Within the past four weeks, the perspectives I have gained were extremely diverse. Out of my prospective fourteen participants, I have interviewed eight of them. Half of the participants identify fully as Black, some of whom are mixed within ethnicities often of African descent (Cuban, Puerto Rican, Haitian, etc.), while the other half identify as mixed-race. These interviewees indirectly reference at least one other person in the completed pool. For instance, one interviewee recalled how she knew people who identified racially as whatever the outside world perceived them to be, regardless of their ethnic heritage. Coincidentally enough, a man that I interviewed a few days prior stated that he often identifies as Hispanic, despite being of Ashkenazi Jewish and Black heritage.

All of the interviewed participants agreed that it is mostly the African American community that often conflates the words “biracial” and “mixed” with particularly Black and White ancestry. They also all believed that this is reductive, as it ignores other identities that are a combination of two groups of color: a racial identity that would not benefit from white supremacy where a Black-White combination potentially would. Some examples included Black and Asian descent, Black and Indigenous descent, and  Black and Hispanic descent. These combinations also provide interesting perspectives on the relationship one has with their Black community depending on which parent was of Black descent. Based on my exploration of social media posts in places like TikTok or Twitter, there is a common idea being expressed that individuals born mixed with a non-Black mother show racism, bias, or ignorance towards their Black heritage and community. Within this theory, the non-Black parent is also usually White, thus forwarding the assumption that mixed heritage means only Black and White heritage. However, some of my participants provided further nuanced insight into that generalization. One interviewee specified that she didn’t grow up with a Black-White perspective of mixed-race individuals at all. Growing up in the South during the Vietnam War and its aftermath, she had noted any mixed-race children she knew were mixed with Black and Vietnamese or Cambodian. She also specified that those children were proud to be Black and Asian, and they never felt alienated from either or showed prejudice towards their Black heritage and community. All interviewed participants also agreed that an individual does not need two Black parents to be considered Black, another sentiment that I have found on internet forums and social media sites. In fact, many of these participants seemed irritated at such a statement, often calling it “ridiculous,” “reductive,” or “stupid.” 

In our discussions, interviewees from older generations did not have very in-depth and nuanced ideas of race. To many, race was simply a single-worded category, a label without many complexities. Some even thought that the concept of race itself is not adequate and is overgeneralizing regarding someone, that it is humanity that matters. There are a few exceptions, though, as some of this older pool were academics that taught or spoke at universities, some particularly in Africana Studies. Humanity-based responses often came from individuals in the older generation who grew up in strong African American communities. However, the younger generation, particularly those of Gen Z, had much more detailed expressions of their understanding of racial history. These younger individuals’ responses to the questions were much more rooted in Black history in the United States and other areas like Africa and the Caribbean. However, all interviewees except for one agreed that African Americans are the dominating group in the diaspora who have a habit of imposing their definitions of Blackness and Black culture on other Black diasporic communities. An example of this being used in my research includes Naomi Osaka, a woman of Japanese and Haitian descent, getting her "Black card" revoked by African Americans when she chose to play for Japan. The interviewees agreed that it is a byproduct of Americentrism and the belief that their definition of Black and their histories as Black people in America are the only experiences. However, it must be said that they are only referring to some individuals, both historically and in personal experience, not the entire ethnic group. With these remarks, these participants also agreed that this behavior is reductive and harmful in the quest for Black liberation, as it also creates division and venom amongst the diaspora when they should instead be focusing on who they believe to be the true orchestrator of their suffering worldwide: white supremacy.