mixed up

How two Persian millennials remain culturally connected while playing by their own rules

Persian millenials

So I’ve been working on my documentary, Mixed Up, a little bit over a year. The film is centered on parenting someone of a different race. We’ve conducted over 70 interviews with interracial couples and their bi/multiracial children, as well as interracial families brought together by adoption, to ask about their understanding of their racial identity. Over the course of this year, I’ve become extremely interested in racial identity as a whole. Who are you? How do other people see you? Are the two related?

Every now and again I like to take my camera and rome the streets of Los Angeles to explore people’s experience in relation to identity and race. On this particular trip, I had a chance to talk to two Canadians visiting L.A., Silver Lucia (right) and Jay Changizi (left). They speak on remaining culturally connected and not allowing themselves to be defined by mainstream stereotypes.

Q: How do you feel you’re portrayed in the media?

JC: I hate how people talk about Muslims. I mean we are such an easy scapegoat everytime something happens. I remember when 9/11 happened I was in college and first I freaked out because, even though we are in Canada we all feel like we are on one soil. My second fear was they are going to stick this on us and I knew right away that my life as a Middle Eastern would never be the same .

SL: When you meet people and you tell them your Persian they are like ‘people are crazy over there.’ That’s always the only thing people say. People are not crazy they just put everyone in the same boat. It’s who is on top. It’s the government. It’s the dictator. It’s not us and people just don’t see the difference.

JC: You’re taking the most impoverished area and saying that is what represents the entire country. Imagine taking the most impoverished backwoods hillbilly Americans and saying ‘this is what represents all of the U.S. so don’t go there or don’t deal with them.’

Q: Do you feel the pressure to assimilate?

SL: I’m so proud to tell people I am Iranian, I am Persian and people like it. Most of the time it’s like omgosh your Persian and it’s only stupid people who are like ‘aww your Arabic well you guys are all the same to me.’ I will never lie about who I am to different people ever.

JG: I think there’s different experiences because living through 9/11 as an adult and trying to travel and trying to get around, I felt that there was pressure to make a little bit of a concession on who I was at times. Before coming here, one of the first things my mother told me is “shave your beard. Don’t try to pass the border with a beard. Don’t say anything. Don’t get in anyone’s way.” There is always this idea of we will be the first to be pegged or pulled to the side and put into some kind of trouble.

SL: I’m never gonna change for anyone and I’m never going to lie for anyone. I feel like I integrate well. I’m not causing trouble to anyone. I’m really open minded. I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong. So if people want to judge me because I am Persian that’s their issue not mine.

JG: I think they judge you because you have tattoos.

Q: Do you think there’s a cultural generational gap between younger Persians, growing up in America and those who have immigrated here at an older age?

JG: I think it’s really funny because I have a younger cousin about 10 or 12 years younger than me and he speaks better farcy than I do and listens to Persian music. Where as me growing up, we were first generation immigrants and I tried to assimilate as much as possible. My cousin, being born here, he’s like I am Canadian so the prime objective is to become Persian.

Rose Espiritu is a Nigerian and Filipino filmmaker from Louisiana. She has always had an interest in identity development in relation to race. In 2013, she began filming Mixed Up: The Documentary. The film is an interactive investigation into the parental influence of racial identity development in children of interracial families. Rose has conducted over 70 interviews with interracial couples and their bi/multiracial children, as well as interracial families brought together by adoption, to ask about their understanding of their racial identity. Rose also founded the company Culture Chest, which is a subscription service that carefully curates divers books for children ages 3-8. Find us at @CultureChest! You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram @roseespiritu_

Mixed Up: The Documentary is an interactive investigation into the parental influence of racial identity development in children of interracial families. Follow us to keep up with our progress FB: Mixed Up Documentary @mixedupdocu

Growing up Biracial in the South

By Rose Espiritu

So I’ve been working on my documentary, Mixed Up, a little bit over a year. The film is centered on parenting someone of a different race. We’ve conducted over 70 interviews with interracial couples and their bi/multiracial children, as well as interracial families brought together by adoption, to ask about their understanding of their racial identity. The majority of my interviews have been in urban locations such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York etc. I was extremely excited to have the opportunity to interview folks in my home state of Louisiana. Here is a sneak peak of one of the interviews.

Q: How do you identify and why?

A: I identify as black. I think it’s because I grew up in the south, so we’ve always had the one drop rule. Growing up at a very young age my dad explained to be that although my mom was white the world would always see me as a black girl first. The best example I can give you is

“I’ve never been in a room of black people where I felt like I’m the only white person here, but I have been in rooms full of white people were I know I am the only black person there.”

Q: What factors influence how people choose to identify?

A: We live in a society where race is learned. So it really depends on the community you come from. I think if you grow up around black people a lot of times you identify with certain cultural things that are happening within that community. But beyond that even when you are in a diverse or white community, if people see you as black than that is what you begin to identify as.

Q: Why would you be reluctant to marrying a white man?

A: My grandmother wants me to be able to identify with and always remember that I’m black because she went through a real struggle and she wants to relate to me. She’s like you’re so beautiful, you’re so smart. She wants to think of me as an extension of her legacy. She was born a sharecropper, she didn’t have a lot of education but she did the best she could. But because I’m getting an education and I’m traveling it’s like everything she did wasn’t in vain, and she wants my kids to relate to her. If at some point I marry white. My kids might feel like they can’t identify with my grandmother. I think that’s my biggest fear.

