Blasian Now...and in the Future

Fifteen years ago I sat in my first grade class as a hijab-clad, mixed-race anomaly. The headgear was an arresting enough distraction in a post-9/11 small town in Southern California and so I never gave much thought to how I stood out from my classmates in terms of race. It wasn't until high school that my classmates' questions shifted from the ever so eloquent "what's that thing you wear on your head" to "what are you?". We were now of an age to begin noticing 'important' things like race. My typical response, half Black half Chinese, usually resulted in a chorus of "coooool" or even a snickered "Chigger" (yup super offensive, but I think I laughed when I first heard that one). None of it really bothered me, but looking back as an adult living in a society that strives to be accepting of the many identities people have, I wonder at how far Western civilization has come in only a decade.

The term Blasian was first used in print in 2001 but really gained popularity around the time of Tiger Wood's scandal in 2009 (Washington). I mainly use the term to describe myself (after a brief stint of trying to make Blackenese a thing) but there are a range of other descriptions to choose from like halfie, mixed, biracial, and Afro-Asian. I struggle with Afro-Asian for the same reason I am less likely to use the term African-American; because I don't believe that represents what I am accurately. My father and his family in Ohio are full African-American but have no ties to their African roots and that makes me reluctant to fully claim Africa in my identity. Something similar can be said of my Asian side but that's a discussion for another time.

What I want to talk about is how being mixed is 'in' now. People love going on social media and posting about their mixes, #blasian, and everyone else loves cooing about how awesome those mixes are and how they get the best of both world. A group of people once labelled under more derogatory terms, like mulatto or half-breed, is now a celebrated thing. Under the second definition of Blasian in Urban Dictionary reads the sentence "Blasians have become widely known as the most attractive mix in the U.S". Lol, thanks? We'll just forget about how civilizations around the world persecuted mixed race couples and their offspring for CENTURIES. But it's cool, we're attractive now. Crazy the difference a few decades can make...

But this new trending #blasian is also a good thing for me and other Blasians because we finally get a chance to connect and start to build a community off of our shared experiences.

I'm part of two separate Facebook groups, BlasiansUnite and Subtle Halfie Traits and it's great because for the first time I can see people around the world that look like me. Other halfies and Blasians post their photos and ask if anyone else is their mix or else just talk about the struggle of relating to two separate cultural identities. Only in this modern world with the internet and international connectivity would it be possible for something like a Blasian community to exist and for that I am thankful.

Looking to the future, I am hopeful for the world the next generation of Blasians get to live in. Most of the mixed people I meet in person now are children and I know that they're going to grow up in a connected world where they'll have classmates that are also Blasian Want to add a caption to this image? Click the Settings icon. and a supportive online community to share their struggles. I can see that in another one hundred, two hundred years everyone will be mixed. It's so odd for me to visualize most of the population walking around looking like me, but with the new acceptance of race and the increased ease of travel, I look forward everyone looking like everyone and no one. What are your thoughts?

Washington, S. Myra. (2017). "Blasian Invasion: Racial Mixing in the Celebrity Industrial Complex". University Press of Mississippi. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=76M7DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT7&dq=blasian&ots=abycQcTpYz&sig=FOzBGF7JagQL1CrgnvFudycuOr8#v=onepage&q=blasian&f=false