Hi everyone, I’m hoping someone can relate or offer me some advice on something I’m struggling with. I’m white and Arab, but 100% white-presenting. It was really important to my Teta that my cousins and I know about our Syrian ancestry and culture and it was such a big part of my upbringing. Everyone on my dad’s side is very proud of being Syrian and this was something that was passed onto me from an early age. I started taking Arabic in college because unfortunately my Teta never taught my dad any Arabic. Over the past decade, but especially the past few years, I’ve been doing a lot to reconnect with our culture and get to know the local community. I really struggle with feeling like I’m an imposter and have this constant feeling of anxiety. I’m very careful to acknowledge that although I have arab ancestry, I am white-presenting and therefore have that privilege and don’t experience the same things that those who are visibly arab do. It’s exhausting to feel like I’m an imposter in a space that I know I’m welcome in. I also worry that people think I’m trying to distance myself from my whiteness. I know that I’m treated like a white person and I’m not under the impression that I’m exempt from self-reflection when it comes to privilege and bias. But I am also very aware that as an arab-american it’s important to proud of my heritage and be in service to my community however I can. There are only about 2 million arab-americans in the US and I think it’s important to be proud of our communities and have a voice. How do other people who have similar experiences deal with these feelings?

Facets of human identity, such as race and ethnicity, and nationality, are all socially constructed. Meaning, they are not an inherent part of human biology. Furthermore, ideas on what constitutes a race or ethnic group can vary depending on the predominant cultural and social interpretations of the concepts within a given society.

For nearly all of its history, Far-Eastern Asia has been one of the most ethnically and culturally homogenous regions on the planet. Even in contemporary times, above ninety percent populations of the East Asian nations of China, Japan, North and South Korea, Taiwan, and Mongolia are all members of their respective nation’s predominant ethnic group.

Since the latter half of the 20th Century, births of multiracial individuals in East Asia and Southeast Asia have occurred in greater frequency than before. This can be traced back to the American occupation of Japan following the end of the Second World War. Between 1945 and 1952, the United States occupied Japan and reformed its government. During this time, sexual encounters between American soldiers and local Japanese women were common, which led to the births of the first generation of the hāfu minority. Hāfu (ハーフ), coming from the English word “half”, is the most-common term used to describe people of partial Japanese descent born to one Japanese parent and one parent of another ethnic or racial background. Around the same time, the first generations of honhyeol (혼혈) and Bụi Đời were born during the American presence in South Korea and South Vietnam, respectively.

Presently, less than one percent of the population of East Asia is multiracial, although exact statistics are unknown. Since the 1990s, interracial marriage between African migrants and local Chinese in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has birthed the Afro-Chinese minority (非亚混血 Fēiyà-hùnxuě). The majority of areas in Asia where multiracial individuals are, are the same areas where populations of foreign residents are concentrated.

The vast majority of multiracial people in Asia are Eurasian (half-White/European, half-Asian) or Afro-Asian (half-Black/African, half-Asian), colloquially referred to as ‘Wasians’ and ‘Blasians’, respectively. There are many misconceptions on the lived experiences of lived individuals.

One misconception, often perpetuated  by Westerners, is that Eurasians do not experience racial discrimination or prejudice. This idea originated from the Western rhetoric that Asians are “white-worshippers”, therefore Eurasian individuals cannot experience any form of discrimination tied to their racial background, and rather are praised and upheld by East Asia on the basis of their proximity to Whiteness and Eurocentricity. 

This idea is false. In East Asia, ethnic nationalism is very much alive. For much of their histories, nations such as China and Japan have viewed themselves as “inherently superior” to other races. During the time the Empire of Japan existed, the idea that the Japanese were the “superior Asian race” was prevalent. Even in Korea, North Koreans and South Koreans have openly expressed disdain for multiracial Koreans. In North Korea, multiracial children are often killed, forced to live in hiding, or enslaved in kwalliso (관리소, North Korean labor camps). In South Korea, multiracial Koreans are not protected from any discrimination, due in part to the fact that South Korea does not have any anti-discrimination laws. Some multiracial Korean men are even prohibited from South Korea’s compulsory military service.

