“What are you?”: Embracing a mixed-roots identityPosted in Anthropology, Asian Diaspora, Autobiography, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United States on 2017-11-20 01:18Z by Steven |
“What are you?”: Embracing a mixed-roots identity
The Pitt News
2017-11-12
Erica Brandbergh, Columnist
(Illustration by Raka Sarkar | Senior Staff Illustrator)
I once asked my dad, out of curiosity, whether he put Caucasian, Asian or both on surveys that ask about his race. He paused for a bit and said he didn’t know. I asked if he identified with one more than the other, and he was unsure of that as well.
My dad is half-Japanese. He was born on an American Army base in Okinawa and came to the United States at a young age with my grandparents and his siblings. His mom — who we call “Oba” — is from southwestern Japan. My Oba never taught my father Japanese, so I never learned much beyond the basics that she taught me when she was my kindergarten teacher.
Despite my diminished interaction with my non-white heritage, it was clear from my experiences growing up as someone with only one-quarter Asian ancestry that white society at large didn’t consider me fully one of its own. That reality is even more pronounced for people who are half non-white, like my father, or even more…
Read the entire article here.