Home & Home. The final comic in my series about my heritage.
You can read the other ones here.
I’ve never related more. Thank you op for an incredibly beautiful depiction of mixed life that I never could seem to put into words.
I am also white-passing but my brother is predominantly Asian-looking (thx independent assortment!). I cannot count the number of times I had to explain he was not adopted. Not to mention the number of times I felt like punching someone in the kidneys for saying some racist bullshit when they think they’re in a “safe zone” in the presence of all white people. The dread I feel when someone asks about my heritage and expects some three word answer, or the mini existential crisis that occurs when filling out bubbles on surveys that don’t include “other” or a multiple selection option. Feeling out of place when trying to learn about your heritage, like you have to prove yourself in one community, and feeling like an invisible undercover agent in the other. Witnessing (and in my brother’s and mom’s and aunt’s cases, experiencing) all the negatives of being a part of a minority culture without the support and community that it should provide because that’s just how being 2nd or 3rd or 4th generation life goes when all your relatives are just so far away now, both geographically and personally.
But strangely… feeling unexpectedly at ease whenever you come across an aspect of that culture in your daily routine, like making a meal, reading the newspaper, visiting a specialty grocery shop, discussing funny habits with friends that you never noticed… being mixed is curse in some ways, but also a blessing because it forces you to struggle, and to see the world in shades and spectrums and microcosms rather than black or white.
Thank you so much for adding your comments! It always means so much to me to hear what other people have experienced, and how being mixed has shaped them, both the good ways and the bad.
