Generation Mix

Just 38 years ago, interracial marriage was banned throughout the United States. The 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia not only made interracial marriage legal, it also contributed to fundamental changes in the country’s make-up. The 1970’s was marked by a surge of interracial marriages, followed by a multiracial baby boom which would change the face and color of this country forever. Today, in the Western states of California, Oregon, and Washington State, more mixed-race babies are born than any other race but Caucasian. The 2000 Census was the first time Americans were given the option to choose more than one race to describe themselves.

As members of the multiracial baby boom are reaching adulthood, several advocacy groups have emerged to raise awareness about the issues they face. The Mavin Foundation is one such group. The Mavin Foundation creates projects that explore the experiences of mixed heritage people, transracial adoptees, interracial relationships and multiracial families.

“You still run into people every day who don’t know that organizations like Mavin exist,” says founder Matt Kelley. This is why Mavin is kicking off its Generation Mix National Awareness Tour in the spring. The tour, led by five mixed-race youths, will travel 8,000 miles through 16 cities from Seattle to Boston in an effort to spread awareness about multiracial issues and the resources. It starts this April.

Despite the fact that multiracial Americans constitute a rapidly growing population, few schools and social service agencies are dedicated to multiracial youth. Kelley hopes that the Generation Mix Tour will make evident the need for such resources. He also criticizes current employment, educational, and other institutions for failing to transform with the times. “Too often we are confronted with having to check just one box, making us feel like we don’t exist,” says Kelley. Complying with this demand not only forces people to choose one race over another, he says, it also forces the resignation of multiracial people to statistical insignificance. This can lead to very serious issues. For one thing, multiracial individuals encounter different problems of health care than monoracial people. In particular, it is more difficult to find matches for bone marrow transplants among multiracial people, increasing the threat of diseases like leukemia. Raising awareness about such problems will lead to increased availability of local resources with which to tackle them.

Kelley, half-Korean and half-white, explains that he created Mavin in part because of his own struggle with issues of identity. “Growing up, I didn’t feel like I had full access to both cultures,” he says. Transracial adoptees also encounter very specific questions of identity. When children of color are placed with white parents, questions arise that go far beyond differences in complexion. Exploration of one’s heritage takes another dimension when one’s parents belong to a different ethnicity. Kelley says the Mavin Foundation is working to bring light to such issues of identity, but he emphasizes that this cannot be accomplished without parents, teachers, and social workers becoming more aware of racial issues.

And, of course, there are lots of great things about being multiracial. Marinda Melonson, 20, says "I think a lot of people feel that because you're mixed-race you might be confused about your identity or have some issues with incorporating multiple sides of your heritage into one." But she is also helping plan the tour because also knows that not everyone has it so easy.

"I think my family life was very secure and great support for me, so I don’t have any too severe identity issues,” she adds. “But I think we all struggle with identity particularly as adolescents and young adults trying to fit in.