What is My True Multiracial Identity?

As one of the 33.8 million multiracial individuals living in the United States, this was an intellectually challenging week for the 1 in 10 Americans who are multi-racial. Yes, I am proud to be multi-racial, even though I did not always feel this way growing up.

My experience is mine, and I do not wish to extrapolate it to anyone or judge anyone with a different view. As a Hispanic/Asian American, my mother was born and raised in Puerto Rico, and my father was born and raised in China.

My confusion about race came at an early age because after being born and raised in the United States, my dad told me that I was a Chinese American. In contrast, my mother told me that I should always remember that many of my relatives were multi-racial, primarily African American and Hispanic. The Hispanic portion came from other countries, such as Cuba, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. My mother further complicated my young upbringing by reminding me that Puerto Ricans are born as U.S. citizens and a nationality consisting of individuals derived from people who came from Spain, Africa, and the U.S. as Native Americans.

Sadly, growing up in low-income housing projects in New York City, in neighborhoods that were 5% Hispanic American and 95% African American, many Hispanic kids told me I wasn’t Hispanic because my last name was Asian. They felt my eyes looked a bit Asian. And when my dad took me down to Chinatown during my young years, many Chinese would laugh at me when he introduced me as his Chinese son. They said I did not look Chinese. I lost my dad at the age of 10, so I never perfected the language and, over time, lost my ability to speak Chinese, further complicating my ability to identify as Asian.

Yet, because Hispanics did not view me as one of their own and had little opportunity to identify as Chinese because my dad died from an aneurysm when I was young, I had no way to identify as an Asian. And yes, I would dress Asian style as a young boy to make my dad happy and as a Hispanic to make my mother happy, but that only confused me more since I loved both my parents.

What Does the Science Tell Us?

Social scientists tell us that there are two ways to identify multiracial individuals like me. I leave it to the reader to agree or disagree with their assessment since we live in a world where some agree with experts while others believe they know more than experts who have spent their entire lives studying their profession.

A historical pattern identified in studies by Davis (1991) and Hollinger (2003) advocated the “One Drop Rule,” which states that any individual with any known African ancestry is automatically classified as Black. In contrast, Goldstein and Morning (2000) argue that individuals should be categorized based on self-reporting. That means that only the multiracial person should decide what ancestry they wish to identify with.

The problem with the first school of thought is that having one drop of any race, African or non-African, may not be useful for identifying people because any DNA test will show that the average American is composed of multiple ancestry. The issue with the second one is that society doesn’t always agree with one’s choice. This problem becomes less challenging over time but not easy when a person is a child with less social experience.

An Unbiased Research Finding on the Question of Race

A fascinating study by Charmaraman, Woo, Quach, and Erkut reviewed 20 years of research covering 133 academic studies and found that determining a person’s nationality is an evolutionary process defined by where they grow up and the social experiences they have during their lives.

I could identify with this study because while I was with my father, I felt I was Chinese until some of his Asian friends laughed at me and said I wasn’t Chinese. Similarly, I thought I was Hispanic when I was with my mom until my friends at school taunted me and said I was not because of the way my eyes looked.

Where Am I Today?

I am happy to say that today, I identify with both groups. I am proud to be a Hispanic/Asian American. The good news is that I avoid individuals who make fun of me and say I am not Hispanic, and I do the same with Asians who don’t consider me one of their own. The good news is that the people from both groups I socialize with have embraced my multi-cultural identity. Nearly 40% of my family has African ancestry, which makes me very happy because one-third of my Puerto Rican ancestry is from Africa.

So, while I don’t argue but always ignore anyone who wishes to decide what my true ancestry should be, I am comfortable with the notion that I am one of the 33.8 million Americans today who are multi-racial and have decided to embrace all my cultures and will never allow anyone to choose for me which bucket I belong in. They did that while I was growing up, but in my mature age, their beliefs and preconceived notions do not impact what I believe today.

I am also profoundly comforted by the notion that scientists have concluded that race is essentially a social construct and maintain that there is no single biological or genetic marker that determines a person’s race or nationality!