The multiracial population in the United States is growing at a swift rate, but what does it really mean to be multiethnic?

Melody Shahsavarani, 20, was born of an Iranian father and Armenian mother. Her parents were both from Iran. They met here in the United States where she was born and raised. She recalls her parents’ persistence to raise her in their own languages. “They were determined to only speak Armenian and Farsi in the house,” she said. “They believed English would be learned at school and from my “Sesame Street”.”
Shahsavarani grew up learning about her parents’ cultures and enjoying the different traditions. “In Iranian culture, there is the Persian New Year called Norooz,” she said. “Every year, since I could remember,I was always excited to set up our haft-seen, a table with different elements representing the New Year. My family would tell me stories about their times and my grandmother would give us new dollar bills placed in the Koran.”
James Simonsson, 30, was born in the Philippines but grew up in Sweden. He has a Swedish father and a Filipino mother. He moved here in the United States last year for college. Growing up, he remembers celebrating Swedish traditions, and, at the same time, learning about Filipino culture and values.
“I remember my mom telling me to answer her in that language she spoke to me, whether it was Swedish, Tagalog or English,” Simonsson related. “I remember her cooking Filipino food but also trying Swedish food and pastries. She was a good cook and enjoyed being in the kitchen, and having people over to enjoy it with us.”
Juan Armijos, 26, was born in Peru and grew up in Ecuador. He moved to the United States earlier this year to continue his education. His father was from Ecuador and his mother was from Peru.
“My father has taught me so many Peruvian dishes, even though he’s Ecuadorian,” he said. “That has always made me feel like he completely immersed himself in his spouse’s culture. And my mother has always been passionate about education in Ecuador, even though she’s from Peru.”
The most recently available Pew Research Center data showed that 6.9 percent of Americans over the age of 18 come from a mixed racial background. This percentage may look small, but their research shows that 46 percent of all multiracial Americans are younger than 18 years old. These numbers, moreover, are rising rapidly.
But despite the growth in racial diversity, there are still pressure for people with mixed racial background to identify with just one race. “About one-in-five multiracial adults say they have felt pressure from friends, family or from society in general to choose one of the races in their background over another,” Pew Research Center reported. “Multiracial adults feel the heat to identify as just one race more from ‘society in general’ than from family members or friends.
Growing up, children from mixed racial backgrounds still struggle with their multiracial identities. The need to fit in and identify with a certain group still plagues our society today. “In the first few years in elementary school it was weird,” Shahsavarani recalled. “In the third grade, during a show and tell presentation, I was so happy to go up and talk about the hijabs worn in Iran. Some kids laughed but at that time you could say they were too childish to understand.”
Shahsavarani also related how her parents had a hard time getting married. Her father is a Muslim Iranian and her mother is a Christian Armenian. Their families were initially against the marriage and gossip trailed her parents for years. “They went through a lot of struggles to get married to the extent where my mother’s parents did not accept it,” she said. “My mother had to go to the local church in Glendale and get my dad converted to Christianity, which he did for my mother.”
This is not only a problem here in the United States but around the world. “Around the early ‘90s in Sweden, it wasn’ t that common to see foreigners,” Simonsson said. “For some people it was unusual to see a person that is not a ‘typical Swede’ with blonde hair and blue eyes. I often felt that I wasn’t Swedish enough because of how I looked like, and not Filipino enough because I couldn’ t speak Tagalog that well.”
He lost his mother at the age of 10 and he felt like it was a huge factor in why he felt different to other kids. “For many years, I felt ashamed of being Filipino and brown-skinned,” he said. “I think if my mom was alive when I was growing up, I would’ ve felt differently about myself – more proud.”
Armijos remembers being taunted by other children growing up in Ecuador. “Sometimes I felt different from other kids,” he said. “In Ecuador, there are certain people that see the fact that you weren’t technically born there as a defining factor, even though you were raised there your entire life.”
But even though they experienced difficulties growing up, they still embraced their parents’ heritage. They felt that it gave them a better understanding of who they are and where they came from. They all agreed that the way they were raised helped them to be more open to other people and cultures. Being raised in multiethnic households gave them a different perspective of the world around them.
The most recent report by the U.S. Census Bureau estimated a huge expansion in the number of multiracial Americans from 2014 to 2060. See chart on page 8. One contributing factor to this growth is the increase of mixed race couples, which will result in children with mixed racial background. “The ‘Two or More Races’ population is projected to be the fastest growing over the next 46 years, with its population expected to triple in size (an increase of 226 percent),” the U.S. Census Bureau found. “This group is projected to increase from 8 million to 26 million between 2014 and 2060. Its share of the total population is projected to increase from 2.5 percent in 2014 to 6.2 percent in 2060.”
Furthermore, the Bureau projected an increase in diversity, in general, since the group of Non-Hispanic Whites has a negative percentage of population growth. Table by U.S. Census Bureau
“The U.S. population is also projected to become more diverse, as seen in the projected increases in the percentage of the population that is a minority – groups other than non-Hispanic White alone,” U.S. Census Bureau reported. “By 2044, the United States is projected to become a plurality nation. While the ‘non-Hispanic White alone’ population will still be the largest, no race or ethnic group is projected to have greater than a 50 percent share of the nation’s total.”
As the United States heads in the direction of plurality, bridging cultural gaps is becoming more important than ever. In just a few decades, the nation’s racial landscape will be more diverse than it has ever been and it is up to the people to come together.
Diane Roxas
Diane Roxas is a graduating student of Mass Communications at Glendale Community College. She is transferring to Cal State Northridge as a Journalism major in the fall.
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