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kianamai — Multiracial Identity
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Published: 2017-03-23 04:43:08 +0000 UTC; Views: 59315; 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
I've noticed that myself; it seems even minority groups will sometimes take racial stereotypes to heart and use them to judge others. Great work though! Great commentary
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I understand it. It's kinda sad, Im not multiracial but both my parents had different looks and I look either arabesque or caucasian depending on who's looking at me and I've heard phrases like those, even worse (like people assuming Im a bad guy since I look arab). But hey, people insult, fear and demonice what they don't understand and what they are not familiar with so....
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Oh! I thought you were Filipino. Hehe, sorry for my ignorance.
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I feel sypmathetic, I am itallian and many other things but people just say, oh your mexican. They even call me Angelica, saying Anhelica, as pronounced in spanish, but Im just Angelica. I may be mexican but Im also many other things, not just my skin tone, yah know?
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Oh, I totally get this. I'm not biracial myself... but this^^^^ is common about EVERY. ASPECT. OF. LIFE. like ... I'm pansexual/demisexual and trans... but people always find ways to tell me how I'm not "trans enough" how I don't seem like 'enough' of a guy, just because I don't try to act like some macho or stop liking the things I like... Or because I'm attracted to guys too. Just like before, when I didn't know I was trans and people told me how I didn't seem 'girly' enough to be a girl...
It's very infuriating.
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Maybe it's because I'm, as far as I know, only German (and most Germans still don't show/talk about their nationality and I feel like we barely have any 'general' culture) but I never quite got all this ethnicity/race stuff (I always feel weird calling it race), whether multi-racial or not. All the people I've met in my life didn't care about any of those things - at least not generally, maybe if you've gotten to know someone better and asked/they told you - and didn't talk about it either.
Back in school I had several classmates whose family clearly didn't have German roots but as far as I know, no one paid any special attention to it except maybe if a teacher couldn't pronounce their name. I mean, sure everyone made stereotype jokes (of course not in a hurtful manner) and one black classmate sometimes made Obama jokes about himself and he actually did a quite funny impression of him but other than that... Or maybe I just grew up in a community that was unusually open to that kind of stuff.
I get why it would be important for oneself to feel and live that connection if you e.g. grew up with your family ethnicities' traditions and language, have family there and so on; that's not the problem. I just don't get how other people take so much interest in what race you look like and what it would say about you as a person.
I know it's not that connected to the topic but I just wanted to voice those thoughts because everytime I hear about racial problems it sounds so surreal to me.
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Race is rather bull... innit?
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People need to label everything, because the alternative is realizing you don't understand something. Apparently I don't looks Scottish enough, I don't even know what that means because I do have it in my blood. But whatever.
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People call me white... I'm half-hispanic.
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I've got the same problems.
I'm African American and white but people say I look Hispanic and Filipino ??? Which is like the two things I'm not.
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that's really dumb , you are who you are , it doesnt matter what people say , they have no right to tell you that you cant be a race because of how you act, i have to wonder if they realize how racist that actually is ? you keep on being you and that's all you need to do. on a lighter note keep up the amazing art ^^
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I'm actually half jamaican from my mom's side but people always tell me I'm not. I don't know my fathers' side but I presume either italian, irish or german. what his sister told me anyways.
I'm pale as a fucking ghost with red hair and brown eyes. I look nothing like jamaican to people so I'm always called a liar
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It amazes me that it's 2017, and this still exists. It just doesn't make sense that some people get offended or weirded out when you don't fit with their standards of profiling. I'm glad that you're proud of who you are. This post will hopefully help others understand that it's not the cover which defines one's content, and also help some find peace in just being as they are.
Thankfully, people around me lean towards curious when they find out about my mixed heritage. I definitely feel blessed whenever I talk about it comfortably. However, I do agree that that race bracket always feels like a trick question whenever I fill out forms.
I'm happy to be in my skin though - it has had travelled far, passed between generations of amazing and brave stories - and no one can decide that for me.
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I'm sorry you have to go through this, there has been some people that don't think I'm Latina just because I speak more English than Spanish.
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Same problem here. I am german and Mexican but I am white as hell, and no I e believes me when I tell them of my Mexican heritage.
