Mixed: Multiracial College Students Tell Their Life Stories

by Andrew Garrod (Editor), Robert Kilkenny (Editor), Christina Gómez (Editor)

Mixed presents engaging and incisive first-person experiences of what it is like to be multiracial in what is supposedly a postracial world. Bringing together twelve essays by college students who identify themselves as multiracial, this book considers what this identity means in a reality that occasionally resembles the post-racial dream of some and at other times recalls a familiar world of racial and ethnic prejudice. Exploring a wide range of concerns and anxieties, aspirations and ambitions, these young writers, who all attended Dartmouth College, come from a variety of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Unlike individuals who define themselves as having one racial identity, these students have lived the complexity of their identity from a very young age. In Mixed , a book that will benefit educators, students, and their families, they eloquently and often passionately reveal how they experience their multiracial identity, how their parents' race or ethnicity shaped their childhoods, and how perceptions of their race have affected their relationships.

Genres: Nonfiction, Race

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2013

About the author

Andrew Garrod is Professor Emeritus of Education at Dartmouth College. He is coeditor of I Am Where I Come Frome: Native American College Students and Graduates Tell Their Life Stories; Growing Up Muslim: Muslim College Students in America Tell Their Life Stories, First Person, First Peoples: Native American College Graduates Tell Their Life Stories, Balancing Two Worlds: Asian American College Students Tell Their Life Stories, Mi Voz, Mi Vida: Latino College Students Tell Their Life Stories, and Mixed: Multiracial College Students Tell Their Life Stories.

Reviews

[Juliana Philippa · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

[Christina Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting and varied collection of young people's personal stories of identity that increased my understanding of how the experience of being multiracial is deeply connected to family circumstances, environment, personality, and gender.

[Daniel Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliantly written book. Each essay in this book was written by a different student at Dartmouth, all of whom took a creative nonfiction course. The essays were refined with mentors over a period of months or even years, which means that the end products are extremely well-written.

Even though none of the authors' heritages matches my own, I could see my own experiences and emotions reflected in each essay. As a multiracial person, it brought me a sense of relief or connection to see that other mixed people had similar experiences as I did/do.

[University of Chicago Magazine]

Christina Gómez, AB'85, MBA'87
Coeditor

From our pages (Mar–Apr/14): "What is it like to grow up identifying as multiracial in a "postracial" world that often isn't? Mixed shares the perspectives of 12 Dartmouth students who know how it feels. Whether searching for middle ground between black and white or navigating a rainbow of roots around the world, the student essayists reveal how their experiences, families, and surroundings have shaped their identities and worldviews."