As for Afro-Asians, stereotypes of “inherent inferiority”, “ghettoness”, and delinquency are applied. While darker complexions have carried negative connotations throughout much of human civilization and history, anti-Blackness, as well as racial prejudices and stereotypes applied to Afro-Asians is something that was brought to Asia by Western nations, especially by European colonial powers present in the region, and later on, the United States. Stereotypes that Black people, and subsequently Afro-Asians like to steal, are ignorant or uneducated, and are degenerates are all ideas stemming from the West. Today, these ideas are still perpetuated by Asian ethnic nationalists, as well as White people from Western countries who have an obsessive and unhealthy infatuation with East Asia and East Asians.

The truth is, both groups experience extreme means of discrimination. Due to the lack of anti-discrimination laws, as well as disregard for the plights of multiracial people across Asia, forms of discrimination, such as housing discrimination, job discrimination, and even segregation are all legal. Segregation of multiracial individuals in Asia often occurs due to many establishments, such as residential areas in major tourist cities, restaurants, or nightclubs, refusing foreigners, or those who may appear “foreign”, entry.

However, perception is slowly starting to change. In 2015, Ariana Miyamoto, born to an African-American father and Japanese mother and raised in Japan, became the first Black Japanese person to win Miss Universe Japan. In 2020, Raimu Kaminashi, born and raised in Japan to a Ghanaian father and Japanese mother, became the third-runner-up in the Miss Universe Japan competition. Many half Japanese people have been able to garner fame and praise. Similarly, individuals such as Zhong Feifei (half-Congolese, half Chinese), Ling Jou (half-African-American, half-Chinese), Han Hyun-min (half Nigerian, half-Nigerian), and Kim In-sun (professionally Insooni, half-African-American, half-Korean) have amassed nationwide fame and adoration in their home countries.

While racial discrimination and prejudice are still rampant and deeply embedded in the fabrics of Asian societies, younger generations have more positive perceptions of multiracial individuals. Though it should still be kept in mind that their Asianness may not be fully acknowledged.

List of Multiracial Asians in Asia

Something ticking you off? Want to get some frustrations off your chest? Post your rants here and go into the weekend feeling refreshed!

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Stupid and more of a fun question but wondering how many of us are out there.

I'm Thai-British (Eurasian). My Dad is White from around Manchester with dark brown, wavy hair. My mum is Thai (But with significant Chinese ancestry as with many Thai families so she is inherently quite 'East-Asian' looking). I inherited a lot of my Dad's genetics like my hair, body shape, nose while my brother is more like my mother.

That being said, I feel like the Eurasians I see online often look like Kazahks/Central Asian features with Asian-White mixed looks and it is often very apparent that they are mixed White-Asian.

People say I look a little Arabic/Turkish/Indian (Completed my degree in Europe and kebab sellers would sometimes speak Arabic to me first lol) at times and sometimes I do feel a little identity crisis-stricken.

Growing up in Thailand I always wanted to be more 'Asian' looking so I could look like my friends or at the very least have that Asian with a tinge of white look rather than looking a complete different ethnicity. It sounds dumb now that I've matured and accepted myself for who I am and what I look like but sometimes these thoughts inherently do still creep up in my conscience.

Eventually I do want to get a DNA test for curiousity purposes but I can't justify spending money just for this relatively useless/unimportant info.

I'm unsure of my heritage but I know I'm mostly Chinese and a little white (British I think cuz I've never met my grandfather). I could be 75% Chinese and 25% white, or 87.5% Chinese and 12.5% white.

I lived in Asia until I was 12 and I moved to Canada. I struggled a little with Chinese and also people asking weird questions. I didn't know that I was mixed until I was older (cuz it's technically family lore) and my classmates used to lightly make fun of me for looking different and I would say that I was definitely 100% Chinese. Guess I was wrong 🤷🏻‍♀️

I recently discovered this sub Reddit and got excited of the prospects of having mixed people with whom I can relate too. But so far I have only seen half white half black people from America. Nothing wrong to that, love you guys and all, but I find it hard to relate most of the time as someone non-american and French/Chinese/Fijian.

