- I think I'm what Hollywood would call
ethnically ambiguous.
- When people first glance at me,
I mean the first thing they see is a white guy.
And usually I'll have to end up explaining
to people that I am half Mexican and half white.
- No one has ever been able to correctly identify
who I am my entire life.
- I've gotten Cuban, Puerto Rican,
Domincan, half black half white.
- People think I'm Asian.
- Egyptian, Polynesian, Asian.
- Fully white or fully Asian.
- Almost everyone misreads me in some way,
it's very hard to guess Danish and Indian
from a first glance.
- I've honestly heard everything.
- Sometimes I wish I could walk in
and just be recognized as a Mexican American.
- Sometimes people come up to me on the street
and start speaking Spanish frantically,
and I can't respond 'cause I don't speak Spanish.
- I find that depending on where I am,
people read me differently.
- They tend to think that I'm whatever they are.
People of Hispanic background think I'm hispanic,
people who are Asian think I look Asian.
- An interesting part of my journey
as a young multiracial person growing up
was rejection from both sides of my ethnic identity.
- That's something that I grew up with my whole life,
like I don't fit in,
I don't belong to any ethnic group 100%.
- I never saw myself as
different from anybody else
until some else pointed it out.
- The last thing you want to do is stand out.
You want to blend in as much as possible.
- We talk about race like it's this built in,
intrinsic thing.
But the reality is we're mostly talking about looks right?
- If i'm going to be white,
well then why can't I have blonde hair and blue eyes?
If I'm gonna be Mexican,
then why can't I have dark skin
and speak perfect Spanish?
People think I'm Asian,
why can't I be really tiny and skinny
and fit into all these stereotypes,
but I'm not a stereotype, I'm just me.
- And for mixed people who sort of
live in between the lines,
we sort of just have to be more than our racial background.
- You don't need to fit a mold
that other people think you should fit.
- It's difficult learning that you don't have to decide
what race you are.
- There's no textbook on how to be multiracial
and be okay with it,
you just have to forge ahead and be your own person.
- I am who I am, and no one else is like me,
and that's pretty cool.