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kianamai — Multiracial Identity
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Published: 2017-03-23 04:43:08 +0000 UTC; Views: 59300; Favourites: 2488; Downloads: 76
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EDIT: Hey! I made a kind of extension of this comic on tumblr using a little dog cat named Puppittykianamaiart.tumblr.com/post/16…
Being mixed race is an interesting experience and the experience definitely shapes who you think you are. Because I arguably look more black, despite being 50/50, and it's easier for people to categorize me as such (African American), I just kinda accepted that over time. I started identifying myself as just African American. But that's not who I am. I'm mixed. Both of these things at the same time. Also I'm not even African. I'm Jamaican/Afro-Caribbean. NOT ALL BLACK PEOPLE ARE AFRICAN AMERICAN FYI.
But even when I tried accepting that identity, it didn't feel right. I grew up in Hawaii with primarily Japanese traditions and a Japanese American way of life. So I always thought I identified with being Japanese more than anything. But because I didn't look the part, it was never really okay with other people. Same thing on the other side. I don't "sound black" or have black features other than my hair and skin tone (which is also debatable).
The world is so set on being black and white and people having to fit into specific categories. Apparently, it wasn't until 2000 Census that multiracial people could fill in more than one category for race. I remember that always being stressful during SAT tests. Having to either pick Asian or Black. Anyways, I think it's important that you don't have these black and white stereotypes of people and how they're supposed to be whether it comes to race or gender or sexuality or occupation or anything. All people are different. Yes certain stereotypes exist for a reason but don't be surprised when people don't fit them.
Also just... like don't tell multiracial people the kind of things mentioned in the comic^^^ One, it perpetuates a lot of racially charged stereotypes. And two, it just fucks with us lol. It messes with our sense of belonging and identity and for the most part we'll just take it because it happens all the time and what are we gonna do, y'know? Don't try to categorize us. We just are what we are and that's all we can be
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Comments: 653
Since my daughter is mixed race, I've gotten a front-row seat of something like this. Whenever we are around Asian friends, they always say she looks exactly like me and comment on her big eyes and dark blonde hair (it's a little wavy, too, but apparently her mom had wavy hair as a baby, too, possibly from that one Dutch ancestor she had about a hundred years ago). Whenever we're around American friends, though (white/black/latinx, generally), they all say she looks exactly like her mother. I guess it comes from the tendency for humans to be hypersensitive to differences from their own identified group, but not differences among out-groups, so they can see my daughter's non-Asian or non-white/-"American" features handily to identify her as part of an out-group, but are insensitive to the features that mark her as not fully the other group. Regardless, it's pretty irksome at times just as a parent. Especially when it's followed up by gushing about how beautiful mixed babies are; how they're always so much prettier (mostly coming from the Asian side), which feels a little too fetishizing of my baby for my taste. But, I mean, at the same time she really is quite adorable so it's not like I can refute that part.
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I remember my friends in high school having that issue of choosing one race, or even their race not even listed!! D:
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I'm mexican/american, but pale af. So trust me, I get that.
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My dad's white but my mom's not, she's a Cree native-- but not full. So I'm only 1/4 Cree, and the whole identity thing kind of fucks with me. Like, am I just 'white' or do I still count as a first nations person? I've fortunately never faced any racism for that shit (but my mom has) but then it makes me doubt who I even am. Do I count as a mixed race person, or am I 'too white'?
Then at the same time I still feel a sense of loss from not learning anything cultural about my native heritage, because my grandmother and her parents are residential school survivors and my grandmother thought it more important to teach her children English than Cree.
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isn't that the case with everyone eventually? Knowing who you are best? I think in the end that it doesn't really matter anymore where you come from. People just like too judge others by appearences way more quickly, but that isn't about you as a person. Its about them being confronted with something they can't seem too fit in a category. That makes them ignorant, but it is also part of being human. Everybody is ignorant in their own ways and everybody categorizes. Any human in every part of the world will get remarks on the way they look and act if they didn't fit in a certain pattern or category. We can call it sad, or we can call it human nature.
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I got asked whether i was asian once like wha? I have a tan, big eyes, and wavy hair ;-;
I am english/bulgarian geez people
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I'm actually mixed too. I'm part German, part dutch, part Irish, part Scottish, part British, and part native american. Plus, I was born in New Jersey and raised in Florida, not to mention my mom has some new yorker in her. My point is, I've never really let my heritage define who I am. Though if we're gonna go by what I am? I'm a 100%, pure-bred all-american mutt!