Anyone here a different mix ? Would love to hear about you too 😅

Hi All-

I am white but my boyfriend is half black, half white. He has very curly hair (thinking 3c?) but doesn’t do much to care for it/style it and is interested in starting. He had dreads for over a decade, shaved them off and now has closer shaven on sides and very curly on top. He asked me to help him find products to help more define and grow his curls. His hair is really nice without any product but is a bit dry and frizzy. He usually just washes his hair with whatever shampoo I have but we have very different hair texture and I think another shampoo/conditioner/product may work better to hydrate and bring more “bounce” to his curls. Any guidance is appreciated!

Ps. Apologies for the weird cropped pic, trying to give a visual without his face ha

The less main stream the better.
Hosting a Bi-Racial life podcast has been a fun challenge for my dad and I, but we haven't found any guests that were dying to have on yet- could be you. Were struggling thinking of unique topics that aren't what everyone else is already talking about, we wanna get to those deep cuts! Help two brotha's out.

I'm a PhD student and in one of my classes we're discussing how a common software we use in our discipline models colonialism and sexism because it was built based on spatial laws decided on by white men, ignoring non-west, non-white, non-man ways of knowing and research, and hasn't been challenged since it was developed. Our seminar is tomorrow, but we have to submit essays with our reactions to the readings the night before, and I'm scrolling through, reading people's essays and it's just fucking depressing. I'm the only non white person there and it's just so tiring seeing everyone disagree and be like "it doesn't seem racist to me" or "I used it to model racial demographics one time so how could it be racist." And they'll not ever think critically about these things because they don't have to because they're not confronted with racism and colonialism, it's not part of their communities or identity construction or how they interact with the world, and they can opt out of thinking about those things forever. I don't know how to make them understand because there's no reason for them to. It's just tiring and annoying to see it all unfold.

I feel like i say this often in my posts but i genuinely dont know if this belongs here. i do consider myself mixed (im half puerto rican, half insert like 3 european nationalities here)

so uh, where do i begin? i have naturally dark brown curly hair, i work hard to take care of it, its my pride and joy! i got adventurous and decided to have my friend semi perm dye my hair purple after bleaching the shit out of it and at first, i was happy! the purple faded mostly after a month and now im mostly blond with some purple and i feel, a weird mix of emotions about it. I feel like I look better, I feel like people are nicer to me more but I also feel guilty, I feel guilty feeling good about my hair being essentially blond. I want to continue to try other colors, I like different colors, purple felt more natural to me than blond did. This is probably a weird rant, i dont even know what i want from this, has anyone felt like this before?

Yes, I am posting this again because the previous one is now buried. Having partial West European ancestry mixed with modern South Asian ancestry, is quite rare; Westeuindids is a term encompassing those who do have such mixed ancestry. Interestingly, some of the only historic populations that have such a combination happen to be considered by many as gypsies, whether in South India or in Western Europe.

Anyway, I have created a community that relates to Westeuindid people. The non-participation link for it is as follows: np.reddit.com/r/Westeuindids

Long story short, someone from this charity initiative I’ve been working on wants to meet me in person as he is stopping by my town for his work. I don’t mind meeting new ppl but problem is is that he thinks I’m white looking because of my mame and last name especially. He never saw me before nor does he know what I look like , the charity work was done online , with online meetings all of that and I did not upload a profile picture of myself. What gets me scared is that one time one of the members who knows what I look like (met him before of the charity work) said I am dark, and then this guy who wants to meet me let’s call him bob, said how dark is he? Is he dark like (Mediterranean Europeans basically) ? And he said no much darker. And then bob said to me are you team light skin or dark skin ? And I just bursted out laughing and tried to deflect from the conversation and change it.

I am scared cause I lowkey think he’s a racist but I wanna make new friends too and I feel bad for crushing his white dreams of me being this or olive tan white guy. I’m honestly also so so scared that he will be racist to me too. And I feel scared tbh because I have suffered a lot of racism growing up and some ppl rejecting me because I looked too black for them.

I don’t know what to do😭

Help.

