How Black is biracial? Black people’s empathy toward Black/White biracial people following racial discrimination in the United States.

What is it about?

Black/White Biracial people in the United States are often considered to be on the boundaries of Black and White monoracial groups, and can racially identify as Black, White, or Biracial. Two studies tested how Black participants’ empathy towards Black/White Biracial people who experience discrimination differs based on Biracial people’s identity. The results show Black participants empathized least with Black/White Biracial people who were perceived as identifying as White, or who explicitly self-identified as White.

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Why is it important?

Biracial individuals are the fastest growing U.S. racial group, and Black/White Biracial people make up a large Biracial subgroup (Jones et al., 2021). Whether monoracial Black people consider Black/White Biracial people ingroup members is of great significance to the future of racial group boundaries and dispersion of group resources for all racial groups (Ho et al., 2020). Because Black/White Biracial people comprise 12.3% of the U.S. Black community (i.e., 12.3% of people who self-identified as Black or African American in the 2020 U.S. census also identified with another racial group; Jones et al., 20211), their ingroup status affects both their own access to group benefits, and the composition of the Black population.