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This is such an important thing, like oml, people suck to tell you that thoigh, you are you, and no one can tell you otherwise! There's a actually a book I'm gonna read about a girl who has to face a very similar problem, she's black/japanese and faces ridicule from people around her because of it
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I appreciate what you've said a lot, and I'm not even a mixed race. It just bothers me so much when somebody associates the way someone looks with their ethnicity or race. I'm sorry that happened to you, but that actually sounds like a really cool mix! You must have an awesome family!
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I really dislike the term "African American" for just that reason.
Dark skin does not at all necessarily mean genetically based anywhere near Africa. In an effort to gain political correctness, people sacrifice accuracy and acknowledging someone's true amazing genetic diversity.
Also, a lil multiracial high-five to you. I feel this. :3
"Funny how everyone but me knows who I am."
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I know that feeling being mixed. I find it amusing when people ask you what race you identify with more. You can't identify when your mixed. Both races tend to reject you and it a weird place. You exist in this middle ground and tend not to fix in any stereo type. Which honestly at this point is a good thing, because most of these stereo types suck as why would you want to be one. But regardless, it's kind of lonely growing up and your own family doesn't understand. They sort of make it worse, but try to tell you to be yourself and then insult you. At least as you get older you might get some friends that also don't exist in the generic stereotype.
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I understand how this feels except its with my personality
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You're not blue, you're not red; you're purple
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Whaaaat?? People argue about this stuff? I think it's pretty cool that you are biracial.
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I know, right?! I honestly can't understand what the problem with some people is. If anything it's fascinating the way the different features of human "races" mix together and create new beautiful people. Besides, we all stem from the same weird fish-monkey, so who cares if you fit into a specific shape or you're an abstract. It's amazing either way
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Yeah, can't understand them either 
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You mean, you don't believe in Darwin's theories? Well, whatever one believes, it all start from the same place, so we're all related one way or another. Besides, treating others differently because they don't look like majorities; it's just sickening and sad
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I don't. What place, though? Yup, it is.
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Well, the Jewish faith inspired/is the early half of Christianity (The Old Testament) and Christianity inspired Islam (several Christian and Jewish figures are mentioned as prophets of the Islamic god instead of their older incarnations). And Jewish faith was probably inspired by other, older polytheistic (more than one divine god/goddess) faiths deriving from people who inhabited the areas where the faith originally started. Same with most other faiths is, they borrow from each other (usually different belief-systems in an area will have a big likeness to each other, but still be regarded as different) like how there's a ton of different deities or half-deities who rose from the dead or were born by a virgin, along with an astonishing amount of myths about floods that killed everything to "cleanse" the lands from evil. It's very fascinating really, if you have a non-objective view-point of it all
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Had to get something off your chest, huh? Well, good on you if you ask me.
I'm not Greek in terms of my looks, but I am in a Greek family, I have a Greek last name so while I can't totally understand what you go through, I have some idea... maybe. Or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.
We are all more than our race, gender or skin color, we are all people with very complicated identities.
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I'm fully Jamaican but don't carry the accent
People tend to doubt me because I don't have the accent and basically you're an alien at my school if you don't have the accent lol
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You'd be surprised how many people go through what you are! (maybe not exactly, being Jamaican-Asian is quite a mix!)
I'm half latina half white and it is hell sometimes.
I'm from Guatemala and I look Guatemalan: tan skin, dark brown hair, brown eyes... and yet, I also look slightly american with my high cheekbones and lighter skin.
I've lived in Guatemala all my life so I happily identify as Latina, yet I'm always reminded of how "white" I look when I'm here. Everywhere I go here in my OWN country I'm called a foreigner or a "Gringa" (which is the guatemalan term for american/white person).
Then whenever I go visit family in the USA, I'm told I'm too latina to be american, even though I am an american citizen and have an american passport.
It really used to bother me, and sometimes it still does, but I take what I can from both cultures and learn to represent myself for me.
I love the comic and your openness to the topic, I wish you lots of luck and love!!
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Don't feel bad kila. We know who you are qwq
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I was reminded of this submission yesterday, while trying to fill out an application for a new job.
