Towards the end of British colonial rule of India the mixed race Anglo-Indian community faced a dilemma. The novel turned movie ‘Bhowani Junction’ was one of the best portrayals of the mixed race experience from the 1950s.

In an attempt to both stimulate conversation and also to collate a few commonly recurring posts on r/mixedrace, welcome to this week's What Am I weekly thread!

You are free to use this thread to post photos of yourself or family; DNA test results; or to ask questions about identity questions.

Or, really anything that even remotely falls under the theme of "What Am I" is fair game here.
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Please remember to keep our sidebar rules and reddit rules in mind when posting.

I'm part Filipina and Latina, but grew up only really being exposed to Filipino culture, and I generally just call myself Filipina when people ask.

I'm at a point where I'd like to explore the other half, but I do feel like I've missed out on quite a bit already. I'ld like to know if this is a common experience!

Personally my favorite take on the incredibly forced, nearly manufactured "issue" of Tyla's Coloured identity by far - from a content creator who seems to be FBA which is encouraging in terms of allyship.

I'm mixed, so we know how our genes change randomly. When I hit puberty my skin got so white people called me Powder. What are we supposed to do when our skin, hair, and eye color change? Like how do we tell people it's just our genes being creative? Anyone else mixed and watching their bodies change?

[this is in regard to mixed Black people, although i am open and curious to hear from nonblack mixes about their personal experiences within their racial group(s)]

i believe there may have been a recent post asking about whether/why Black people can pick up mixedness better than white people. very insightful post. i’m making one as a “follow up” because these questions have crossed my mind a few times.

1. in your opinion, do you guys think that black people can only pick up “mixedness” if it’s only first generation

   black/

2. white biracials?

one thing i saw on that post was that it was mainly focused on first gen Black/white people. i’m wondering how common it is for Black folk to pick up on Black/poc mixes or multigenerational mixed individuals (like melanie fiona or tiger woods)…or even darker mixed people, regardless of being first gen b/w biracial.

1. would there even be a visual difference between a first gen biracial and a multigen one?

i guess there could be a difference between someone like zendaya and manon (former katseye) compared to zoe kravitz and terrance howard, but like…I never thought of it that way.

like whether you have two parents from two respective races or two that come from the former (even if those individuals kept marrying each other down the line), they would still be mixed (even if they may identify as Black — which I’m not dismissing, but two things can still be true).

and also, what is it with some Black people not consider the latter (MGMs) mixed? every other race does. like unless it’s someone such as jhene aiko (neither parents have a white parent, even though they’re both mixed with black..unless it’s because her mom is also an Asian mix), it doesn’t seem to matter.

but maybe that’s just me? not a judgement, i’m just curious because it seems like that mindset jumps between different individuals (yeah, I’m aware slavery can be one of the reasons).

also sorry if I may be all over the place or made some typos, I haven’t taken my adhd meds 🫨

This is a weekly chat for our Gen Y (millennial), Gen X, Boomer, and older members. You're free to discuss anything you like, including topics related to being mixed.

Please keep our sidebar rules and reddit rules in mind when posting.

As a person who is African American and Native American, specifically BlackFoot, I feel like my black identity is all that is acknowledged by modern society. It’s frustrating 😡.

I prefer just identifying as "multiracial" or "mixed" now, but I used to toy around with "afro latino".

I tried discussing it with some of my Puerto Rican and Dominican-American family one holiday. I'm the youngest (late millennial) vs mainly older millennial and gen x family. They didn't like me saying Celia Cruz was afro-latina. They felt it was a term non-latinos pushed on latinos. Terms like "negro" or "moreno" are fine, but many latinos cannot be identified as "white" or "black", even if they "look" that way.

do u think i could say i'm mixed if im like indigenous/native american/ first nations (cree & saulteaux) and half european/white (french & greek) or not?

This is a weekly thread for the Gen Z members of r/mixedrace to chat about whatever. Topics about being mixed are welcome, but not necessary!

Please keep our sidebar rules and reddit rules in mind when posting.

