The Multiplicity of Enough

“I fit in the world the way I exist”

Jacqlyn Schott
Jazz Spinola
Noah Montague
Katherine Kennedy
 Student #1
KP
Identifies as biracial
mother is white and
father is black
 Student #2

Castille
Identifies as:
Biracial with a white father and
Malaysian mother
 Student #3

Lucy

Identifies as multiracial:
Dad is Black, White, and Mexican
& Mom is Puerto Rican
 Student #4
Mechi
Identifies as multiracial, specifically
Afro-Latina and is from the
Dominican Republic. First
generation American.
 Enough v. Not Enough
Themes
Hindering of the Self

Erasure of Identity

Acceptance of Other(s)
 “Wh
en I
colo ’m w
r, I'm ith p
“Some African Americans don't but n o t As eop
wh e ian le o
really accept me as being cau n e f
casi [I’m n ou
ans, ] wi gh,
Black cause I'm not dark.” I'm t h
not all
eno whi
ugh te
.”

Enough v.
Not Enough

‘O h,
,
s t like oesn't “I would like to see more of like
s a lmo ace] d .’ ” intersectionality in my everyday
a [r ore
“It w st KP, anym life... because I do have that
a t's ju atter feeling sometimes that yeah, I am
th lly m
r ea
black, but I'm not black enough.”

Hindering
of the Self
“But when I try to interact
with a group of White girls
like they're like, oh! okay, but
then they won’t even look at
me. We don't say hi when we
see each other, we don't hang
out again.”
“But it was almost like, I want to look like
everyone else. I want my hair to look like
everyone else. I don't want to be different
from everyone else.”
“So being in that
situation, it kinda like...I “There were times
hindered myself where I would not
because I did have forget that part of me
biases. Like growing [my Asian identity],
up, it was always like but I wouldn't be able
you know, ‘that's like a to talk about it a lot.
white person thing to But when I would
do’ like going to hang out with my
college. And so that friends from middle
definitely hindered me school [who were
because I was like, people of color], I
already like doubting would be able to talk
myself.” about it.”
 “I don't know if this is
weird to say but like
[when I am with
Malaysian friends], I can
not be white.”

“My sister— she's more Black

passing than I am….People assume
she is... whereas like, from looking Erasure of
at me, people would be like ‘are you
Indian?’ because I’m brown Identity
skinned...so they're like, ‘Oh, you
mean— where you from?’ Whereas
my sister: ‘she's black, right?’ And
it's like, ‘Yeah, but that's not all of
it,’ you know.”

“I'm stuck in the middle “Why do people see me as

because there's not really a black when I'm both?”
Hispanic community here.”
“When relating to different “My belief is, yes, some
races, they're just people people can help you with
and I want to get to know your self-esteem in that
them as people really. And day, but really that just
that's another thing that I comes down to you. And
think my parents always Acceptance of I love me.”
drilled into my head like, it
doesn't matter. Just get to Others “It's not really dependent
know them for who they on like, culture or race, I
are. And if their culture and would say. If I get along
their race, you know, is a with you, I get along with
you. It’s more about
big part of them, then use
personality.”
that to your advantage to
learn more about them and
“So once I came to university um,
get to know them.”
that's kind of like, when I realized
that there are different people that
exist; but just because they're not
like you, doesn't mean that they
can't relate to you.”
“Just because you are
different doesn't mean
you're any better or any
worse than anybody else.
Everybody has their
strengths and weaknesses, Acceptance of
and this doesn't take away
from who you are as a
person.”
“So I very much grew
up in an area where
you discuss culture
and how culture is
important to you and
how where you come
from matters.”
“I'm very proud to
be multiracial. I
own up to, I love
to embrace all of
my cultures and
Other different things
like that.”
“We were learning about
intersectionality and how there's
more than one single story. So I
kind of learned more about myself
and you know, I was having a hard
time when checking off the boxes
trying to figure out what I was...But
through introspection, I now
identify as AfroLatina”
 The
Multiplicity
of
Enough
The Locality of Identity

Outskirts In-Between Centered

● Rejection of the “Other”

● Rejecting support and/or not

Outskirts
actively seeking support

● No recognition of “enough”
● Recognizing biracial/multiracial

identity but not fully accepting it

● Fragility of identity but

acknowledging it In-Between
● Seeking support to grow in

identity

● Wrestling with “Enough”

● Lack of need for external validation

● Acceptance of “Other” ; both/and

● Actively seeking support to bolster

identity
Centered

● Acknowledgement of the existence

of hindrances but able to endure

Societal Influences Negative Other
Experiences

Puppet Strings
Involuntary influences over locality

Stereotypes

Context of Growth Environment

 Education
Community

Pillars
bolster and uphold identity or locality

Mentors

Chosen Family/Loved Ones

“Where I’m from, like being multiracial or
being biracial is very normal.”
“In High
“I think [I understood my biracial
school I had a
identity] really young because I grew up culture shock
in a predominantly white area. And so it because I Context
was almost like why do I look different? actually
It wasn't really so much my skin color, it transferred to
was more my hair. And one time I was a Catholic
told: You have a small nose for a black school [From
girl and I was like, ‘What? I don't even an Islamic
school].”
know what that means.’”

“It took awhile for me to figure out. It was also difficult. It's
hard to explain to your family that you identify as black
when there’s such a stigma around like, you know, there's
racism and colorism in my home country”
“And
we're
gold”
“My Malaysian
culture really is
important to me,
because there's
[my] sense of my
family, and
Malaysia and
where my mom
came from.”
Comparison to Other
Theories
“I fit in the world the way I exist”
Questions?