Sociology professor publishes research on biracial families

Imagine spending five years studying families that don’t fit the stereotype, knowing there is only a one in 10 chance of getting the research published in a scholarly journal. Brian Powell did just that.\nPowell, a sociology professor, recently had an article titled “Under and beyond constraints: Resource allocation to young children from biracial families” published in the American Journal of Sociology. Powell co-wrote the article with Simon Cheng, a former graduate student of Powell’s who is now a professor at the University of Connecticut.\n“This study is part of a broader project looking at different types of families and what some people might refer to as the atypical form,” Powell said. “So my research has looked at what people view as a little less typical families.”\nPowell later explained that biracial parents are more likely to spend more time and money on their children as opposed to mono-racial parents.\n“The question we ask is how do children from biracial families fair compare to mono-racial families,” Powell said.\nSophomore Anthony Adams was born into a biracial family, in which his mother was white and his father was black. Despite being biracial, Adams said he never really had any hardships with it.\n“Where I come from, there weren’t many black people, so I was just considered black,” Adams said.\nAdams went on to explain that as a child he was spoiled, but he feels that it wasn’t because he was biracial.\nEricka Butler, a sophomore at the University of Tennessee, grew up a little differently than Adams. Butler is half Mexican and half black. She said she faced many hardships while growing up.\n“I was raised by my mother’s parents, and I went to a Catholic school as a child, so I was hardly ever around any black people,” Butler said. “When I finally was around a lot of black people, they thought I didn’t act black.”\nButler explained that for most of her childhood she was nicknamed “white girl” and even told multiple times to “stop acting white” despite the fact that her skin complexion was much darker than caucasian.\n“I think it’s harder being biracial, and it was hard for me at times to fit in,” Butler said.\nBoth Butler and Adams concluded that despite being raised in a biracial family, it was not necessary to be treated differently based on their race.\n“I had to experience a lot while growing up because I didn’t act black or hang out with black girls,” Butler said. “It’s a bunch of bull.”\nPowell still studies the sociology of the family, sociology of education and social psychology. He is currently the Allen D. and Polly S. Grimshaw Professor and Co-Director of the Preparing Future Faculty program at the Department of Sociology.