This was an online application that only let me select one race. The options looked something like this:
-Hispanic/Latino
-White (Not Hispanic/Latino)
-Asian (Not Hispanic/Latino)
-African American (Not Hispanic/Latino)
-Pacific Islander (Not Hispanic/Latino)
-Two Or More Races (Not Hispanic/Latino)
.... I'm half white, half Latina (with some Spanish blood) I literally cannot answer that honestly. Every single job application I've ever seen has this for some reason.
The same thing comes up whenever I donate blood (and when I was in high school, and asked a nurse about this, she actually told me that it was asked in an effort to ensure that blood from an individual of one race was given to an individual of the same race "So Mexicans get Mexican blood".... She didn't really have anything to say when I told her that I'm half and half)
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Oh I totally know how you feel! I'm also half Latina and half white and it is incredibly frustrating to apply to anything!
ESPECIALLY American colleges.
I specified if I'm Latina, then when they asked my race: no Latino, no mix... I HAD to choose white.
It pisses me off, mostly because I happily identify as Latina (have lived in Latinamerica all my life) but I'm suddenly not able to label it as my race???
regardless,
I hope everything goes well in your job app!
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Mmhmm. At least it's a comfort that my friends and family don't care
Paperwork can just take a hike
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I'm Charmenan. Wanna hazard a guess what that is?
But in all seriousness you're right - it's not the aesthetic nor the race that defines you, it's your connections with the culture you experience and you're the one who decides what that means to you.
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"Afro-Caribbean" is an amazing term~ and this is a very important topic to discuss, thank you for sharing
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Ah, it's nice to see there's more like me
my mom is Hispanic and my dad is white, so I'm either Hispanic or White to many people
i look more Hispanic but my eyes are very almond shape and my skin is extremely pale making me look white.
thankfully I haven't been told harsh things but still I've had my parents tell me "if it will get you more /blank/ then say you're Hispanic/White" which has always bothered me ya know?
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This is so nice to see. I'm mixed with African-American, white, and Asian heritage, but I look mainly white. People always tell me I can't be black because I have light skin, I don't have tight curls, and I don't act black, which is BS because race and heritage have nothing to do with behaviour, they are all about where you and your ancestors are from. It's discouraging but I don't wanna ditch a huge part of who I am just because I don't look the part. Thanks for putting this up. I really needed this.
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In Latin America, most people are mixed race.
I'm from Chile and I find it funny that even here, the stereotype of a "beautiful" person is a white person, fair skin and light colored eyes, when most people here are not like that. We are mestizos, a mixture of white and native american, in different proportions depending on the person, of course.
So, I'm blonde, with fair skin, like a white person, and my eyes are black and almond-shaped, like a mapuche. Many girls I know in here are like this, too. When I was young, people used to believe that I was asian (from China or Japan), because I looked like it, except for the color of my hair. Now I know it's because of my chilean native american blood.
But on national TV, everyone is white, with blue or green eyes, and it's such a fat lie. Even so, most people here, in surveys, when asked about their race/ethnicity, they say they're white. It's so sad that most of us are mestizos, but we don't even know it nor want to recognize it.
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Well think of it as being unique. Perhaps it's best not to be in any category.
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I'm also kind of like that I have black people hair and eyes but my skin is light, I'm mixed with black and white. (sorry if that sounds racist didn't mean to offend anyone)
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Whenever I'm in the situation where someone acts like they want to project onto me what they think my race is, I struggle to give a care about their opinion since that comes from strangers and people that are so insecure about theirselves that they think they have to adhere to a funky stereotype in order to have an identity.
I hope you're able to get to the point where their opinions and silly claims wash off you. Most of them are probably jealous anyway.
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I can totally relate.
I'm African-American mixed with Hispanic, and I have lighter skin. But because I live with my mom (who is Black), and live in a black city, everyone always guesses I'm pure Black/African-American and I get pretty pissed. It's always something about my hair (My hair is long and wavy.) my skin or what I do. ( A black kid around my age told me maybe a year ago that is ACT and TALK like a white person. UMMMM- I looked at him like: "Boy what the fuck?" )
I just wish people would ask what a person's race is instead of guessing.
That would be better
(Still race talk) And I'm not sure if anyone else clarifies as this too- But I like to be clarified as "mixed" or (my favorite. Don't ask) "something"
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I relate so much omg I'm told what I am and I'm not also and especially with ethnicities I have NOTHING to do with.
I am half Argentinean, Not Mexican but I get mistaken for that because of the area I live in and that I speak Spanish.