My mixed race daughter only wants to play with white dolls 😔

Basically my ten year old is getting to the age where she wants to start styling hair. She asked for a doll head to practice on and I suggested a mixed race one with similar hair to her so she can learn but she’s not interested and only wants a white doll with straight her (opposite to her) I suggested a mixed race doll as well as she’s both races it would be cool to have one of each but she doesn’t want the black / mixed one at all. This makes me sad and worries she rejecting her black heritage but perhaps I’m overthinking / worrying? I also concerned that having doll with straight her will only make her long for similar hair which is never going to happen and she already gets frustrated and has told me she hates her hair:

For context I am white and partner is mixed black and white. We have little to no contact with his side of family due to them not being interested despite how much we’ve tried. She lives in a predominantly white area due to my husband’s job (we can’t relocate)

As far as I’m aware she’s never experienced racism and apart from hating her hair because of the combing and long wash hair days and knots and not being able to brush it dry, she’s proud of her hair and who she is… she just hates how high mat it is.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I try so hard to involve her black culture where posissble so I am surprised she wants the white doll.

Are you monoracial presenting and want to know if your experience and feelings are valid?

Do you want to know if you "count" as mixed?

Have you recently done a DNA test and want help processing your feelings?

Does your phenotype not match your cultural experience and you need advice?

​

This thread is for all kinds of identity questions, not just the examples above.

This thread serves as a place to collect many similar questions about identity that often are posted to the sub. Please post in this thread rather than starting your own.

If you were asked to post in this thread, please copy-paste your question here.

​

Your question might be similar to another person's question. If you are asking a question, take some time to read through the other questions and answers, too!

I was discussing with a friend about having kids and one of the things i realized is I am terrified of having a child that looks like my father (blonde hair blue eye European American). I know it from my dad being abusive to me (emotionally) my sister and my mom (all types). More scared ill take my trauma out on my kids if they look like my dad

Kinda just here asking for advice on how to over come the truma since the person I'd be having kids with comes from the same ethnicity as my mom (Puerto Rican) chances are lower but not zero. Does anyone has advice on how to over come that trauma? Is it just something I should seek therapy on before I have kids?

I feel this sub is just too USA views of race and not latinos view of race, for example. In Latam there is no such concept of "white passing" because racism in here is only by your looks -if you look white You'll benefit from being white, because you'll be treated as white, socialized as white, build your own sel-steem by media which is premoninantly looking like you -this specially for women is brutal in concepts of low self-steem. People in here take for graanted that white "passing" people will suffer racism when they'll suffer it in USA, but not in other countries perspectives of race. We in latam doesnt have any "passing concept", since white people in here are pretty much mixed themselves from past generations. In fact, white people "claiming they're not white" is part of the democracial racial myth that reinforces racism in Brazil (since everyone is mixed, we dont really need reparative actions because even white people had black descendency). So in Brazil, white people claiming they're not white is a common way for them to runaway for implementing affirmative actions -because if no one is white, than everyone suffer racism? Because of that white claim, black and mixed scholars in Brazil but also in latam, stated that racism in here is by looks, not genetics. So for me all the concepts of "white sufferinf racism", "white passing" and "genetics test to prove my blackness" is so weird because they were heavily used by white elites in brazil to maintaim white privilege and negate the need for affirmative actions. I'm just pointing this differences since sometimes this sub takes the USA view of race as a rule and I might say it is very very different from many experiences in latam. Is just crazy how a concept that were used in white elites in brazil to opress black, indigenous and mixed people to mantain privilege such as -whites who were mixed- is now used in USA to understand race relations.

Seen the bad of both sides and never truly felt belonged to either. Kind of done with both overall in terms of culture, tradition, food etc.

Is it okay to end up just hating and rejecting both in general? Maybe even just deny it altogether?

I'm half Nigerian, and half Russian and fact that I lived all my life in Europe definitely influence how I view things. So, Africans online often claim me igbo(what I appreciate), and also ask me when I planned to visit Africa, maybe I should go back to my heritage and etc. But reality of things is that I see myself more Russian, and feel more connection with Russian people(even if some of them tell me "you speak Russian so well, where you from, lol". I honestly don't think that I want live in Africa. But are there any people feel this way?

Had a discussion on this topic in a Facebook group and was wondering what ya'll think?