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I'm also biracial and, to add to that, was raised over seas. Being half-Native American and raised in France has led to me being accused of "telling stories" about who I am. In the end, what matters is what you are, not what other people think you should be. Thank you for this comic!
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Don't let other people tell you who you are. You know who you are just because you don't look Japanese doesn't mean your arnt Japanese, the same goes for your Jamaican heritage!
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I'm so glad you made this, thank you!
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Love this comic ♥
The crazy thing that most people don't get it like, even people who think they're "pure" [insert country] most people have a surprisingly mixed ethnic background that they aren't aware of, especially in places like Europe and America with histories of large colonisation and such. I consider myself to be fully white English and the last few generations of my family have been, but I know that my family goes way back to Scotland, Ireland and Greece and who knows where else from there! Diversity makes us stronger and should be celebrated ^_^~
If you haven't seen this video you should watch it, it talks about the exact thing I'm talking about~
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyaEQE…
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That issue again? I'm getting a little tired of it...
Don't get me wrong, I don't complain about you talking about it, I think it's an important and good thing to point out that topic.
But I'm rather sure you'd agree with me if I say that this discussion is actually... quite obsolete, because: you're human. I'm human. We all are just human. End of story.
(is what I think, at least).
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Not close to what you go through but still fucked up anyways.....
My boyfriend is white as all can be,but he was born in Jamaica,but when he tells people that they yell at him cause he's not black. XD
Like how fucking stupid can you get? His family where living down there for his dad's job,she got knocked up and birthed him down there,seriously not that fucking hard to understand!
In other words,americans are assholes
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there is a simple solution to your problems.
don't give a shit.
tell people that you are biracial.
very simple.
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"Homo sapiens sapiens" is the only thing that matters, and everything beyond that is irrelevant incidental aesthetics.
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I've got something the other way around for you:
I'm 100% german. My mother's an aria and my father has dark blond hair and grey-blue-green eyes. Don't know why but I've got strawberry-blond hair, green eyes and freckles (don't know where they're comming from) I'm getting told quite often that I look scottish or irish
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The struggle of going to an all black school and being light skin. "Cracker, white girl" I'm mixed and yet because I'm pale if I "act black" its just so shocking
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the thing is, that the only country where that is extremely relevant seems to be in the U.S. because here in mexico or at least in my city, we don't care of someone's racial traits, for example, my mother's family origin is from Austry-Hungary (a country that got separated after WW II) an the one who fleed was my great great grandfather (my grandfather's grandfather) and he was a mix of jew and german, so he flew the continent to america, an lived in Mexico, and people, but I have been born and raised in this small city (Tampico Tamaulipas), and I haven't seen any live racism so far, just bulling for being fat, nerdy, poor, idiot, homosexual, or anything but race so far, IN MY CITY, but I know that there is racism in my country but for the ones that lived here before spain's invasion, for the etnics that live here (for example the mayan) but myself I try to let people join my group as long as the are not assholes (pendejos in mexican spanish)
PD. I am a mix of Mexican, Spanish, German, Jew, and Wherever that Vite as a lastname came from
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My dad's black and my mom is Wisconsin white, which all adds up to me looking like a Latino I may not identify heavily with the African-American community, but it's certainly more than the Latino community.
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You could say you're Jamaicanese maybe??
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"You're not black enough." or "You're not Japanese." It's not a competition. Hue hue hue. Sounds like people trying to find an artificial way to be better than you.
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It's a way to segregate themselfs from the rest, and not letting mixed raced people join makin a small group making it smaller
also known as a dick move
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Indeed. Even the use of "x" American is segregating people into subsets of U.S. Americans. I wish we could all just be Americans, but it'll be awhile to get to that point of agreement.
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that is I like of my city (because I haven't been all around the country) is that even if we bully each other, without going too far, we still care we usually label ourselfs and others as mexicans, an EVEN if you are from other country we will treat you as one of our own, playing, talking, and messing up, to make you feel welcome, and wanting to come back and visit, we usually are inviting, eager to include people to know our cities and food, the REAL tacos, and not "chingaderas" (chin-gah-the-ras) like taco-bell, or so I think we are, at leat I am like that.
