Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 2016, Vol. 2(4) 569–583 © American Sociological Association 2016 DOI: 10.1177/2332649216634740 sre.sagepub.com Multiraciality Centuries-old norms of ascription prevent both envi- ronmental factors and personal preference from hav- ing a significant influence on most people’s racial identity. Some people, however, do have more “eth- nic options” than others with regard to how they racially identify (Song 2003; Waters 1990). According to mixed-race studies scholars around the world (e.g., Brunsma, Khanna, and Rockquemore in the United States; Ali and Song in the United Kingdom; Mahtani and Roth in Canada), mixed-race individuals, meaning those whose immediate bio- logical parentage consists of members from two or more socially constructed racial groups, have an increasing degree of “choice” with regard to racial identity. Rockquemore’s early work created an enduring typology of the varying ways mixed-race people racially identify (Rockquemore 1999; Rockquemore and Arend 2002). From research with black/white individuals in the United States, she revealed that mixed-race people consistently identify with either 634740SRE XX X 10.1177/2332649216634740Sociology of Race and EthnicitySims research-article 2016 1 University of Wisconsin–River Falls, River Falls, WI, USA Corresponding Author: Jennifer Patrice Sims, University of Wisconsin–River Falls, Department of Sociology, Criminology and Anthropology, 410 S. 3rd St., River Falls, WI 54022, USA Email: jennifer.sims@uwrf.edu Reevaluation of the Influence of Appearance and Reflected Appraisals for Mixed-Race Identity: The Role of Consistent Inconsistent Racial Perception Jennifer Patrice Sims 1 Abstract Developed from Cooley’s looking-glass self, the theory of reflected appraisals is frequently used to explain how appearance influences the racial identity development of mixed-race people. However, postulating that racial identity develops via the internalization of the perception of what race one thinks others assume him or her to be rests on the assumption that others consistently perceive the individual in the same manner. Although true for many people, the appearance of mixed-race people is often ambiguous and changeable and is perceived differently depending on context, which results in mixed-race people’s being ascribed to, and interacted with as if a member of, a variety of different races and ethnicities. This fact illuminates a gap in our knowledge of how appearance influences racial identity absent consistent perception by others. Drawing on 30 interviews with mixed-race adults from a variety of racial backgrounds in the United States and United Kingdom, the author examines not only the particular experiences with differential racial perception that mixed-race people have but also the mechanisms by which appearance influences identity when one experiences varying perceptions from others. This work ultimately extends the theory of reflected appraisals by advancing the idea that, under certain conditions, identity can form from experiences being consistently inconsistently perceived when that consistent inconsistency itself functions as a reflected appraisal of a particular identity. Keywords reflected appraisals, mixed-race, identity, physical appearance, racial perception at UNIV OF WI RIVER FALLS on September 26, 2016 sre.sagepub.com Downloaded from