New Words for Mixed Race People of Colour – With or Without White Ancestry

by Special Correspondent Thea Lim

Earlier this week, while writing about my affinity for Mariah Carey based on the fact that we are both mixed race, I forgot to mention something important. I forgot to clarify that, while me and Mariah are part white and part POC, there are a lot of people who are mixed race but have no white family members, or have all white family members.

It seems like an obvious point, yah? It seems obvious that a person is mixed race if their family is composed of more than one race. But you don’t need me to tell you that for many of us, the term mixed race is synonymous with being half-white. In other words, when we say mixed race, the assumption is that we are referring to people who have one white parent and one parent of colour. Or even one white parent and one black parent.

We assume mixed race people always have one white parent. We forget that children of part-white ancestry don’t have a lock on mixed raceness; you’re still mixed race if you have two parents of colour from different ethnic backgrounds. And (this one’s a shocker), technically you’re mixed race if you have two white parents from different ethnic backgrounds.

This is problematic in and of itself because we are erasing the experience of mixed race people who don’t have white ancestry. But further, it’s simply another way in which we center white experiences in our culture. We don’t note the experiences of mixed race people without white ancestry because their combo leaves white folks out of the picture; a mix without whiteness is not considered worthy of comment. As a culture we continue to fail at conversations involving issues that have nothing to do with white people. Embracing and recognising our mixed race non-white brethren is yet another way that we can break the The Wheel of Tyranny.*

Usually when I write about mixed race issues, I write about mixed race people who have one parent of colour, and one white parent. This is because this is my experience. And usually, I stick a little note at the end of my post explaining my use of the term “mixed race.”

From last June:

Alibhai-Brown uses mixed race to refer to people who are part white and part of colour, so that’s how I’m using it here. But yes! I do agree that mixed race really refers to people of any mix. Which includes at least half of North America.

From last August:

Let’s also note that defining “biracial” as half-white and half-something else is not accurate! Like you could be half Pakistani and half Malaysian. You’d still be biracial! Let’s stop ignoring the experiences of people who are mixed race but have two parents of colour. Doing otherwise makes it seem like the mixed race experience is only remarkable when a white person is involved – it insists white experiences be included.

Last week, it seems like I promptly forgot. Commenters queerhapa and Death of a Dynasty noted my error:

queerhapa wrote:

oh, and i know you’re mostly talking about mariah, who is half white, but a couple times in here it is implied that all mixed-race people are part white. which, obviously, is not true. just wanted to point that out.

Death of a Dynasty wrote:

Queerhapa is right that the article implies half-whiteness. It’s a trend that demands more than just a disclaimer. This albeit beautifully written and moving article implies that the experience of being mixed is also always about white privilege and guilt.

So why did I forget? Part of it is that I guess I think of my writing on Racialicious as a continuous conversation, and if I’ve said something once, I don’t think to repeat it again. But obviously not everyone has read every post I’ve written on the site. Part of it was just plain f-ing up, and for that I am sorry.

Yet, another part of it is that, like Death of a Dynasty, I agree that we need more than just endnotes to correct the constant assumption that mixed race means half-white. This is what I said in response to queerhapa:

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