Personal Narrative: My Biracial Identity

Do I know who I am? Am I who I think I am? What makes me, me.? There’s a lot to know, and still so much more to explore and learn about myself. There are three main aspects about my life, that symbolizes who I am as a person. My cultural identity is based upon values, appearance and my life itself. I love who I am, and who I am becoming. My happiness and intelligence is what makes me stand out from others. I’ve always put my best foot forward and make the best decisions for myself. I am half Indian, Caucasian, European & Mexican on my mom’s side of the family. On my dad’s, I am Half Jamaican on my dad’s side of the family. Both of my parents taught me different ways around life and what is expected of me. But the three things that sums up my cultural identity are food, fashion, and family traditions.

Exploring your ethnic roots will enhance your understanding of how your background has shaped you. I am a 24-year-old heterosexual Hispanic woman that was raised in Fresno, California in a Catholic family. As an able-bodied citizen, I considered my social class to be middle class because I always had the necessary resources growing up. Being raised within the Mexican culture has helped me identify with myself. I seek information from my parents to determine their experiences in the United States and how that has affected me today.

The thought “I’m Navajo, but somehow I’m not,” sometimes running through my head. Though I don’t feel normal, stuck on the border between Navajo and American, my ancestry lets me know who I

The Racial/Cultural Identity Development Model by Sue & Sue (2012), is an active example to understand clients’ attitudes and behaviors toward themselves and their culture as well as the culture of others. According to West-Olatunji, Frazier, Guy, Smith, Clay & Breaux (2007), “This model poses the following questions (Sue & Sue, 2003): (a) With whom do you identify and why? (b) What culturally diverse attitudes and beliefs do you accept or reject and why? (c) What dominant cultural attitudes and beliefs do you accept or reject and why? and (d) How do your current attitudes and beliefs affect your interaction with other culturally diverse clients and people of the dominant culture?

At first I wrestled with where my identity lay. The strong values and traditions of the Indian culture sometimes made it difficult to fit in with the crowd. As I grew older, I began to understand that I was not part of an individual culture, but a fusion of two rich and colorful histories. I recognized that there is remarkably more to an individual than where she comes from, and more to her than where she currently lives. Importantly, being from two cultures allows me to incorporate the best qualities of both.

Everyday I walk into my English class is the moment I experience an identity crisis. As I approach the entrance to the class, I already detected the dichotomy in the room. On the right side lies the Caucasian students, and on the left, resides the International Chinese students. As the only Asian American in the class, I struggle to select the correct side.

I am a daughter of a refugee and an immigrant. My father left Ethiopia and walked across several countries finally coming to America. While my mother came after 15 years since the communist advance into South Vietnam. I come from a household of parents from two different continents.Their arrival america gave an unique atmosphere in the household. The aroma of home-cook Vietnamese food and the constant shift between English and Vietnamese was my life was at home. My parents would frequently share their stories of their upbringings and struggles and how life here is very different.

As a Biracial woman who is also Bisexual, intersectionality and diversity are extremely important to me. As I matured, my ethnicity became increasingly important to me. Being biracial can be extremely isolating, and there can be a frequent feeling of not fitting in. I often feel stuck between two worlds, Black and White, Gay and Straight. As I grew up, I felt out of place around family, and unsure about my place in the world. I began taking steps to establish my own identity, interacting with a variety of different people, Christian teachers, Jewish friends, my Black mother, White father, and classmates that span multitudes of sexualities and ethnicities. As my life became more varied I came to see that the ties to both sides of my family

When filling out a questionnaire, it is only a matter of time before I come across the predictable: what is your race/ethnicity? I do not have to think long nor hard about my answer. In fact, I do not hesitate to pencil in African American. Why is that? It could very well be that at a glance my skin tone and accent is enough for people to quickly label me as such thus reaffirming my identity. Though, I know people with similar physical dispositions that struggle with the question every time it arises and others complain about the limited options that make them feel pigeonholed into too broad of an identity.

Maya Angelou once said, “Your ancestors took the lash, the branding iron, humiliations and oppression because one day they believed you would come along to flesh out the dream.” I am a black woman who isn’t tragically cursed by the color of my skin but privileged to to understand the trials of my ancestors. Within the works of Lorraine Hansberry, Zora Hurston, and Alice Walker, I have learned that as a black woman I must never let my creative mind go to waste because of the great oppression my ancestors have faced. Coming to Spelman has made me go through many challenges and has helped me to think outside of the box. With just reading the works of these creative black women and going in depth of these works has taught me lessons of how to appreciate my ancestry, to continue the dream, and never be afraid to take that jump with the knowledge that I am given.

The world is filled with people, and like snowflakes, each person is not the same as another. Each person identifies with different aspects of their lives to create their own personal identities. I personally identify with my Italian side of my family to help form who I am today. I have found myself connecting with this side more so than the other parts of my identity. It affects how I live my life by becoming the center to the culture surrounding me. However, my ethnic identity as an Italian American also influences how I live when it comes to my religion, and how my religion affects my life alongside my ethnicity. I will expand on this issue on how I express my ethnic and religious identity in regards to each other.

It took me so long to try and find where I fit and belong. I now know that my identity is something unique and individual and any person growing up, with or without immigrant parents, struggle to find

I identify as a Latina. I have always considered myself as a Latina, but throughout time, I believe that I have assimilated more into a white individual because of the privilege that I hold and because I have lived in the US most of my life. I have received mostly negative messages from those who are not from my ethnicity. My peers and I were told we wouldn’t graduate high school and be laborers for the rest of our lives. With the current politics, I believe that this still holds true where some people still hold stereotypes and give oppressing messages to Latinos. This exposed me to certain microaggressions, such as If I was really born here and if I speak English. I have received a mix of positive and negative messages from those who are of my same

I Am African American I am an African American female. My whole life I’ve been told this and let this one fact become my identity; but this may not be the best way to approach my race, and who I am as a person. As a child, the media and the people around me acted as if my race described my likes/dislikes, my level of intelligence, or even who I am as a person. This idea society has of African Americans is wrong for a majority of reasons, and I challenged it a long time ago.

Hello, I’m twenty two years old and I’m an African-American female. My major is Business Administration and I’m currently not a member of any sports teams, but In high school I was on the national honors society I have two social networking sites which are Facebook and Instagram. Additionally, I 'm also an older sibling to my two younger