5 Reasons Why It’s Cool to Be Mixed

I. Best of All Worlds

Mixed people have at least two different cultural backgrounds, meaning that they could have grown up with two different cuisines, two different traditions and holidays, two different languages, two sets of values, and two different countries to visit.

For me that meant visiting Japan at the mere age of 6-months, eating more rice and miso soup than I did pancakes, developing a taste for red bean deserts and Starbucks Frappuccino’s, learning how to speak Japanese through my mom and Japanese Saturday school, and celebrating New Year’s with traditional Japanese foods.

For as long as I can remember, I have been a notoriously picky eater. When visiting family in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where tasty Asian food didn’t exist, the only thing I could and would eat was spaghetti. Thankfully, there was always a restaurant that served delicious spaghetti. One of my favorite meals was my White grandmother’s carrot and onion soup. Because I liked eating it so much, my mother learned how to cook it, and now she has passed the lesson on to me. Hopefully, I will be able to share the recipe with my children.

While my White grandfather taught me how to ski and fish at his picturesque cabin in Wyoming, my Japanese grandfather taught me about the dangerous Yakuza (Japanese mafia) and took my mother and I to a Ryokan (Japanese-style hotels), where we soaked in hot baths with mountaintop views and dined on 5-star Japanese meals.

In Japan, I learned how to bow deeply and say specific phrases when entering peoples’ houses. My favorite memory occurred when 3 generations of our family sat around a small kotatsu table eating a delicious homemade dinner.

From Cheyenne to Yokkaichi, Japan, I experienced life in the rural countryside of gorgeous Wyoming, and the crowded city life of Yokkaichi. Without these experiences, I would not have had a strong understanding of both cultures.

II. Unique, Diverse Perspectives

Without my Japanese mother, how else would I have learned the Japanese values of not wearing shoes in the house, always offering gifts in reciprocity or shopping only for deals at the supermarket?

Without my father, who would have over-corrected my essays, gave me personal grammar lessons and taught me how to pronounce “Proust” properly? With two very different backgrounds, I have a more encompassing perspective that allows me to relate to Asian and White people.

The ability to visit your family’s country from a young age leads to a strong cross-cultural awareness, and can sometimes lead to life-changing, innovative solutions.

One young teenager spent her summers in the Philippines visiting her mother’s family, and began corresponding with a good Filipino friend, who was failing school because she didn’t have electricity and couldn’t complete her homework.

Ann Makosinski decided to make a difference and built a few prototypes before creating an inexpensive flashlight powered solely from the heat from her hand. For her invention at the Google Science Fair competition, she won a $25,000 scholarship and a visit to the Lego Group HQ in Denmark.

Without her experiences in a foreign country and building a cross-cultural friendship, Ann would not have created such an innovative product that will improve the lives of many people.

III. Empathetic and Understanding

When my mother first arrived in the United States at age 25, she spoke only two English words with a thick accent, and very little money. Fast-forward 20 years, and she is now relatively fluent and very happy to be living in San Francisco.

Because of her heavy accent, I have had to interrupt nasty customer service calls and demand better service. Even when my mother was asked repeatedly if she was my nanny, my mother never took it to heart. Instead of viewing her experiences as a hardship, my mother fearlessly faced all her obstacles and continues to roll with the punches.

When my mother began studying for the US citizenship exam, my father and I helped quiz her and listened to repetitive audiotapes in the car. It was a fun, exciting time for all of us, and a valuable experience for me to help my mother pass the exam.

Without an Asian mother, who spoke limited English and needed me to explain things to people, or write her emails, I would not have been as empathetic or aware of the challenges people face with first-generation parents. Now, I have the ability to empathize with a wider network of people.

IV. Diverse Gene Pool

With a blend of genetics, the child is theoretically healthier, stronger and potentially more intelligent than the opposite — inbreeding.

Remember the Habsburg family who continually married their first cousins, their nieces and other close relatives? Eventually, it led to a severely disabled and impotent child, Charles II of Spain.

He could not speak until he was four, and he could not walk until he was 8. The Habsburg family had prominent chins, distorted facial asymmetry, physically smaller, and poor immune system.

Nowadays, only a handful of people are inbred, so the argument is dated. Even so, the more the gene pool diversifies its portfolio, the healthier the individual becomes, theoretically.

V. Positive Stereotypes

Mixed people are considered gorgeous / handsome. Thankfully, it’s a positive stereotype. While some may argue that it’s turning mixed people into a fetish, I argue that a positive stereotype is an opportunity.

Why not make the best of it, and use it to your advantage? I definitely appreciate the stereotype. When I attend networking sessions or large events in general, my appearance attracts attention and generates questions about my ethnicity.

While I used to question why people were even asking, I now embrace the fact that my facial blend generates thought-provoking questions. It’s nice to be noticed and it’s an opportunity to share more about my various cultures.

By constantly having the opportunity to define who we are, mixed people may be more self-aware, open to unique ideas and empathetic. Having a diverse gene pool and the best of all cultures, we also have the choice to identify however we please, even if others question it.

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What are your thoughts? Please let me know. Thank you for reading this post.