#mixed kid problems

[plaguedbysanity]

to this day i still don't know if i should use british or american spelling

thanks mom

[floofysmallbob]

as a mixed person, it is incredibly rude and honestly racist to refuse to acknowledge a character or person’s racial identity as mixed race. recently, the top ao3 ships of 2025 came out, and it sparked something I’ve been angry about for a long, long time.

while not in touch with every fandom on that list, two of the highest ships on there were CaitVi(Caitlyn/Vi from Arcane/League of Legends) and Hollanov(Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov from Game Changers/Heated Rivalry). along with the characters, fandom, and number of works, the chart also showed the racial identities of each character.

both of these ships contain explicitly Wasian(mixed white/asian) characters. Shane Hollander is Asian-Canadian, specifically Japanese-Canadian in the books, and Caitlyn Kiramman, while from a completely fictional world- seems to be Ionian-Piltovan, Ionia being notably “Asian-like” or inspired.

yet both of these characters are ONLY listed as Asian.

as a Korean-American, I fully understand the fact that this was likely just so they didn’t have to get more complex with the spreadsheet, but it still displays a lack of care that should be put into handling characters’ identities.

growing up, surveys usually only had the option to select one race, and none of my peers were mixed. even in my diverse communities, it was just Asian kids and White kids. and any other mixed kids always looked more Asian than I did. typically from what I’ve gleaned over the years, people with an Asian mother tend to look more Asian, whereas people with a White mother tend to look more White.

and I’ve noticed that because I’ve always been incredibly White-passing. now, overall that does mean I’ve experienced a lot more White privilege, and especially in this current situation in the US I’m very grateful for my looks, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t felt isolated from my Korean heritage.

I’m not going to go into it entirely, but as someone growing up in the Southern US surrounded by my White family, I’ve always felt disconnected to my father’s Korean family. I was never taught Korean, I never ate Korean food at home, the most I was attuned to his culture was taking our shoes off in the house. and that was my experience solely being left out of those experiences. unlike a lot of mixed kids, I didn’t also have to deal with bigotry due to my racial identity.

mixed children often face a lot of racism from multiple cultures. many Asian countries and cultures, especially East Asian ones, tend to be very racist towards anyone with darker skin. many Black cultures will be racist towards children they don’t think are “Black enough”. and of course, many White people, especially in the conservative US, or in the South where I’m from, tend to be ignorant or supremacist. this is the case for many other cultures too, ones I’m not aware of enough to speak about.

to reduce someone to only part of who they are, to strip away their experience of culture, is an ignorant and racist thing to do.

[darklygrey]

Is this a good time to talk about the phrase "white passing" and the way it's used to discredit people of colors' lived experiences? 🙈

[glittergalaxiescreations]

Steven is a mixed kid.

I just need to talk about this for a second.

There are a lot of topics that Steven Universe covers, and I have no idea how often this part of it gets discussed.

I haven’t seen much media that highlights mixed-race, period. The only other examples that come to mind (at this moment) are Spock from "Star Trek", the hybrids from Monster High, and Miles Morales [Spider-Man].

Anyway, I just passed a post talking about Steven's relationship with his human side. And the entire arcs that have been about Steven learning about Gem history and his Gem abilities and his Gem royalty status and freeing the Gems. I know that was the plot of the show, but it just brings up how much one side can overshadow the the other.

We see very clearly in Future how much this has affected him, and now I'm thinking about that even more.(The roller-rink episode)

Back to the mixed kid representation part from earlier, here's all the ways Steven's situation shows this very well, at least from my experience:

• having ancestry of both the colonized and the colonizers, it can indeed get very awkward very fast (also Steven knowing next to nothing about humanity besides what Greg and the rest of Beach City has taught him)

• being stuck between both "sides", and it seems like everyone else just sees "other side"

• no one seems to know what to make of you . . . being green in a world of yellow and blue

• always a touch out of place. Steven on Earth has to deal with Gem stuff in a world of humans. On Homeworld it's his human half that causes him some difficulties

• Steven is the only Steven. Being in a room full of people who look like me is an alien concept, and would probably weird me out

Greg meant well, but his parents ruined exploring that family tree for him. Early Connie preferred the fantastical world of the Gems to her strict upbringing. These things got better later on for them, but it still left Steven with a missing piece.

Anyway, hopefully his therapist has some training in this area.

[luigis-wetdream]

i’m so angry at my mom for never learning how to do my hair. cause now i’m a full grown adult and idk what to do with my natural hair :’( i was taught to feel so ugly with it and to just cover it up 🫩

[sigyn-foxyposts]

i’ve never liked comparing my countries as a child of the suspiciously shaped neighbouring lands of Norway and Sweden. Like, not here to say one is objectively better than the other.

However..

i do prefer swedish food over norwegian. it just feels… fresher? like there are more options. Meanwhile, Norway is sometimes like “what if we reused this and mixed it with every vegetable imaginable?”

Maybe i’m just bored of what norway has to offer, but i genuinely look forward to eating swedish food in a way that feels spiritually significant. Please don’t revoke my citizenship, mamma 🙏😔🇳🇴

[terryxsi]

Fucking hate when people ask me if im closer to my mom or dad to "gauge how whitewashed I am". Wtf is wrong with you people mixed kids are not zoo animals

[n0cturnal-idi0t]

Sometimes when I talk about being Korean I feel like that one My Story Animated clip of that chick who was like “I put in big black contacts and a black wig, and turned into a real Korean!” since I look VERY white-passing. (I am half American but still.)