Yi Wei Cultural Event Paper 1

Cultural Event
Belonging Nowhere, Belonging Everywhere:
Multicultural Identity

Introduction to Ethnic & Racial Studies

ERS 100 Sec. 07
Yi Wei

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Culture Event
I went to see a culture event about Belonging nowhere, Belonging Everywhere:
Multicultural Identity in the Hall of Nations, Centennial Hall on the University of Wisconsin-La
Crosse Campus, on September 24, 2013, which was hosted by The Intercultural Organization
Promoting Awareness (IOPA). This event was made up of mixed-blood students in the University
of Wisconsin-La Crosse and told us about what their feelings were in being children from an
intermarriage. The event considered a lot of racial or ethnic problems in their life, because they
are identified differently.
I interpret "mixed-blood" to mean an offspring of parents of different races; i.e. having
different ethnicity, skin color and geographical roots in general. For example, having a Japanese
mother and African father.
There were 5 inter-blood students in this event. And the main topic in this event was Who I
am. And this event was a Question-Answer model I think, because it had lots of questions
coming from the audience that the inter-blood students answered from their special point of
view. The words I heard from the event were about motivating them, making them try harder.
The first one was Mexican-African American who answered the question: Do you think you are
in the second class when you are in schools and doing sports? What is the community you are in?
Are you comfortable to interview for jobs, work and communicate with white people?
I will introduce them to you. There is a Mexican-Korean answering this question and he
thinks he does not have any special feelings about this, because he thinks all of us are the same.
I am the same as Mexican and also Korean he said, When I went to the church with my
mother who is Korean, she always want to teach me the language of Korea but I cannot accept it
as well. And another man, Martin, who is Chinese-American said that his Chinese mother gave

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up her culture to marry with his father and so he thinks he should adapt this mixed-blood
situation for responsibility. A girl, who has an Indian father and white mother, thinks she should
make her family proud of her even though she is so shy in daily life. A girl who is outgoing and
has a white mother and black dad, said that she knows other mixed-blood families and all of
them are successful in their education and their careers.
Then the next question in the event was Do people treat you differently when they know
that you are a mixed-blood person? What do you feel about that? Tell your story. Martin was the
first one to talk about this. He said, Some people may think I will be annoyed about being
treated differently. But to be honest, I will not be annoyed but just feel uncomfortable. I know I
am different from them. Now, the interviewer stood up and said, Wherever I am, everyone will
define me to be black or African because of my face color, or asked me something like, where
are you from in Africa? She feels so powerless to resist it. And next a beautiful girl who has a
white mom and black dad said that almost everyone will define her as an American because her
face color is white. Next is the Mexican-Korean man who has a strong feeling in this question.
When I came back to Korea, people who are native Korean will not play with me because they
think I am a stranger. To be honest, I do not understand what they are talking about. I do not
know any Korean but imagine what they are talking about, he said, sadly. He just felt he could
not be a Mexican or a Korean because of his intermarried parents. And the Mexican-African
woman said that almost everyone defines others through personal color or what she looks like.
She said it can be dealt with but please do not judge depending on what we look like. We, interblood people, do not want to give up any one of our intermarriage cultures. Also, we do not want
to prove that we prefer one over another. And the last lady said, Yes, the culture is confusing
for me. Even I, I do not know who I am, or which culture I should belong to. But I know I look

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like a white person but I still have the black culture. I cannot get rid of it. Just keep it.
Then they shared stories to connect with each other. They all said race had a large impact in
class activities. They are considered to be middle class or lower class among normal people. But
they say they all can adapt to it just like they have to adapt mix-festivals, for example, Christmas
or African Day.
I did learn something from this event. I was shocked at the first sight by this event because
of the discrimination for the students who have intermarried parents. I really do not know why
people have the preconceptions to identify a person based on which race they belong to. It is
common, but it may hurt someone like intermarried children. We should respect everyone no
matter what race they belong to. If you respect everyone then you will get respect from others
also. If everyone can do this, discrimination will not exist in America, or even the world.
If these things happened to me, I think I would have to be brave to face this dilemma and
try hard to change this position or the biases of people. I do not think I will be comfortable about
this position. They would think I was different, but I should not accept this or adapt to this. I
would say I am the same person as you. We are all people and what you can do is the same as
what I can do. If I treat multiracial people differently, I think I would not be comfortable at all,
because in my mind, I always have the sense of everyone should be the same. Even though I
do not have any religion, I still know people who do have religion are the same as me. Why
should they be treated differently? We all have two eyes, one nose, two ears and one mouth.
Obviously we are the same. We are people and we are living on the earth, which is a big family.
These misleading beliefs among people, I think, should not exist at all. It is unfair to treat people
differently, also it is not right to believe someone is subordinate or inferior.
In fact, I am pure Chinese and did not know much about the history of America before. But I

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learned something about the interracial marriage laws which I think is a focus of this event.
Interracial marriage is the marriage of two people that come from different races or different
countries, like African American and American, Asian and American, Asian and Asian American.
Interracial marriage in the United States has been fully legal in all US states since the 1967
Supreme Court decision that deemed anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, with many states
choosing to legalize interracial marriage at much earlier dates.
Some of my friends here are mixed-blood. Personally, I can imagine what they think and
what they feel when they are in schools or other communities. Because of the different face
colors and different expressions, they are considered to be a wrong race. I accidentally
considered them pure Chinese before.
One of them is that when I met a Chinese American girl, Andy Wang, in the first week of
studying here, I spoke a lot of Chinese to her and told her where I came from, my name and my
major. But to be surprised, when I spoke all the things in Chinese, she was confused. She only
speaks English. I was really embarrassed at that time, because I had mistaken that she was
Chinese. She looked beautiful in the crowd and when I saw her at the first sight, I believed she
was Chinese. But I was wrong. I do understand what they feel when they are considered to be
another race in this event, because after that we became good friends, Andy told me a lot of these
kinds of things happened before. She said, to be honest I do not know how to speak Chinese
and I just went to China once. My mother is a typical Chinese woman but she gave up her own
culture to be married with my father, which made them face an obstacle--having an interracial
child. I grew up in the United States and got a good education here. But I also faced problems
making friends with Americans even though I spoke English for 20 years. They all thought I was
Asian because I look like a pure Asian who does not have brown curly hair.

