The Daily Struggles Of Being Mixed Race

Hi so I am just your average mixed kid (Mama is Biracial (Black/White) and Dad is white) and these are the problems I face in day to day life.

[youknowyouremixedwhen]

You know you're mixed when everyone thinks it's ok to claim/ reject you for their race whenever it's convenient with no regard to your own identity or feelings :-)

#104

[yohjiyoureahomo]

it really bothers me that I’m like six shades of brown all over my body….

[jellyfishspecial]

Identity politics are hard when you constantly have to debate what you are with the entire world.

[iwildcreaturefromthewoods]

Sometimes I get sad that I can’t go to a place where everyone looks like me

[feminist-mermaid]

it’s the weirdest thing for me to identify as anything racially because like, i don’t fit into one specific box.

my brother and i talked about it, because we don’t feel black enough to be black, or white enough to be white so we’re just kind of stuck in between. which isn’t really a bad thing, it’s just tough as hell to find other people who can relate.

growing up in a relatively white community definitely added to this because i got labeled as the ‘black friend’ even though i’m not that black. it’s just hard to identify as anything because i feel like there isn’t a place for me.

idk, i’m tired and have been thinking about this a lot.

[uhigh-deactivated20260113-deact]

When people of the same race tell me I’m not black enough 😑

[the-house-of-yes]

mixed race rant

I’m mixed race. Most of you know that. I’m pale enough to pass. Most of you know that. I don’t want to pass. Most of you don’t understand that. Being mixed is weird.

My parents moved me here from England when I was quite young. I don’t feel like a Kiwi, I don’t feel like a Brit, I don’t feel the same as my white father or my mixed race mother. I feel like I have no culture, I feel as if my ancestral history is inaccessible to me due to the conflicts and oppression my ancestors enacted upon my other ancestors.

I feel like people assume I bring up my mixed heritage as a fashion statement. Because now its “in” to look kind of black, to appropriate black culture and fashion trends, as countless white celebrities do. People who say they are black on the inside, while flaunting the fashions of other cultures and peoples while being able to exist with a privilege those people are denied because of their skin color. I feel nervous about getting my hair braided as an expression of my heritage because I’m afraid people will label me a cultural appropriator or tell me that I’m too white.

When I was a kid I felt that my skin was both too dark and too light. Sitting next to class mates with pale skin and rediscovering that yes, in fact, I was far darker than them. I still do this now, because I’ve been programmed to see myself others want to see me, as majority white. I hated my natural curly brown mixed hair, which most of you haven’t seen because for years I’ve been straightening it, dying it, bleaching it and shaving it off. I’ve been told countless times that I’m just really tan. No I’m not, this is my skin. It’s always been this color and always will be.

So if I bring up the fact that I am mixed race, have brown skin, and mixed race hair, please don’t question what % of races I am, or call me exotic/interesting etc because I a person and not a science experiment.

There’s really no point to this post. I just wanted to rant.

[ancestorswatching]

Mixed people can be pro-black and take pride in their blackness while also appreciating their non-black ancestry. Don’t forget it.

~ Hannah

[erikanaomiworld]

Yes, yes, and yes!!!! I am half black and half white. Pro black is definitely not anti white.

[akajustmerry]

It’s shitty being whitepassing / lightskinned sometimes cos white people always be like “what are you??” while darker skinned poc be like “wait… You’re not white?!?!” like am I really a person of colour or just a white girl whose sometimes brown enough to be a poc but not really?? I don’t wanna be like Rachel whatever the hell her name is, like my dad is a brown lebanese man my grandfather was a black man but my struggles being a person of colour always feel invisible and it’s a stupid fkn thing to get upset about cos I know light skin is a privilege but I feel like I am constantly reminding people who I am and they don’t believe me and I sound like one of those people that are like “I’m 1/27th this” idk how to deal with this just once I want my identity to not be questioned and for people to not tell me I haven’t experienced racism when I have I guess

[justgenerallypretentious]

Mixed race culture is looking like a really cute ethnically ambiguous baby and then looking more white as you get older 😑

[mixedraceproblems]

Rant

As a mixed person one of the most common things I get from my friends is picking which race they prefer me to be; let me explain. I am frequently called a “white girl” because I like Starbucks or do things that they consider to be “white” yet when it suits them they will laugh at my afro saying it’s been electrocuted or make jokes about how I must clearly wear weave because black people cant grow hair dispute the fact my hair is actually longer than most of theirs when straighten. I have become so fed up of people picking which one of my races suits them and making jokes about it but of course whenever I show my annoyance they defend themselves by simply saying it was only a joke. Those who are not mixed race don’t understand what it’s like to be discriminated or have jokes made about your mixes, I for one am fed up with this behaviour and feel like it must stop. Who’s with me?

[strangelysincere]

most of the time sometimes, I find myself wishing I was just white.

existing somewhere between ethnicities is confusing and socially exhausting. I’m proud of my hawaiian heritage, yet embarrassed to talk about it because of all the people who say I barely have a claim to it…. I just wish I fit in somewhere.

[forever-reading]

I’m part Hawaiian and mixed race! :) 

[youknowyouremixedwhen]

You know you're mixed when you have random bouts of imposter syndrome when it comes to one of your lines of ancestry that you identify with. (It suuuuuuuucks.)

#194

[youknowyouremixedwhen]

You know you're mixed when you desperately want to connect with your culture but don't know how to because you're surrounded by white people literally all the time.

#198

[emotionallmisunderstoodteaspoon]

Things every mixed race person understands

1. “This should only offend half of you.”

2. That moment of confusion when there is no ‘other’ or ‘biracial’ tick box on a form and you have to give your race.

3. People playing the guessing game …

4. “Omg, that’s such an odd mix!”

5. Random strangers stopping you to compliment you on/touch your hair for absolutely no reason.

6. “That’s your white side coming out.”

7. People asking you which race you identify as.

8. Spending years finding hair products that actually work.

9. Dealing with not looking like all the biracial people that are fetishized by the media.

10. “You’re so pretty, I’m going to marry a white guy so I can have kids that look like you!”

[unephilosykos]

guess what! i don’t have to be a Representative Mixed Kid i can literally change how i identify depending on what my emotional/intelectual baggage is at a certain point in my life… hell, at a certain point in my day… i can write that i am japanese and that’s it and i can write that i am brazilian and that’s it i don’t have to write japanese-brazilian all the time like it is none of your business why do you think you have the right to judge wether a mixed person’s identity is valid or not… like some of us come from thorn families, some of us don’t look mixed at all and feel more accepted and identified in one culture than the other, some of us feel rejected by one of our cultures, some of us feel even ashamed of one of cultures and then years later try to reconnect to it and you know what! we’re entitled to it! when you’re mixed race, identity struggles are a given and it’s really!! reeeeally! no one’s business! 

[fayries-circle]

Shout out to the mixed kids who never felt close to the cultures they come from. Shout out to the mixed kids who don’t know the native language(s) at all or fluently and get shamed for it. Shout out to the mixed kids who were never really immersed in their family culture(s) and their for don’t know anything or very little about where they come from. Shout out to the mixed kids who felt connected to one side of their culture than the other(s). Shout out to the mixed kids who get shamed for wearing or celebrating something unique to the culture(s) because they “don’t look like they’re from there/like that race”. Shout out to the mixed kids whose own family called them “fake”. Shout out to the mixed kids who never felt like they belonged.

-To me and the “fake” mixed kids (via thealyssaanomaly)