Leanne Taylor
I am a 23, soon to be 24, year old woman. I grew up in Cornwall Ontario, Canada, which is a predominantly white, French Canadian town with a population of just 46,000. My father is black Jamaican and my mother is white born and raised in Canada and is of Irish and scottish descent.
I am presently in Toronto at York University finishing up my Masters degree in Sociology. I am extremely keen on participating in this web site, as my thesis (or Masters Review Paper) is specifically located in the field of Biracial identity. What drew me, however, to this field of study is, of course, my personal experience. But it is particularly a response and a need to understand where I came from and to people's 'desire to know what I am'. It is a response to questions such as "Don't worry Leanne, I don't consider you to be black, I consider you to be white". Questions such as these have permeated most of my life and it is only recently that I have been able to explore and tackle their broader implications.
I do not believe that all biracial individuals share the same experiences, although there are certainly commonalities. Much of the differentiation is due to differences in colour or 'shade'. For example, my physical appearance is often a mystery to people who cannot 'place' me, but who struggle hard to do so. I have been labeled or (mis) identified as a variety of things, such as Middle Eastern, Latina, Black, White, Native American, Italian, Portugese, Uzbeki, and even Chinese! At first this was terribly frustrating, but as I began to explore my own personal issues of biraciality these varied perceptions of my 'self' no longer bother me to the same degree. Although I still, of course, find it annoying when people approach me on the street demanding to know what my ethnicity is, I have learned that such questions do not fundamentally alter my own identity to the same degree as I once thought.
I hope that this web-site offers an interesting and informative forum in which people can share their experiences with others who may identify with such experiences and also enlighten other biracial individuals of other experiences that are very real out there.