I am half Italian but am mistaken for Israeli because I look Jewish or something???
idk .-.
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hahaha i get the same i'm half Irish and Spaniard but i get so much grief on how i'm too tan to be Irish and not tan enough to be Spaniard. And my mom is as white as a salteen so i'm often asked "how are you related"?
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I think the two stereotypes that bug me the most are - "You can't be Japanese, your skin is too dark." and "You can't be black, you don't sound black."
The first is generally said about ALL Asian people, as if South Asian people don't exist. As if dark skinned Asian people in general don't exist. And the second... well, that's just nasty. It reminds me of when white people say they sound blacker than me or that they act blacker than my sister and I just...
I'm light skinned, very light skinned. And a lot of people confuse me for being mixed. I'm not, I just happened to get... well, I have absolutely no idea how skin color is passed down, I know it's a spectrum, but that's about it. I have a Native American grandfather from both sides of my family. So, that's were my mother presumes I got my skin color from. Like, literally everyone else in my family has darker skin than me. Well.. everyone besides my little cousin. And honestly, two of my siblings do are light skinned, mine is just the lightest. To the point of which I'm the only one confused for being biracial.
That was longer than I meant it to be... anyway, I feel like, determining someone's race by their appearance is an act of erasure, and plain ignorant. White passing poc for example. I had no idea a girl in my Debate class was biracial until I heard her last name, and she confirmed that her father was Hispanic. I had no idea a guy in my grade was biracial, until his father said he married a Latina woman.
Now... Is it ironic that I only sound black when I'm emotional? I don't know, I would have to be so happy that I would feel happy enough that I'm completely comfortable, or so mad, that I no longer care about whoever I'm speaking to. I keep myself from using AAVE out of fear of being judged. I type it out, then delete it. I don't know where this fear came from, I was never raised to be ashamed of it, and I've... well, I guess I have been raised, in a roundabout way, to be ashamed of it. But that seems minor, like it really shouldn't affect me? I don't fear, or belittle people who casually use AAVE. If anything, I'm more comfortable around them. I think the only time I'll use AAVE casually is when I'm around my youngest two siblings (my youngest brother ((5 yr old)) has already been told his dark skin is bad), my sister, and when I'm alone.
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I wasn't going to say anything but...I thought about it a bit and I definitely agree with you.
I'm black and native. I'm both but people act like I have to pick one. Like okay...I usually say I'm black because I am, but I should also be able to say I'm native, too. Getting the "you look too black to be this" is really annoying, and "you don't...look all the way black. What are you?". People arguing with me over what I am is so weird and kind of infuriating because it implies that black/native people can only look a certain way, you know? And they act like they know more about my blood than I do. I should be able to say I'm mixed without others trying to disprove what I say.
I gotta talk like "this or that" to be black, or I gotta be 50/50 for people to believe me. I never really see people making a huge bitch fit over white people who saying they're part Mexican or whatever, lmao. I noticed when black people say they're mixed people are less likely to believe them, especially if we have more "ethnic" looks.
And the SAT tests used to make me mad because I always wanted to bubble in "black" and "native" but I couldn't.... so I can relate.
edit: can also relate to not feeling like you belong to either... especially when family doesn't accept you. I know there's a lot of antiblackness in the native community because of this.
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Thank you for sharing this Ki. I can only imagine what its like to have to go through that.
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Japanese/Jamaican That pretty interesting mix. Sorry if you had to go through this bullshit but like you said it shapes who you are and the kilalaaa we have here is awesome.
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the funny thing is, the only person who knows who you are, is you yourself. Dont let anyone tell you who you have to be, be what you WANT to be UwU your a beautiful person just the way you are UwU
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I know how you feel. I am half white half hispanic and it sometimes it bothers me on tests because sometimes it says I'm white and sometimes it says I'm hispanic though really I don't speak much Spanish. I can understand it but I have trouble speaking it mostly because I get why and nervous all the time when I speak. I sometimes also get confused by others because even though I got Hispanic looks I act white in personality. I still love both sides of me though because it makes me feel unique and I love diverse cultures because there's always something new to learn and is very interesting so don't be afraid of who you are.
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People these days think they know everything. If someone tells you that just smile and be like "Oh that's nice so you know who I am and I don't?" Then just walk away! But ignoring that little thing we love ya no mater what ya look like ^^ and its not what you look like on the outside its who you are on the inside.
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