I once had a professor claim that in 50 years, everyone will be so racially "mixed" and therefore ambiguous, no one will be able to distinguish "what someone is," so race won't matter much anymore.

As a biracial individual who has been asked "What are you?" more times than not, race does matter. It matters more than many people choose to believe. Despite the fact that racial categories are arbitrary social constructs, race still has very real personal and public implications aside from blatant racism — which seems to be the only times race is actually is talked about.

Categorizing someone into a racial category upon meeting them happens instantaneously. For most people this isn't problematic because it's merely a harmless form of observation, but sometimes, regardless of intent, a person's race negatively or positively changes how someone is perceived and interacted with.

Ralina Joseph, associate professor in the communication, ethnic studies, and women's studies departments, and a woman of color, has experienced racially rooted assumptions when it comes to teaching. She explained how on a number of occasions on the first day of class while standing alongside a white male TA, students will wrongly address the TA as "professor," likely due to the image that comes to mind when one thinks of a person in this profession — i.e., a white man.

Being half-Japanese and half-Caucasian (predominantly Scottish), I straddle two sides of a racial spectrum, one foot in an American minority and the other in the majority. I've even been called "exotic," a Eurocentric term that labels me as a sort of racial commodity against which monoracial individuals may be measured. To some, my whiteness blended with Asian features automatically places me into the irritatingly vague racial category of "half-white, half-something," but there is much more to my identity than that.

I am also often labeled as strictly Asian, which doesn't offend me — I'm proud to be part Japanese — but that's just it, I'm only 50 percent Asian. Acknowledging only one side of a whole is marginalizing. Both my Asian and Caucasian sides are equally important to my identity, and have both been strongly influential factors in shaping who I am. This behavior demonstrates that many people care too much about classifying me into an easily understandable racial category while ignoring my take on my own race.

Further, race cannot be equated with ethnicity, the latter being an identification of geographic heritage and culture, while the former is typically an overgeneralized label. It is the misconception that everyone must fit into singular racial categories while ignoring specific ethnicities that partially perpetuates the myth that race is on its way to becoming irrelevant. In case you weren't aware, Asia contains nearly 50 countries, not just one.

Another common problematic racial assumption is that my white side makes me more Americanized than my full Asian peers. On the other hand, when some people realize I don't speak Japanese, my Asian authenticity is automatically degraded, as if linguistic ability has anything to do with my familial lineage and the personal significance this culture brings me.

UW senior and comparative history of ideas major Ruby Lee, who is half Korean and half Caucasian, predominantly identifies as "hapa" — a Hawaiian term that refers to a mixed race individual — and has faced similar racial categorization and confusion throughout her life.

While she grew up in mostly white social circles and originally thought of herself as white, she was never quite "allowed" by others to identify as white, nor as Korean, leaving her "floating" in a gray area of ethnic limbo.

"When people meet me, it's like a game to them," Lee said. "Because I can't be easily placed in a box, it's like they can't comprehend my identity, which makes them uncomfortable. It's taken a lot of introspection to realize I've always been geared towards being white, which has led to a lot of internalized racism."

Being placed in singular racial categories is something that is also constantly reinforced through seemingly harmless bureaucratic means.

"I never knew what box to check on standardized testing," said half-Japanese and half-Polish mechanical engineering junior Geoffry Grembowski, in reference to the conundrum of choosing what standardized racial categories he is socially required to fit into.

These racial boxes, whether figurative or on paper, have been the main influential factor in examination of my own race. I've realized the only racial identity crisis I've ever had didn't originate from within; it came from socially imposed pressure to identify as one side or the other, to act as how a white girl should, or to act more Asian. While my race is important to me because it has helped shape my identity and the way I view the world, it has nothing to do with my personality, as many assume. Race shouldn't matter — but it does. It's just a matter of perspective.


Emily Muirhead is a writer at dailyuw.com, click here to view the original article



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