More Than Whole: Thoughts on Being Biracial

By NTP*

Being biracial means always viewing yourself differently than others view you.

They look for how you are different rather than how you are the same.

Categorized for your cover and not your story.

You become tokenized for 1/2 of yourself.

But how can you ever be anything other than your full self?

It becomes possible in these moments when you realize,

this happened because they saw 1/2 of me.

You became minimized to just 1/2.

And when you look around, there is no one to tell you that that is not true.

That that is not you.

There is more to you than meets the eye.

After all don’t we all have more than one side?

But examine our media, look at our books.

It’s always one color, one history, one look.

You don’t get to be more than one thing if that’s not what they see.

And if you let others define you, “other” is the only box you’ll ever be.

Having two sides is beautiful and striking.

Like having glimpses into more than 1 world.

You are strong because you are carrying the histories of more than 1 race,

present are these burdens on all sides of your face.

You are empathetic to all even though you are understood by so few.

You are different and a force to be reckoned with no matter invisible or intangible.

Being biracial doesn’t make you 1/2, it makes you more than whole.

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*This piece was written by a friend who wishes to remain anonymous.*