Black mixed-race men, hybridity, and post-racial resilience

Whilst much is said, little is known about the lives of Black mixed-race men. Inspired by Critical Race Theoretical approaches, this thesis centres the lives and accounts of Black mixed-race men in order to responds to gaps in academic literature and to rupture pathological discourses of mixedness. Drawing upon data collected from 28 interviews with Black mixed-race men, 14 in the UK and 14 in the US, this thesis draws upon theories of performativity and hybridity in order to develop a theorization of post-racial resilience. Through this concept, the thesis shows how Black mixed-race men, as raced and gendered subjects, speak back to, manipulate, fashion and refashion discourses. This identity work, it is argued, enables Black mixed-race men to refuse the fragmentation of their identities and the erasure of their lived experiences. The thesis not only considers how Black mixed-race men articulate their raced and gendered identities but how they live, display and negotiate these identities through racial symbolism, as they encounter racial microaggressions, and as they form and develop friendships. By drawing upon data from both sides of the Atlantic, this thesis demonstrates how post-racial resilience can be considered a transatlantic phenomenon in the lives of Black mixed-race men