{"id":189,"date":"2011-04-22T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2011-04-22T10:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/?p=189"},"modified":"2015-03-12T11:18:55","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T18:18:55","slug":"neither-here-or-there-the-mixed-race-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/2011\/04\/22\/neither-here-or-there-the-mixed-race-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Neither Here or There: The Mixed-Race Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When my cousin was very young, my aunt would take her for walks in her stroller. Her hair was very difficult to manage, so my aunt would use colorful plastic barrettes to make a dozen poofy ponytails jut out of my cousin\u2019s head. As they walked, some people stopped to say hello or mention how cute she looked. Others came up to ask my aunt, \u201cWhy are you dressing that child like a black girl?\u201d or \u201cWhy do you have that white baby in \u2018afro-puff\u2019?\u201d If she managed to respond, all my aunt could say was, \u201cExcuse me?\u201d<\/p>\n

My cousin is biracial\u2014her mother is white, and her father is African-American. She looks nothing like me, her pale, blond half-cousin, but she\u2019s distinct from her half-siblings from her father\u2019s family as well. In a society that loves clear labels\u2014straight, gay, black, white\u2014she exists outside of them.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, she\u2019s neither alone, nor ignored. More and more multiracial people are entering the public eye, with President Barack Obama, of course, as the most famous. Actress Halle Berry and singer Shakira, among many other American celebrities, are also known for their mixed heritage. But the increased attention to multiracial issues is, unfortunately, a double-edged sword. Many people fetishize mixed-race individuals or envy couples with mixed-race babies. With the entrance of racially ambiguous people into the spotlight, American society has created new labels\u2014\u201cbiracial,\u201d \u201cmultiracial,\u201d \u201cmixed-race,\u201d and, specifically for those with Asian heritage, \u201chapa.\u201d These labels, however, are another faulty method of grouping individuals, as no two multiracial people have the same experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was much more exposed to one parent than the other,\u201d Marissa*, a Scripps sophomore, said. Race did not impact her self-identity until she grew older. \u201cWhenever I am asked about my other side I don\u2019t really have a lot of good answers.\u201d Scripps senior Emi Sawada, who has Italian-American and Japanese roots, has spent time living in all three countries but identifies most strongly with her Asian-American heritage. Her brother feels differently, she said, identifying more as Italian-American.<\/p>\n

Both students acknowledged that there are huge misconceptions about multiracial people as a whole, such as them having more insight into \u201ctheir\u201d cultures, being more beautiful or intelligent, or having \u201can easier life.\u201d Marissa mentioned that many people assumed she spoke the languages of both of her parents\u2019 home countries, something actress Jessica Alba, who doesn\u2019t speak Spanish, has also mentioned hinders her ability to receive roles written for Latinas. While she lived in Japan, locals saw Emi as wholly American despite her fluent Japanese. She attributed this to her appearance and, in particular, her atypical curly hair. It wasn\u2019t the only time she had to \u201cprove\u201d her race to others\u2014while attempting to go to a party at an Asian-American sorority, the bouncer mistook her for white and denied her entrance. When she spoke with me, Emi radiated confidence about her own self-image and identity, even though it confounded those around her. Her most common pick-up line is, \u201cWhat\u2019s your ethnicity?\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of their appearance and ambiguity, Multiracial children often feel isolated from others. When my cousin began attending elementary school, other African-American girls wouldn\u2019t speak to her\u2014she \u201cdressed too white,\u201d they explained. Marissa, who lives in a mostly white community, said that \u201cfor the longest time I wished I was more white-looking,\u201d particularly in comparison with her fairer sisters. She feels more comfortable surrounded by people who share her heritage. Although Emi identifies herself firmly, she still feels conflicted about what cultural aesthetic to align to\u2014Americans prefer lean, curvy physiques and the clothing that emphasizes them, while Japanese fashion has a \u201cballoon-like\u201d style that oftentimes hides the body. Emi added that she \u201cseek[s] out\u201d other Asian Americans because she feels she can relate to them more easily.<\/p>\n

The two expressed different opinions on mixed-race individuals in the media and society at large. Emi said multiracial celebrities are often \u201cexploited,\u201d \u201cglamorized,\u201d or \u201cperforming as white,\u201d meaning that they don\u2019t emphasize their heritage, nor does the majority of society recognize them as different. A Google search of \u201cmixed-race celebrities\u201d reveals a number of public figures who keep a low profile about their ethnicity. It is an issue she often struggles with. \u201cIt\u2019s better that they\u2019re there at all,\u201d she said, but, \u201cat the same time, it\u2019s not enough to just be there.\u201d Marissa felt more forgiving, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t really feel I should be criticizing anyone for the way they publicize or don\u2019t publicize their heritage.\u201d While she doesn\u2019t actively seek role models of her ethnic makeup, she is excited when she discovers a celebrity shares racial heritage with her. As for the perceived greater beauty of mixed-race individuals, she said, \u201cwe have features together that you wouldn\u2019t expect\u2026so it\u2019s not that it\u2019s prettier, it\u2019s that it\u2019s something different\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s trendy to be mixed-race,\u201d Emi added, saying that many people see them as \u201cwhite with extra spice\u201d. Although they have struggled with self-image in the past, both girls \"\"<\/a>acknowledged that they have come to terms with their bodies throughout college.<\/p>\n

In short, mixed-race people face similar issues to those all minority groups face\u2014as they become more visible and accepted as part of society, they face the same stereotypes, occasional ignorance, and fetishization by the mainstream as other ethnic minorities. At the same time, they are less united than other minorities, as many of them don\u2019t share ethnic or geographic background, and they often grow up in different cultures and communities. Mixed-race people can grapple with their identities, their bodies, how society marks them, and how they choose to mark themselves in completely different ways.<\/p>\n

As the experiences of my cousin, Emi, and Marissa show, there is no singular multiracial experience. Multiracial people aren\u2019t any more beautiful or ugly than the rest of the world, and they aren\u2019t an augmented or diminished area of the human race. They struggle with self-identity and image in very complex ways. Through their experiences, however, we can realize how frivolous labels really are\u2014and maybe, in the future, we can live in a world without them.<\/p>\n

*–Name has been changed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mixed-race individuals confound a society that loves labels, and they experience disgust, generalization, and becoming the object of others\u2019 fetishes. Katie Evans talks to mixed-race students at Scripps and discovers that no two people have the same experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,230],"tags":[64,168,167],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feature","category-vol-3-issue-2","tag-katie-evans","tag-prejudice","tag-race"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.scrippscollege.edu\/invisible\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}