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Kayla McLaughlin
2504454
ENGL 1B04
Michelle

Miller

Although people of a multiracial background have always existed, from my

own experiences, I have found that the idea of somebodybeing more than one race
is still a new concept that has yet to be properly addressed. When it specifically
comes to being "Mulatto", "A person of a mixed black and white ancestry" you are
grouped into the racial category that is represented the most. In terms of theaspect
of being biracial, you are often caught between the concept ofbeing too black for
white people and being too white for black people.When this instance occurs, you
are made to alter your personality to fit the idealistic traits that the race you are
with holds. In contrast to character, your appearance is held in regards to how the
"ideal" biracial person looks like. Our culture sees biracial people as being an exotic
mix, fetishizing the cultural blend that the person is made up of. If you do not meet
the standards of how the typical biracial person looks, you will be criticised. This is
mostly apparent through both skin tone and hair texture. Biracial people go against
social norms because they cannot be easily identified, making it hard to fit within
North American culture.
When you are biracial, you are often pressured to choose a race to identify
with to make it easier for other people to understand your cultural background.
Because biracial people cannot be categorized into one racial group, society places
them into a sub-category .( Include research) Standardized testing often does not
include a category for biracial people, leaving them to either chose between their
white side, their black side, or checking off the "other" category. Doesn't this make

the results biased? I think so. These tests are not fully receiving accurate results
because they don't include the actual person themselves, but rather, a person that
better caters towards their definition of race. What's their definition of a race?
According to these tests, somebody that is of one race. According to
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Kayla
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Michelle Miller

the Los Angeles Times, America's multi-racial president, Barack Obama, will
mark the AfricanAmerican box when deciding which racial identity to chose with. The LA
Times states that, " Obama could have checked more than one racial box, given
that his father was an African from Kenya and his mother was a white woman from
Kansas. He could have checked "white" as well, or even "some other race" and
written in "multiracial." From a bi-racial point of view, I can understand why he
would chose to identity with one race even though he had the chance to claim his
multiracial background. It is often easier to identify with one side, than it is to be
caught in the middle. When people ask you to, "Chose a side", it is a very alienating
question that can be confusing. Everyday situations that cause biracial people to
limit their backgrounds, can also make them feel pressured into changing their
personality based o which race they are with. Personal preferences such as music,
television shows, and even books can change based on the racial group they are
with. Biracial people may feel pressured to change their preferences when they are
with a certain race to avoid exclusion. When Mary E. Campbell, and Melissa R.
Herman conducted research on how multiracial people were viewed within society,
they found that majority of biracial who took part in the survey were reporting
accounts of instances from times they were treated unrightfully because of their

biracial background. "...part-black multiracial adolescents encounter higher levels of

ethnic discrimination than monoracial minority adolescents. Echoing Park's classic
marginal man argument, several authors have argued that multiracial people
experience racism from multiple groups. This study goes on to use an example of
how the biracial students from the university in this survey experienced alienation
from other black students, even though they attended a predominantly white
school. This further goes to show the "alienation" that biracial can at times deal
with, when interacting with both sides of their culture.
Exotic is a word that is often associated with biracial people. However, the
harm in calling a
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Michelle Miller

person exotic is that you are labelling them as a "thing" or as an object to be

fetishized over, instead of
treating them as a human being. When biracial people are deemed as being exotic,
they are being held
to this pedestal of how they should physically appear. Christine C. Iijima Hall wrote
an article on biracial
females, specifically black-Asian females, however this section of her reading very
accurately describes
idealization verses the physical appearance of biracial people who are half black,
regardless of the mix.
"...mixed-race women may be seen as being attractively ethnic and exotic since
they do not possess
full ethnic features. An example of this can be seen in the ethnic women who reach
the finals of beauty
contests who possess highly Anglicized features. These subdued or mixed features
affect mixed-race

women in how they are perceived and accepted by society. Not only must they deal
with the issue of
their ambiguous or ubiquitous looks with respect to beauty standards, but also they
are judged as
belonging or not belonging to an ethnic group on the basis of their physical
appearance." When you are
biracial, you are constantly being compared to the ideal version of how a biracial
person should appear.
Skin tone, hair texture, and even eye colour is what is used to compare your
physical attractiveness to a
typical biracial person. Your skin tone should appear to be a tan colour, if you are
lighter or darker, you
may be ridiculed for being either"too light" or "too dark". Your Caucasian side should
be relevant within
your facial features, while your hair should be an in between texture of kinky black
hair, and straight
Caucasian hair. If you fall out of the spectrum, people will question your
appearance, comparing you to
the model-esque biracial people who are seen within the media. If a biracial person
does not measure
up to the ideal beauty standards for a mixed person, they will be penalized for how
they look. People
will ask them to change theirappearance, or suggest a certain way to "help" them
alter theirphysical
traits. Having multiple people recommend you change your appearance, can create
a perception of
being undesirable because you physically do not meet the requirements of looking
biracial. Due to
multiracial people being held up to a certain physicality, people fail to realize that
people with a
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ENGL 1B04
Michelle Miller