Q: Do you think mixed children are reducing racism?

A: I don’t necessarily think that mixed children are reducing racism. What I think is that the more mixed kids that we have the more people will relate to two different races or three different races. And I read somewhere recently that the reason why the LGBT issue has really taken off and grown exponentially is because everybody knows someone gay. But not every white person has a black person in their family. Well my white family does have a black person in their family, they have three, me and my sisters.

Rose Espiritu is a Nigerian and Filipino filmmaker from Louisiana. She has always had an interest in identity development in relation to race. In 2013, she began filming Mixed Up: The Documentary. The film is an interactive investigation into the parental influence of racial identity development in children of interracial families. Rose has conducted over 70 interviews with interracial couples and their bi/multiracial children, as well as interracial families brought together by adoption, to ask about their understanding of their racial identity. Rose also founded the company Culture Chest, which is a subscription service that carefully curates divers books for children ages 3-8. Find us at @CultureChest! You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram @roseespiritu_

Mixed Up: The Documentary is an interactive investigation into the parental influence of racial identity development in children of interracial families. Follow us to keep up with our progress FB: Mixed Up Documentary @mixedupdocu

Growing up Half Mexican and Half Chinese

By Rose Espiritu Photo by Kierston Clark

So I’ve been working on my documentary, Mixed Up, a little bit over a year. The film is centered on parenting someone of a different race. We’ve conducted over 70 interviews with interracial couples and their bi/multiracial children, as well as interracial families brought together by adoption, to ask about their understanding of their racial identity.

When talking about multiethnicity, most of the existing literature focuses on the experience of folks who are half black and half white. We had the opportunity to speak with Joseph Acez on his experience growing up half Mexican and half Chinese. In this interview he speaks on what it is like growing up as a second generation immigrant, assimilation, and other observations related to race relations. Double minority is the term for someone who is mixed with two minority races in the United States.

Q: Do you feel like you have more diluted sense of culture because you are biracial?

Joseph: I feel like my sense of being Mexican or Chinese are both diluted because I live in America. My parents also didn’t want me to stick out like a sore thumb so they really wanted me to embrace the American culture and fit in. Any interest I had in my culture mostly came from me being interested in the things about being Mexican and Chinese, rather than my parents instilling it in me.

Q: What challenges have you come across in relation to your multiethnicity?

Joseph: I was with my black friend the other day and we went somewhere and we were with a lot of black people and he said ‘this is great. We’re with a lot of black people; I’m comfortable.’ In that moment I realized I’m never going to run into a bunch of people who are half Mexican and half Chinese and feel “comfortable”.

Q: Do your parents have any opinions about your dating life?

Joseph: Growing up, my parents made sure that I knew I could date anyone outside of my race. They also let me know that they had troubles being together and that people didn’t want them to be together. Not just each other’s family, but people in general would think it was strange. They told me that I should be able to date whoever I wanted to date so it was never a thing for me.

Q: Is it possible to assimilate and hold onto your culture?

Joseph: My parents came from Mexico and China. They were poor so they came here to try to make a better life for themselves and they did which was great but while they were doing it they didn’t have fun because they were both immigrants and they didn’t fit in. You go to America and it’s your new home but it doesn’t feel like home. It’s interesting my dad has a Spanish accent when he speaks English but he has an English accent when he speaks Spanish because he’s lived here for so long. Same thing with my mom. What they wanted was for me to be very comfortable wherever I grew up, that’s why they didn’t teach me Spanish or Chinese, which I wish they did. Their hope was that I wouldn’t have to deal with any of the feelings of being an outsider.

Rose Espiritu is a Nigerian and Filipino filmmaker from Louisiana. She has always had an interest in identity development in relation to race. In 2013, she began filming Mixed Up: The Documentary. The film is an interactive investigation into the parental influence of racial identity development in children of interracial families. Rose has conducted over 70 interviews with interracial couples and their bi/multiracial children, as well as interracial families brought together by adoption, to ask about their understanding of their racial identity. Rose also founded the company Culture Chest, which is a subscription service that carefully curates diverse books for children ages 3-8. Find us at @CultureChest! You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram @roseespiritu_

Mixed Up: The Documentary is an interactive investigation into the parental influence of racial identity development in children of interracial families. Follow us to keep up with our progress FB: Mixed Up Documentary @mixedupdocu

They say;

half and Half,

quarter this, part That.

They ask;

What,

never Who.

They insist;

This looks Right,

but that must be Wrong.

They claim;

you are one of Us,

or you are one of Them.

I am no riddle, no puzzle,

not a problem to solve.

why not Double,

why not Whole?

why not Neutral,

why not All?

They say;

half and Half,

quarter this, part That.

They ask;

What,

never Who.

They insist;

This looks Right,

but that must be Wrong.

They claim;

you are one of Us,

or you are one of Them.

I am no riddle, no puzzle,

not a problem to solve.

why not Double,

why not Whole?

why not Neutral,

why not All?

By October 2014 Guest Blogger: Lill Salole

Lill Salole is a writer and speaker who holds an MA in Psychology. For over a decade, she has been working with issues concerning children and youth growing up in migrant and mixed families. She is particularly interested in issues of identity and belonging, as well as accessing resources in intercultural lives and communities. Salole comes from an international family and had a cross-cultural childhood. She is currently living in Oslo, Norway.

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