If any of you want to taste a taco or torta maybe I can provide a recipe
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I've actually had some authentic Mexican food during a high school trip to Mexico. (And no we didn't stay in one of those cheesy tourist cities.) My favorite thing about the trip was some of the amazing food I learned about, plus it encouraged my preference for having fruit for breakfast because we had fruit for breakfast almost every day.
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No one ever wants to believe that I'm Haitian/Italian/African American. Like it's completely impossible for my Italian grandfather to have fallen in love with my Haitian grandmother who had moved from Haiti to New York; have had a kid my Haitian/Italian Father who then fell in love with my African American mother. Everyone's so quick to tell me that it can't be true because "Haiti isn't anywhere near Italy", and "but you just look black"? But they expect everyone to believe they're a portion Native American (which is rarely ever true). I mean you think that's gonna stop me from telling other people what I am? Like" Oh Whoops haha ya got me there, yup I was lying am just a plain ole black girl, lol". This mindset is so toxic! Why does everybody have to assume about something? Do some research, ask some questions! Nobody is " plain" everybody is full of life vibrant beings, and all we have are each other but yet we continue to push each other away, erect walls of assumption and prejudice that separate us, label us. And for what?
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<3 Be who you are! your heritage is important, that's what makes you, you! Your a beautiful human being, and if you want to be known as Japanese/Jamaican that go for it!
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I understand the feeling. My family comes from a crazy long line of African, Irish, Japanese, and Cherokee, but in truth, I just don't care what people say. Why should it matter? As long as your happy and know what you're working for, A simple eye shape, hair texture, or way or speaking shouldn't matter. You are you and you're special in your own kilalaa way!
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I wish I could be multiracial. I see how it could be extremely frustrating, and I'm so sorry for everyone who has struggles because of it. But every time I've seen someone who was multiracial, they were absolutely beautiful, and no less amazing to be around- I didn't really consider their race to be a factor in their being other than that I noticed they were often really unique in appearance, and had unique cultural experiences. It's really unfortunate that so many people try to make you feel like you have to be something, or you can't.
If it's of any condolence, I'm only European {reaaally irish. Red hair, pale skin, blue eyes. The whole shebang. Almost no freckles, though.}, and I really wish I could be anything else!
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I've had a few encounters like that although the weren't so explicit. It usually happens in college classes where you do those icebreakers in the first week of class. Sometimes one of them is what is your race or ethnicity. Whenever I tell my partner next to me that I'm Hispanic or Mexican American, they have this surprised look and they say 'You don't look Mexican.' It's mostly due to my skin color since I'm only lightly tanned. My little brother on the other hand, they would definitely have no problem seeing him as Hispanic, but even then he speaks more English than Spanish.
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I'm Anglo-Irish-Czech, and when I mention the Czech part NO ONE seems to know about the central European country called the Czech Republic! I don't judge people by their skin color, though I may ASK what their ETHNICITY (not nationality) is. I also hate how on surveys and such there's NOTHING for EAST/CENTRAL EUROPEAN ENTHNIC GROUPS! And just because someone is one "color" doesn't mean they aren't descended from two or more ethnic groups!
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To heck what people say! Be the you that you believe! Make your own race! (ok maybe you don't have to go that far...). My point is just be a people and don't sweat stuff like race, gender, sexuality, etc. As look as you're happy as you that's all that matters ^w^
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Nope! I think it's pretty good that you're sharing these struggles of multiracial people. My daughter is multi-racial (White Spanish and African American), and I tell her, 'Identify yourself as--you'.
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dude you're a paradox people try to categorized you for their own sanity (fuck those identity-crisis inducing people)
your both and neither... YOu are you
your have more right to both heritages and you can correct anyone ignorantly said otherwise.
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okay so i just really love this/?
The description and the art is just all really great and even though I'm not multiracial I appreciate this so much??
I'll try to be more considerate of stuff like this in the future ;<;
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I kinda understand in a way, I'm Half Western European mix, and a quarter Spanish and quarter Korean. People are always guessing what I am and I honestly just literally call myself a hybrid, because why not. (I know that's not the completely proper use of the term)
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you are you so you should be happy about it
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