This article discusses theories regarding "black identity," in comparison with a group of adolescent students with one white and one African or African—Caribbean parent. The study, conducted in Britain, researched adolescents between the ages of 15 and 16. They obtained participants through the school systems, interviewing white, black, and mixed race students. Semi-structured interviews were used, containing mostly open-ended question in a specified order and with specified wording. The following are the results of how the mixed parentage students responded to the questions. The questions asked pertained to issues of racial self-definition, attitudes to their mixed parentage, and friendships and allegiances,

     All but two of the mixed parentage students said that they sometimes described people as "black," with only 46% including mixed parentage people in the use of the term "black." Of the same students 39% said that they thought of themselves as black, 10% said they did in certain situations, and 49% said that they did not think of themselves as black. The students that did not think of themselves as black used the terms "brown," "half and half," "mixed," or used the term coloured to describe themselves. Other terms used were "half-caste" (43%) and "mixed race" (24%). The majority of students that called themselves black had darker skin colour.

     Most of the students were happy with the colour they were, with 86% saying they did not want to be another colour. In the past though, 51% of the students now content with their colour had wanted to be a different color in the past. The majority of the students expressed positively that they were happy to be of mixed race parentage. About 20% were assessed as having a problematic identity and another 20%, not wishing to be another colour, but they had a negative view of their racial identity.

     The majority of the students (85%) had a close white friend, while only 42% had a close black friend and 27% had no black friends. There were also more students with a white girl or boyfriend (78%). The students that most closely affiliated towards black persons were the students attending multiracial and state schools and living with a white parent only. The students most closely affiliated to white people were those attending mostly white and Independent schools and living with a black parent. About two thirds of the sample felt just as comfortable around white people as they did around black. The others felt less comfortable with black people than white. There was also a large portion of the students (2/3) saying that they had no colour preference for a marriage partner.

     This study showed that the majority of the students were quite positive about their mixed heritage. They expressed the advantages to understanding both white and black persons perspectives. The article goes on to offer various explanations why mixed parentage adolescents may view their racial situation more positively then in the past.