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All these words make me sad. Andys feeling between Asian and American is the same
experience as this event. Even though they feel comfortable about being misidentified, I think it
should be changed. The Mexican-Korean man, who looks like a pure Korean, faced struggles in
Korea. Native Koreans did not want to play with him and thought he was not a normal person,
like a monster. What I learned from this event and my good friend Andy is that they are put in
this special situation by the society. They can get the same education but they are excluded from
racial communities. They are not accepted by a real community like Americans, Asians or
Africans even though their nationality is American. Because of their looks, they are considered
to be in a wrong community at many times. How terrible it is! How do they feel about it? They
are so brave to adapt to this, I think. According to the girl who has a white mother and black
father, all her families are successful in schools and their careers. They are studying hard and do
their best. We ourselves should change our minds to accept the mixed-blood people in our
society. I am comfortable making friends with them because I think they are the same people as
me. If I were a mixed-blood child, I would do my best to get into a community and be a part of
it.
According to lectures from ethnic class, this event was related to multicultural identity and
interracial marriage. The event identified the model of this multicultural development (Poston,
Root 1990) like personal identity, choice of group categorization which includes social status,
social support, personal and region of country, enmeshment, appreciation and integration. Also
this event focused on ethnicity, race and occupation. What does race mean? From the
phenotype part, it is a biological term that refers to how people look including our visual
anatomical features such as skin color, facial features (eye shape or color) hair texture or color.
From genotype part, it is genetic traits inherited from parents.

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Because the multicultural children have different cultural mothers and fathers, the children
should define themselves in the society. They are a part of both countries even though they are
mixed-blood. The speakers in the event almost had the same age, which is 23 years old, and are
all studying in the University of Wisconsin Lacrosse. They get an education here but
unfortunately are considered to be uncertain races in the United States because of their mixedblood.
We also cannot identity the Chinese-American man named Martin to be Chinese or
American. If he has lots of American friends or lived in America forever, would he be regarded
as an American? I do not think so. Americans cannot accept him because he does not look like an
American even though his native language is English. To contrast, if he went to China, but he
can only speak English, Chinese will think, Is he Chinese? Or American? Nobody can give
him an identity of Chinese or American. What he chooses to be is not right according to this.
Which country should he belong to? He is already enmeshed in America, which is over his
Chinese culture in his mind. In the end, he should accept integration--a more fully appreciated
multicultural identity and existence.
In the acceptance of their cultures, they have common points, which is assimilation and
pluralism. According to lectures, assimilation is cultural or physical integration of various
ethnic or racial groups into a society. Pluralism is cultural or physical separation of various
ethnic or racial groups in a society, including expulsion and annihilation.
Also this event contradicts what we discussed in class. Obviously, one of their parents must
be an immigrant from a different country. And through this, their marriage will be an
intermarriage or interracial marriage. According to First Immigration Stream: The Fourteenth
Amendment, it told that guarantee rights as citizens to Europeans and African Americans, 1868.

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Firstly guaranteed citizenship to every person born in the US. Secondly, made each person a
citizen of the state. Thirdly, defined specific rights of citizens. Fourthly, protected them against
power of state governments. So from that time, people should have the sense to treat the
intermarriage children as the same.
Last week, we had the class about Asian Americans: Then & Now, which I think
influenced the ways I understood and interpreted this event. According to the lecture, in the
nineteenth century, Asian immigrants thought of themselves in terms of ethnic groups from
particular prefectures, rather than nationality and Pan-Asian. By the 1940s, Asian immigrants
and their Asian American children thought of themselves in terms of nationality. Beginning in
the Mid 1960s an Asian American civil rights movement began to emerge with increased bilingualism or exclusive use of English, emergence of multi-group suburban centers,
outnumbering of immigrants by Asian American children and breakdown of racial, ethnic and
economic barriers. This movement increased inter-ethnic marriage, which grows racial
consciousness, was similar socioeconomic status and the population increasing and
concentration.
After we finished the lecture, we watched a movie which influenced me a lot. The movie
was Being Hmong means Being Free. Hmong Americans have different cultures from
Americans. But they still work hard in school and business. Because of their different culture, at
many places, they are treated differently even if they are smart. They are discriminated against
by Americans. People did not understand their culture and they thought it was impolite and
strange for children to spit in front of people. They kept their culture even though they were
treated differently when they were living in America. The heritage of the culture is still in their
mind. In my opinion, I believe that it is right for everyone in the world to keep their culture and

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nobody can deprive others of their culture, just like people have different religions in the world
and no one can force you to believe in Buddhism or Christianity. We are just and free. What we
can do is to work hard to change others views. In China, we have a proverb saying that You
should have this motion: it is that you should take actions to adapt to your society or
environment rather than the society adapting to you. This proverb I think is most suitable for
this movie or the actions of Hmong Americans. It is what I learned.