Citation

Bond HM. Am. J. Sociol. 1931; 36(4): 552-567.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1931, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Contact between a dominant group and a subordinate group results, through miscegenation, in a third group midway between the two parent-stocks. This third group seeks identification with the dominant group, although the latter may deny such identification. At the same time, because of the characteristics identifying it with the dominant group, it protests against identification with the subordinate group, to which it holds itself superior, and it achieves a status much above that occupied by the subordinate parent-group. This formula of race, which is descriptive of many situations, may be applied with exactitude to two racial islands in America, the Creoles and the Cajuns, both in Alabama. Although quite different in social traits and qualities-in industry, in thrift and cleanliness, in social organization, in intellectual ability, in culture-these two groups are alike in having to occupy distinctive social positions, on the one hand disclaimed by their white parent-groups and on the other hand themselves disclaiming their Negro parents. They equally demonstrate the applicability of the formula of race in America.