{"id":47331,"date":"2016-06-05T22:47:18","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T22:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=47331"},"modified":"2019-04-05T19:12:36","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T19:12:36","slug":"im-always-forced-to-explain-my-race-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=47331","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m mixed race. That doesn\u2019t mean you can ask me, \u201cWhat are you?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m mixed race. That doesn\u2019t mean you can ask me, \u201cWhat are you?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Tempest<\/a>
\n2016-05-21<\/p>\n

Maya Williams<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

I’m not your exotic half-breed toy, so don\u2019t treat me, or anyone else, like one.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhich parent is white?\u201d many have asked me.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That question tends to bother me as much as the \u201cWhat are you?\u201d question, if not more on some days. Especially when people attempt to soften the blow with the statement \u201cYou\u2019re so good looking\u201d right before it.<\/p>\n

My mother has a father of white descent and a mother of black\/Cherokee<\/a> descent. My father has a father of black descent and a mother of black, white, and Chickahominy<\/a> descent. My mother identifies as biracial in most situations, and my father identifies as black in most situations. All three of my siblings and I identify as multiracial in most situations. Therefore, I find it unsettling that multiracial identity is \u201ccool\u201d when whiteness is in the mix, and especially when there are those so desensitized from mixed race people to the point of immediately asking, \u201cWhich parent is white?\u201d They don\u2019t understand that multiraciality is a thing \u2013 that there doesn\u2019t have to be a sole white parent to look the way I do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As exciting as it is to meet other mixed race people, I always get the most excited when I meet second generation mixed race people, especially if we have similar heritage breakdowns. When I was in middle school, I met this one girl who made me laugh when she said, \u201cYay, we\u2019re mixed-ded-ded!\u201d<\/p>\n

However, my story and my experiences as a mixed race person are not important unless my identity is placed in a binary. My interactions with black, white, biracial, and multiracial people in my family are not as newsworthy or intriguing. Second generation mixed people are an afterthought…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m mixed race. That doesn\u2019t mean you can ask me, \u201cWhat are you?\u201d The Tempest 2016-05-21 Maya Williams I’m not your exotic half-breed toy, so don\u2019t treat me, or anyone else, like one. \u201cWhich parent is white?\u201d many have asked me. That question tends to bother me as much as the \u201cWhat are you?\u201d question, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,395,8,20],"tags":[23983,23982],"class_list":["post-47331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-autobiography","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-maya-williams","tag-the-tempest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47331"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57876,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47331\/revisions\/57876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}