multiracial background can have various different skin tones, hair textures, and
even body features. Out
these three people presented below, Renee Mittelstaedt (descending from a
German/ Italian and
Jamaican background), best portrays the idealization of how people of a black and
white mixed
background should appear according to North American standards.Her skin is the
"perfect" blend of a
tan colour, she has long curly hair that gives her more of an exotic look, while her
facial features are very
Caucasian. Her nose is straight, her lips are plump but not too full, and her eye
colour is light. The two
other pictures of the people used are also a blend of black and another race,
however, their features do
not play into the role of how biracial people should appear. Model,Diandra Forest, is
of a black and
white mix. However she has albinism, making her skin tone a lot lighter than the
typical biracial person.
Jou Ling, is of a Chinese- African descent, however she looks to be only black.
Because of her appear, she
was the spot of attention on a performance show in China called, "Go! Oriental
Angel" she was mocked
for having darker skin, and not looking Chinese. People often referred to her as,
"Chocolate Girl", and
"Black Pearl". People even told her that she should leave China, all because she
didn't appear to look like
her supposed racial identity.

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Kayla
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ENGL 1B04
Michelle Miller

Fig 1. Renee

Fig 2. Diandra

Fig 3. Jou

The biracial culture is misunderstood. If biracial people do not look a certain

way, or act in a particular style, they will be mocked for lacking that feature or
personality trait. The culture is based around unrealistic stereotypes that not
everyone can attain to. A biracial person sometimes may be born with either a
lighter, or darker complexion from the normalized tan colour. As a result, can cause

people to revoke their black side, and refer to them as being of a solely white
background. What also comes with biracial stereotypes is the questions that most
multiracial people have answered many times. All types of questions will be asked,
such as: "Which parent is which?" "Is that your real hair?", "Which race do you
prefer more?

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Michelle Miller

and various other questions that can become quite exhausting after having to
answer them all the time.
If you have answered these questions, and people still aren't satisfied, they'll place
you into their own
ideal box of how you should be identified, to satisfy their own personal assumption.
In a research study
conducted by Tamara R. Buckley and Robert T. Carter, their black and white mixed
studies often talked
about how alienating it was in elementary, an experience that a lot of biracial
people can identify with.
They talked about how they would find other people of a different background or
even biracial to
become friends with to not feel as different. Because the biracial culture is still
new, North American
society is still finding a way to full accept biracial people into the spectrum, without
boxing them into
one section.

As time goes on, and people are having more mixed babies, biracial people
will eventually find
their place in the world. Even though biracial people are still being placed into racial
categories that best
suit the reasoning according to other people, biracial should identify with whatever
they personally view
themselves as. In some situations, biracial people may mostly identify with one
race, instead of both of
their backgrounds, simply because that's all they were raised to know. According to
National
Geographic, by the year 2050, majority of Americans will be of a multiracial
background. However a
biracial person was raised, how they are identified should be solely up to the
individual themselves, by
doing this, it will strengthen their sense of self without feeling like they need to
conform to what society
wants. When a biracial person has the courage to identify with how they feel best
represents their
personal identity, that is when they have found true acceptance of themselves and
have no longer need
to look for acceptance from people who have not endured their life journey.

Citations List :
- "Mulatto." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mulatto>.
- Christine C. Iijima Hall PhD (2004) Mixed-Race Women, Women
&Therapy, 27:1-2, 237-246, DOI: 10.1300/J015v27n01_16

- Campbell, Mary E., and Melissa R. Herman. "Politics and Policies: Attitudes toward
Multiracial Americans." Ethnic and Racial Studies 33.9 (2010): 1511-536. Web. 18
Nov. 2014.
- Buckley, Tamara R., and Carter T. Robert. "Biracial (Black/White) Women." Women
& Therapy 27.1-2 (2004): 45-64. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
- Avila, Oscar. "Obama's Census-form Choice: 'Black'" Los Angeles Times. Los
Angeles Times, 04 Apr. 2010. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
- "Http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/21/china.race/." N.p., n.d. Web.
- "National Geographic Predicted What Americans Will Look Like In 2050." N.p., n.d.
Web. 18 Nov. 2014.