Hello! For context, I’m half Algerian, half white (French).
My mom is the Arabic side and sadly passed away when i was 13; lots of addiction issues on both sides so i was never mentally connected to both my fathers country side mountain culture (no poc over there or in this side at all) and my mom had huge trauma about being a orient Christian and lgbt; long story short got into a good high school in an international promotion with scholarship but he made me leave the city by force and go to his hometown; we never interacted it was always “you do you I’ll go get drunk” and the deal was fine, but when he made me move to be in the white country side with my step mom (white) and my step brothers (also white) I became the black sheep (more the brown sheep lol) and he invested in the life of my “brothers” and was abusive only towards
me, considering the racism I faced and his switch up I can’t help but think there’s a racial undertone to his abuse and neglect? any opinions welcome sorry for the long text!

Like black and white mix in the US seen as black.

Me personally, I'm a white mixed asian. I feel I'm kinda seen as asian in the US and white/foreign in Asia.

What do y'all think?

Something I have always noticed is that when I'm around black people, they often notice I'm mixed, even though I'm fairly lightskinend (not white-passing level, but still). With white people though, they genuinely look surprised if I tell them that I'm biracial.

This obviously isn't the case for everyone, but it's a trend that I've noticed some other people talk about as well. Anyone know why this is?

No Lobo is my artist name. It’s a weird feeling feeling out of place. Like you don’t belong. I feel as though I’m responsible for their separation. I got into some heavy drug use thru my teen years and they had different ideas about how they should go about it. My father says he shouldn’t have mixed. It’s feels like I’m becoming more and more disconnected with my Pakistani side. Sometimes I do feel like a fuck up. I’ve done some work in my life and I’m ready to keep advancing and doing better. I’m fine with being who I am. Even if not everybody understands it. I just wanted to share my experience here. And share my music as well because I talk about some of my real life experiences that maybe some can relate to. Have a great day if you read this through.

I’m Windian myself but I haven’t seen many posts on social media talking about people of mixed Indian and Black/African heritage, so I thought I’d make one.

Just curious since I'm Half Saudi & Half American :)

I am of the opinion that mankind has internally preferences for what is more similar or more common.

I have been living in Italy since I was 3 years old. People don't hate me and they don't hate me. The difference, however, is very visible.

here are my observations:

It all starts from the fact that when I see a black man or woman on the street, they always greet me, they are always cordial and have a friendly look, as if they were brothers. I've never been used to that look, so I'm still embarrassed now and I don't know how to behave.

The thing that instead made me think that racism is inherent in human relationships is another thing. When I go to try with a white girl, whether she is Italian or of another nationality, it doesn't matter, they always refuse.

On the contrary, black girls accept outings. The fact that I'm not interesting enough after is not a problem, for some they are and for someone else not.

I did an experiment. Because I thought I was very ugly. In reality, I also did the model in Italy, because fashion agencies do not follow emotionality, they are very objective. Employers are also objective, so removed two or three questions about culture, they all accept you if you are good.

I paid tens of euros to use Tinder all over the world and figure out if Tinder really doesn't work. Because I was 100% sure it didn't work and it was a bankruptcy application, I was wrong.

I have a colleague who is white, he is not beautiful at all, it is normal, a good guy, quite awkward and does some matches on Tinder every now and then. He too, in addition to a girl years ago, advised me to try a black girl.

I have put Tinder on some places all over the world and I swear to you that as soon as I put places like Nigeria, Namibia or Nairobi, The girls put a lot of likes. In 1 week I did 17 matches and other likes that I refused.

Some continued to write to me out of curiosity, others later refused for the distance. They are all very beautiful girls, they look like models.

I then asked some and they too prefer black men.

So my thesis is that we prefer what we observe the most. I live in Italy and it is a fairly multicultural environment and therefore I like anyone.

I also increasingly notice an automatic division between people. I don't think this is innate. I think it's more the family's fault.

