English/Irish/Italian | African American

Photo credit: provided by subject

I identify as biracial; Black and White. I am also bisexual. I have been spending far too much time working and have lacked the beauty of a work/life balance, but I'm very grateful that I get to be a contributor during this time of global crisis.

Both my parents were born and raised in the United States, with my Dad having African ancestry and my Mother Irish, Italian and English ancestry. I am really grateful for the elements of culture and heritage that I've been able to learn from, but much of it has been a result of my own questing for culture and heritage since we're many generations removed from our ancestral roots. Although I have travelled fairly extensively, I haven’t visited all of my native countries. My plan is to go post-COVID.

My parents met in Colorado while my Mother was there in a sales capacity and they fell in love and were together for a little over a year. They weren't ultimately a fit though and so they broke up when my Mom was 8 months pregnant with me. My Dad was never a part of my life, although I'm very grateful to him for my existence, my name and some of my features and personality traits. I feel like he has contributed to my life, although not nearly as concretely as my Mother. Because my Mom raised me, she made certain I was exposed to multiracial and cross-cultural influences through food, literature, and a variety of role models who shared my racial and ethnic identities and, looking back, I think that was essential to my identity development. I've always LOVED being biracial and I credit my Mother with that.

I'm bulimic, in recovery now, but it has been a lifelong struggle for me. Thankfully, I've not required treatment since 2009, but I was hospitalized 18 times for anorexia and bulimia and having to learn to prioritize self-care and spiritual development has been a hard and humbling lesson, but essential for my recovery.

I don't always share openly about being bisexual, but it's not always relevant. I really thrive in environments where I can be entirely honest about who I am so I tend to seek those out and share as much of myself as I can.

My Mother always encouraged me to be who I am and embraced me as I am. I think embracing biraciality will go a long way to dismantling binary conceptions of race. I've made a career out of it, which is amazing. Written books about it, am currently preparing a TEDx talk on the subject, and have been accepted in a multitude of spaces. Biraciality is such a GIFT and I wouldn't want to be anything else.

I've always been me and embraced my race and all the richness of who I am. There are so many Biracial people on the screen who are held up as cultural icons, but many don't identify as biracial or multi-ethnic, and I wish they would be more open to doing so.