Kyle Lim,
Grand Rapids, MI.
As a biracial individual, I learned early-on how to de-emphasize certain aspects of my racial identity depending on who I was around. When I met my wife Claire, we were both attending a predominantly white private college and although she knew that I was mixed, her experiences with me have been ones where she mostly experiences my “white side”. Over the course of our short year as a married couple, I have begun to realize that she sees me not as a biracial, multi-cultural individual, but more as a white man who tans really easily. We are deeply in love, I am not worried. But I do wish that she would/could see me the way I see myself. I am only now learning that I need to embrace my heritage, and break out of the social/racialized conditioning that tells me that it is just easier and better to be white.