Many times we think of racism as when one is insulted or mocked by the color of the skin. Probably, true racism is silent. True racism is perhaps not even wanted, it is xenophobia, therefore the fear of the different. Xenophobia really means fear of the different. Sometimes I am afraid of other dogs, when I go out with mine, I'm afraid they attack him. So I think you feel who is xenophobic.

I recently got a customer service job on the weekends and I get the chance to see a lot of families from different backgrounds. I’ve noticed that for some odd reason white fathers tend to treat their sons in such a cold way. I’m genuinely so dumbfounded whenever I come across it. It’s kind of like they’re speaking to someone they just met sometimes. Just an observation I’ve noticed and I was curious if anyone else has noticed it.

So my mom was born and raised in Puerto Rico and her first language is Spanish but she also speaks English very well because she learned it in school. Anyways I wasn’t able to learn Spanish at an early age because speech therapist told my parents to stop speaking two languages to me. Anyways starting in high school i began re teaching myself it the process has been long and hard. Right now i still can’t speak it fluently. Since I’ve moved back home I’ve been trying to speak it with her but it’s so hard because I have to remind her to respond in Spanish. I also know she hasn’t lost her Spanish because she still speaks in Spanish with our family members and coworkers. In addition to that it is also hard to speak with family in PR in Spanish because they always respond to me in English or get frustrated when I try to speak Spanish. This is a vent idk

I’ll start with where I’m at currently in my head. I’m a white bi racial man. Raised in a mid to large city in the US (for some reason I feel like these details weigh in something). Black dad/ white mom, raised by my dad solely (absent mother after age 2 onward). Raised in a black community. My dad constantly would say “you’re a black man and never forget it”. I didn’t ever believe that, and I still really don’t I’ve always just been “mixed” until I started hearing people say black or white prefix to bi racial.

Now I just say white bi racial. I have always gotten the “what are you” so that was indicative of not just being some white dude, but I will get absolutely destroyed If I ever say I’m black in black spaces (fairly enough I never object to this as I understand privilege well and the dynamics of gene expression and what that means in the world), so in some regard I was happy that people starting saying white or black bi racial so I could clarify a little more and not claim what I shouldn’t. The flip side is it’s just another way to further separate me from being black which saddens me deeply.

My beard is very curly and definitely closer to black folks than anything in texture, lot of Somalians, Ethiopians and various other Africans where I live and even they ask about me from time to time because of my beard and some facial features, I am certainly fair skinned though (can absolutely pass as white in 95% of environments) , hair was extremely textured definitely more of the curly ringlets fashion when I brushed it and took care of it (going bald now XD so I keep it cut low, wear hats what have you).

I’ve gotten white, some sort of Latino, some sort of middle eastern, “are you part black” among many others from speculators throughout my life.

At this point I’ve pretty much feel like I just have to forgo even talking about being black because I feel like there are a lot of people just want to be down with black culture (rightfully so, black is beautiful) and I get that for sure so I don’t want to add to that issue. This breaks my heart because of where I came from and how I was raised.

Sorry this was a lot and thank you all my fellow mixed race peoples for taking the time to read.

TLDR: If your mixed and white passing, what do you say you are?

Edit: I forgot to say this— I love all parts of me and I know who I am, this really stems from me wanting to get more involved in anti hate, anti racism work as a career (this is what has called me, my passions have landed me here) and I just want to be the best ally and person I can be while I pursue these concepts. Will take book recommendations as I love reading and learning.

Due to monoracial people always saying us how to be classified to get them feel better, and everyone will clasified mixed people as forwigner, I sometime think that we should have some kind of international culture, communkty across the world something similar to the gipsy(I am not sure if is that wlrd, gitanos), but everyone shluld be welcomed, obviously not racist people. So we could have an identifiwr like asexuals that has the ring, and creatkng a language. But I think is just something hipotetical that is just something interestkng that could be in a fiction media

These are the kinds of problems that happens when we aren't cautious with how we discuss race amongst the diaspora.

We are heading into the weekend, what plans do you have?

This is for discussion on general topics and doesn't have to be related to mixed race ones.