Growing up queer, mixed race, and Asian in the American South, my identity often felt like an absence of any identity at all. For a long time I existed in a kind of limbo state, not having a language to describe myself. Until my early twenties, I was unaware the word “mixed race” existed, much less as a term I had the option to identify with. Because I neither knew nor saw any … [Read more...]
7 Ridiculous Things Not to Say to Mixed Race People
What Does it Mean to be Mixed Race? I am mixed race. There are many ways to be mixed race -- the dictionary defines it as people whose parents or ancestors are from different ethnic backgrounds, but the definition can vary based on context. For the most part, mixed people have the right to define their own identity and their relationships with their varied ancestry, but … [Read more...]
Stop using mixed race people as symbols of interracial unity to ease your white guilt
This piece was first published in Danish magazine Friktion and is republished with permission. Dutch beer company Heineken has recently faced backlash for its “lighter is better” ad, where a light skinned Brown bartender slides a beer past three dark skinned Black people towards an Eurasian woman, with whom he shares a wink, before the slogan “sometimes lighter is better” … [Read more...]
