Obama inspires mixed-race workers to achieve in workplace

Washington, March 18 (ANI): A new research has suggested that US president Barack Obama has become a 'glorious mascot' for biethnic people seeking to achieve in the workplace.

The research, carried out at the University of Leicester, UK, determines that Obama is seen to give inspiration and new impetus to biethnic people who seek to achieve 'against the odds.'

Postgraduate researcher Rana Sinha has studied if a biethnic background provides any advantage to a biethnic adult in adapting to the modern international workplace.

According to Rana, "The number of biethnic or biracial people, who are children born to parents from different ethnic backgrounds has grown rapidly all over the globe."

There are many studies of how biracial or biethnic children and adolescents adapt to their environment where monoethnic people, who are children born to parents from the same ethnic backgrounds are a majority by default.

But, there is almost no research on how biethnic adults adapt to the workplace.

"My research at the University of Leicester aimed to discover if a biethnic background provides any advantage to a biethnic adult in adapting to the modern international workplace," said Rana.

"Barack Obama, the eloquent president of the USA has now become a glorious mascot for biethnic people as highly successful and able individuals, who rise and succeed against many odds," he added.

The findings of this research did not refute a commonly prevalent stereotype that biethnic children should identify with the parent of colour because society will ultimately view them from this perspective.

President Barack Obama also identifies himself as black.

A second stereotype is the belief that biethnic children and adults avoid discussing their ethnic heritage.

This proves to be untrue and any such reticence depends on the context and the motives of the person engaging in such discussions, as pointed out by the research.

According to Rana, President Obama plays a very important role as a celebrity mascot in lessening the burden of the third stereotype, which portrays biethnic individuals as people who will be rejected by all ethnic/racial groups and considered to be marginal but not actual members of these groups does not hold either in a modern society. (ANI)