My dad is from Puerto Rico and my mom was born and raised in America. Being biracial is something that has been surprisingly a big deal in my life, even though it is an extremely small part of who I am. I am constantly being asked weird questions or having to explain myself in one way or another.
One question that I am constantly asked is “What are you?”, which is definitely one of the worst things you can ask any person of color. This question just sounds so rude, it basically implies that since I am not white (or at least not obviously white) that I am not even a human, rather something of rarity that warrants being gawked at. The best way to answer this question? Tell them that you are a human.
Another question I often get asked is “That’s your mom?!?!” People are constantly thrown off by the fact that my mom is white. I definitely understand that seeing me with my somewhat dark skin and dark hair, a white lady is not someone you would expect to be related to me, but that’s life. I am definitely not the only person in the world with brown skin who has a white mother, it’s 2016, get with it.
This next thing has a lot more to do with me being Puerto Rican than it does with being mixed, but I feel like it still needs to be mentioned. People are always touching my hair. Like, they just decide that it is their property and they can do whatever they want to it. My hair is absolutely insane, and you putting your hands all over it is not helping.
One of my favorite (and by that I mean least favorite) questions that I receive is “Oh, well then you’re basically white,” or vice versa. This bothers me to no end. I am half white and half Hispanic, so I’m not “basically” anything. Both sides of my ethnicity are important to who I am and how I grew up and I am not just going to pretend like one half of my culture does not exist. I am not just Hispanic, and I am not just white. Pretending to be just one race when I am in fact both, is basically just ignoring the existence of one of my parents and all of their relatives.
Speaking of erasing my culture, filling out forms about my race has always been a challenge for me. You see, one section often says “ethnicity” and includes Hispanic and not Hispanic, and the race section includes a bunch of races that I do not identify with and then it has “white (non-Hispanic)”, which is insane because I am both but there is not accurate way to express that. I usually just check prefer not to answer, because what’s the point of filling out my race anyway.
Another problem with being mixed is that I never actually felt like I fit anywhere. When I speak with other Hispanics and they ask me if I speak Spanish and I tell them that I don’t, they look at me and I can just tell they think less of me. People think I am not a good Spanish person because I am not fluent in Spanish. It is an unfair and frankly stereotypical stance to presume that I speak Spanish and that if I am not fluent that I am not truly Hispanic.
On the other hand, I’ve always been at a distance with white people as well. Try as we might, our country can’t seem to get away from de facto segregation, so when there is a group of white people hanging out, I don’t exactly fit in with them and when there is a group of Hispanic people hanging out, I don’t feel invited there either. However, I do feel that this is beneficial to me as a person. Throughout my life, all of my friend groups have been extremely diverse and I feel that while this has a lot to who I am as a person and what type of people I value, I think it is also due in part to being mixed. Not fitting into any of these groups has forced me to talk to people who do not care about these things. I am glad that I get all of these diverse people in my life and they have helped make me a better person.
As a women who is half Hispanic and half white, I’d like to think that I can see things from two unique view points. I get to view things from the side of an Hispanic person as well as a white person. This has made me realize the covert racism that exists in America, but it has also allowed me to see white privilege first hand. Being mixed allows me to sympathize with people of both the minority and the majority. Sympathizing with the minority is easy, since my looks cause people to see me as a minority and therefore treat me as one, I have faced some racist remarks in my life. However, being half white also allows me to see racism from a different perspective. A lot of people think that it is okay to joke about white people because there is no such thing as reverse racism (which is true), but being half white allows me to see how people can be prejudiced towards white people and how it effects them. No story is ever one sided, and my race helps me see that clearly.
Being both Hispanic and white has caused a lot of confusion and irritating questions throughout my life, but it has also provided me with experiences I never would have had otherwise. I am grateful and proud of who I am every day, and I love my family to no end. I am a proud Hispanic, a proud caucasian, and a proud biracial woman.