bi-racial identities (CE4)

On Wednesday April 9^th, I attended a lecture titled “Bi-Racial Identities” at Chico State which was part of the Conversations on Diversity series.  The speech was conducted by Dr. Lopez who teaches several different courses on the subject of diversity.  She talked about the increasing percentage of bi-racial parents in our country, and talked about how even her daughter was the result of a mixed-race marriage.  Dr. Lopez brought up several interesting points on how bi-racial people identify themselves and how they are viewed in society.  She mentioned how her daughter felt out of place in a white dominated school.  Her daughter felt lost at times and didn’t know which group she belonged to.

After Dr. Lopez’s introduction speech, a movie was played about a Japanese/Caucasian athlete who told her story of living as a bi-racial person.  The girl described how she lived between the two different cultures as a child.  She had many Japanese friends through her traditional Japanese dance classes where she felt out of place because she didn’t look like the other Japanese girls.  She also felt out of place in her school because most of the children there were Caucasian.  When confronted about what her race was by her peers she felt embarrassed and uncertain because she felt she had no race.  As the girl grew older she began to take pride in her uniqueness and actually became a TV reporter.  Her new confidence in herself and her job brought her attention among viewers who wanted to know more about her life story.

The lecture on diversity ended with several different Chico State students (all of mixed races) telling their personal life stories.  They all made the point that they were proud of their identity and that despite feelings on not belonging as children, they grew to take pride in their differences.