc.co.uk/media/ 23900/EqualityandDiversity_LanguageandtheBSA_RaceMar05.doc?1455622777039) While debates around terminology and language remain, growing numbers of scholars around the world are grappling with how and why crossing socially constructed boundaries matter for those who cross them to date, marry, and raise families, as well as those who navigate identities across these boundaries. Regardless of the terminology used, I argue it is important that we critically interrogate what constitutes mixing and mixedness in different spaces, and look for ways to discuss similarities and differences that exist globally. Certainly there are local realities unique in some ways to the specific history and groups involved, and these specificities should be fully explored. Yet this does not prevent us from juxtaposing these varied studies that all focus on some aspect of mixing and/or mixedness to create a global conversation about the multitudes of difference on which these socially constructed boundaries exist and the myriad ways that difference is defined and understood globally. Looking at these articles collectively, it is clear that in every context there is a hierarchy of mixedness, both in terms of intimacy and identity. In other words, in every locale, the hierarchy of intimacy refers to how certain groups are deemed more or less marriable, which is socially constructed around race, ethnicity, caste, religion, skin color and/or region. Sometimes these hierarchies are formalized through the state like the 2014 Civil Registration Act in Ireland which creates, as King-O’Riain argues, ‘hierarchies of love where the love connections of highly educated white migrants are afforded more importance (or legitimacy) than others.’ The first section, Hierarchies of Mixing: Navigations and Negotiations explores these hierarchies in depth, looking at how mixed couples and families deal with familial and community response to their relationship and family. Through these articles we see how couples, and parents deal with the identities and meanings attached to them, and how they navigate the border-patrolling they experience. In South Africa, Heather Dalmage argues in her article, ‘despite the centrality of non-racialism to the South African constitution, interpersonal relationships in South Africa remain deeply racialized’ documenting how couples avoid public displays of affection, or going