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In the society we live in, individuals are expected to fit into racial and ethnic boxes. When they don’t, an “other” option is presented on paper, but not always entirely accepted by our society. While growing up and finding their place in this world, multirace individuals are vulnerable to stigmas and challenges unique from those of mono-race individuals as a result of belonging to multiple ethnic/racial groups. Facing challenges not only from outside one's identities but also from within them can lead to alienation for not being “authentic enough,” rejection and marginalization, and conformation to mono-racial categories. The “mixed” experience, the struggle of being “other”-ed is a unique experience to those who belong to multiple races or ethnicities.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, race is defined as a person’s self-identification with one or more social groups including but not limited to white, black or African-American, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, or other race while ethnicity determines whether someone is of Hispanic or Latino origin or not. Race in and of itself is a social construct used to categorize differences based on physical appearances and traits while ethnicity refers to cultural or national tradition.

Being mixed is more than just checking multiple boxes on a federal form. Sometimes it is being a part of multiple worlds, being a part of multiple cultures. It can be experiencing multiple perspectives. It is balancing identities stemmed from differing backgrounds. It is all of this and more in a world where it is still not the norm to do so.<br><br>''There is something beautiful about being a part of multiple cultures and being able to navigate both the good and the bad.'' ~ Jacob, 30 <br><br> ''I grew up in a small town. I tried to assimilate and do the best I could to make up for being different. I knew that I was different even though poeple didn't straight up say it.''~Chloe, 21

You are not enough. Variations of this phrase are heard all too common throughout grade school and on. Not tall enough, not smart enough, not skinny enough, not cool enough-- many children are familiar with these remarks, but in the case of multirace and multiethnic children, they are faced with this statement as a barrier to belonging within a group, and subsequently, identity is brought into question. Being told one is not “white” enough, not “black” enough, not “Hispanic” enough, etc., can lead to detrimental impacts on one’s self-identity and self-image. <br><br> ''People would say I wasn't black enough to do this or think like this or like dress like this or I'd have friends say I'm blacker than you because of this or whatever or phrases like 'you're the whitese black friend I have,' just stuff like that always felt so wrong to me but I couldn't get why, then I got to college and I was like 'okay so this is an actual thing that pople know about.' So I just think that that's where the self-hatred of being biracial comes fromis that it's coming from other people. And youre like 'I'm feeling a certain way about this but I don't know why and nobody else seems to feel this way, so why? Like maybe I'm wrong for feeling a certain way?''~ Jada, 22<br><br> ''It's still really hard for me to connect with the black side of me because I don't have mentorship or strong influence in my life. It's still really hard for me to claim that side of me especially because I don't have that influence present. Part of that is the battle of being raised in white neighborhoods with my white mom where I was not black enough for the black poeple and not white enough for the white people.''~Chloe, 21 <br> <br>''There’s that feeling of being in between the two-- not good enough for one and not good enough for the other, but that’s a negative way to think about it. I also find a positive, more beneficial side of it being able to essentially turn it on and off, like when I go up north I can pass as a tan white dude, so it works in my favor in that sense.'' ~Jack, 24

The influence the media, peers and family have on a child when they are young can impact the rest of their life. For mixed individuals these influences often help shape how they identify. ''sometimes you just have to be like, “oh no, I’m just this and this,” you know what I mean? and they’re just kinda like “oh” and you’re like “so is what I actually am like worse than what you thought i was?'' -Jada, 22 <br><br>''I had a crush on a boy in first grade and he somehow found out I liked him, so he came up to me during work time and he told me 'that's good' becuase he wanted to date 'within his race' I didn't think too much about it at the time.''~Chloe, 21

''I've been asked 'what are you?' literally a million times. I remember one time after a football game in high school, we were talking about something in the locker room and one guy stepped in and was like 'ya know, Dylan, for the longest time I've always wondered, what are you?' ~Dylan, 21 <br><br> ''I've been asked 'what are you?' like three times a day since birth. I just think people have been socialized to ask that question because people arent educated what it means to be biracial. Not a bad intent, but it still carries negative impact'' ~Jacob, 30 <br><br> ''I get asked like at least once a month, but I get excited when I do because I love telling people I'm Puerto Rican.''~Jack, 24

Race, ethnicty and identity are not always 'black and white' subjects but society expects the boxes to be checked as such. <br><br> “As a society, we have internalized a strong need to categorize, segregate, and oppress one another. Someone has to be the majority, superior, stronger, better; someone else has to be the minority, inferior, weaker, lesser. This is common to all human societies; yet, color, race, and ethnicity are uniquely powerful in our culture. Our racial categories set rigid boundaries between groups and exacerbate the oppression of groups by each other. Our mainstream culture designates biethnic and biracial persons, even when they are part White, as persons of color; yet, it makes them undesirable to all because they do not fit neatly within the boxes. They are forced to publicly self-condemn and debase one or both groups in their own background, becoming warnings for others to mind the categorical boxes or suffer the imminent punishments” (Cruz-Janzen).

Growing up, there wasn't always the option to check multiple options on standardized tests or other forms, and often times you'd be on your own to figure it out. <br><br> ''You have to check one, you know? Like you can’t check multiple. So, or like they’d have an “other” box and they’d have like a little line where you’d write it down or something like that. And I just remember that being so like weird, cause I was just like-- like what am I supposed to pick? You know? And… I don’t know like it would just like take me to this place where it was just like, I don’t know who like I am and like I would always think about like I guess like thinking about it in hindsight I would like think about like well like in the civil rights or like slavery like this is what I probably would be and I just I don’t know its just a very polarizing thing cause like being mixed it’s just like who do I identify with?'' ~jada, 22

Today, forms like these are more inclusive and as a society people are more inclusive as well. Multirace and multiethnic children growing up today won't have to make a choice within their identities or have a form make them feel that you can only be one or that you are more one than another. <br><br> ''I'm constantly curious about the other side of me but I feel like im so without information or general knowledge that I cling to the other side more. I can claim the black side of me but that's all I know that I'm 50% African-American, as opposed to the other side of me which is Sweedish and Norwegian which is super specific.''~Chloe, 21<br> <br>''I’ve always been the only mixed person in my family on dad’s side, who are all white. My Mom’s side is nonexistent so I was like the only Puerto Rican person in our family other than her. My Dad’s side was pretty cool about it but I always knew I was different. It wasn’t until I was in high school that I was around more diversity where it was normal to be more brown and I loved that, but when I got to Hamline, me not knowing spanish started to come out more and instead of me being the token Puerto Rican kid, it turned into ‘oh you’re not Puerto Rican enough’ so it’s done like a 180 from not feeling white enough early on to now it feels like it switched and I’m not latino enough, which honestly feels way worse. I hate this feeling more than the other side mostly because of the language thing.''~Jack, 24

It's really important to some mixed people that all parts of their heritage are acknowledged equally. That doesn't necessarily mean they're rejecting the parts that jump out at others as the most physically obvious or politically salient. (It also doesn't mean they don't understand that they may face racism based on the way they look, versus the way they feel. It's just that racial identity is a calculation that's more complicated than a simple reaction to prejudice.) We might even have different answers when discussing our personal, political, social, and cultural identities. This is a perfectly normal and level-headed reaction to a society in which the information people are looking for when they ask ''What are you?'' might be different depending on whether they're a census-taker, someone in your group of friends, a school or employer gauging interest in affinity groups, your doctor, or your hairstylist. No two mixed experiences are the same. The best bet is to accept that people's identities for themselves reflect only one thing: what's true to them.

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