Influence Of Biracial Identity

This stage of my adolescent life was very memorable. This was the time when my life was becoming more complicated as I struggled to find my own racial identity, and constantly questioning myself, “Who am I?” “Where do I belong?” while facing the pressure of “fitting in” as a biracial teen in prejudicial Asian society. In Subic Bay, Naval Base, Philippines, I spent 6 years in a culturally diverse environment, which meant as a child, I missed the memo that being “mixed” is not the norm. My healthy environment has changed drastically when my dad left and my mom brought me to Manila to live with my grandparents while she worked abroad. In Manila, I had experienced all kinds of prejudice from people who were constantly asking

I stopped signifying with only one race and fitting into some of the racial stigmas that people place on me. I also came up with a good conclusion: Biracial or multiracial people like me, are not “half-breeds,” “quarters-halves,” etc. We are humans. Fully. Period. Therefore, as a person, I have just as much right to embrace 100% of every race and culture I came from, just as much as everyone from a different race and culture who are not mixed. In other words, just because I am a product of more than one race does not make me half of it—half-black or a half-Filipino. No. I may be biracial, but I am not half-half; I am whole and whole. Black and Filipino; one spirit wrapped in a human skin, and my skin color, my hair, or the language I speak do not define my worth. I remember what my sociology professor told me once, and what I also remind my multiracial children today, “You don’t have to pick sides or choose one race to find your unique identity. You just have to define yourself and embrace all of you, every [ethnic/racial] ingredient with one hundred percent of your whole being, not half of