Me (male white) and my wife (female black) are pregnant and I’m just wondering what advice anyone can give me on how to be the best dad I can be. Just wanting to make sure there’s not any things, feelings, or emotions that maybe I would overlook being a white dad. I’ve heard being mixed race in America can be confusing, difficult, and just flat out hard sometimes so if there’s anything we could do as parents to make our future child’s life easier I’d like to hear it.

Thanks in advance 😊

Hi, my entire life I've always struggled w my hair. Im 3/4 white and 1/4 black. Although i'm more white than black, I've always had a confusing hair texture. My mom is the white one so she never really knew what to do and my dad always keeps his hair super short so neither does he. My dad recommended that I get braids and the idea seems more and more appealing as time goes on. I don't even wear my hair out anymore and just wrap it in a bandana because I struggle so much with it. I've already started my curly hair journey and started using the right shampoos and wearing a bonnet ETC. I feel like I would have a lot more confidence if I had braids. I am a bit scared tho, my skin is pretty light and I look more hispanic than do actually black. I don't really want the social backlash of wearing braids even though I am technically black. Should I just not care about that? I'm not sure if this makes any sense, but I would appreciate opinions on the matter. Also if you do think I should get braids, what type?

Thank you :)

If you could implement parts of a plan, or a whole plan, or steps to end racism, what would they be and how would you do it?

PS...this may end up on the next episode of Bi-Racial Broadcast.

I live in a lame conservative state with a very odd name that 90% of people mispronounce, and when combined with my last name [which is american, but another odd last name] it...it looks silly. I cannot go into more detail, but trust me please.

Haven't had much professional success so I wanna try the hack: but how does this work in practice? I get changing the resume, but my real name is still on:

• my email [easy enough to make a new one but still]

• my ID, my social security, all legal documentation

So is the game just getting to the interview stage and then saying, oh I go by [friendly american name] but my legal name is [scary racism] once they start asking for documents?

I mean, I already feel like a dickhead writing that I'm excited to connect with the company's values etc etc; I can only assume they think even worse of me if I'm apparently some cynical immigrant to them.

I asked my mom about this and she was against it; and I do feel kind of very gross having to whitewash myself for the benefit of some fucking company. But then again I do need money to live

I’m mixed my mom is white my dad is black American with some latin descent and I identify as mixed or biracial but I can’t stand when my family tries to put me in one box like my dad and his family they tell me I’m black I am a black woman. No I am mixed I have my own experiences and half of my dna is white and vice versa.

I am not seen as a black woman or a white woman by society I look mixed/racially ambiguous and people usually ask me if I’m Hispanic. I feel like if my dad wanted to have a black kid he should’ve had a kid with a black woman and same for my mom.

my mom does the same thing to me but sometimes she’ll tell me that I am black and other times she tells me that I’m white and it pisses me off so much. like please stop and let me identify as what I am stop putting me into a box.

Obviously There’s nothing wrong with being black or being white I am proud of both of my sides but still I should be able to identify as what I am and not be put into one category I am both.

When I say that I am mixed strangers online also like to try and tell me what I am it’s none of their business and they have no place to tell me how I should identity.

My parents and some strangers always try to argue with me about this but there’s no argument because I’m mixed and that’s it. nothing they say will change that or how I identify it gets really annoying.

This type of question always asked me by old women, and I know people usually don't mean something rude(because I live in Russia, where black population extremely low), but sometimes even when I explain that I metiza and have a Russian mom, some can still be "surprised" and doubt it(what's annoying). How can I put on place those people and respond with grace?

Do you ever feel as though people try to humble you when you’re talking about your mixed experience I left a comment on TikTok saying that I’m mixed, but sometimes people mistake me Dominican and someone replied, saying that I looked like a light skin Nigerian There’s nothing wrong with looking like a Nigerian person but I literally don’t and nobody in real life has ever walked up to me and asked me if am. They asked me if I’m Dominican or some other ethnicity but not Nigerian I know a light skin Nigerian person and his hair texture and skin color isn’t the same as mine.

I feel there are terms like Mulatto and Mestizo for certain other mixed race groups, but not an inclusive label for half South Asian people of partial West European descent. This distinction between West Europe and East Europe is important because many South Asians are already of partial Eastern European ancestry.

Also, I made a subreddit relating to people of partial South Asian and partial West European ancestry: np.reddit.com/r/westeuindids