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Re-imagining space: The intersect between mixed race identity and neurodiversity

Let's re-imagine space

Introduction 

When you go your whole life being told you do not belong to a specific community, never truly 'fitting' anywhere, its always shocking when you realise there are more communities you are a 'part' of, yet still struggle to navigate them. 

I was recently (educationally) diagnosed with ADHD (not a medical diagnosis), which really explains a lot of reasons I am the way I am, and it was very reaffirming to my sense of self. 

But what comes with that is a continued self-reflection into my own identity, and who that makes me, where I fit, and where I perhaps do not. 

When you are mixed race in Britain, the monoracial culture attempts to get you to choose one side or the other, for me, either be a Chinese woman or a white woman, but never both. 

When you are in 'neurotypical Britain', our brains are expected to function in a way that suits the way society has been built, not how we think and experience. 

So it becomes interesting to think about how space is considered and experienced when you do not fully belong to it. My mixed identity does not belong to a monoracial Britain, and my ADHD does not belong to a neurotypical space. It reveals a lot about how space and identity can, and should, be re-imagined. 

I will split this small piece into four discussions: the spaces we occupy now, racial intersections, gender intersections, and finally mixed race intersections.

Spaces we are in now

In Britain, we occupy a country with a hostile colonial, white supremacist, and violent past, and continues to enact itself today.

Our perceptions of race within that space are confined to our historical assumptions around identity.

It is contested in history when the social conception of ‘race’ was truly developed, but typically ‘non-white’ bodies were seen as ‘savages’, who were ‘uncivilised’ and the ‘others’. In other words, not seen as part of the same human race as white ‘civilised’ bodies. Even when considered ‘human’, the British saw them as lesser-than.

‘Race’ used to refer to a number of things, not just what we consider ‘biological physical traits’ (which its not), but was even categorised by hair type, head shape, and height.

When race was first classified as something similar to what we know today, Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus classified four distinct races: Europeans, Africans, American Indians, and Asians. He placed Europeans at the top of this hierarchy, and Africans at the bottom, thus, facilitating what would grow into our conceptions of ‘race’.

So, when you are mixed race in these spaces that historically rest on categorisation, space becomes something else, something you navigate, and usually negotiate.

When we look at educational structures built on these histories, they were also formed with a neurotypical understanding of educating.

Those with neurodiverse identities are forced to conform to a neurotypical centre of learning, which only suits a specific way of thinking, without facilitating those who do not fit that mould, that space. For example, being sat at a desk all day doesn’t suit all learning needs, but it’s what we see as normal.

Space is historical and ever transforming, but we need to reflect on how identities are shaped and understood when in spaces that contain such a complex past, that still influences how individuals enact themselves within it. 

Race and neurodivergency

I am very new to this subject area but heard a story from one of my mentors that changed my whole perception on ADHD and race.

She was diagnosed with her neurodiversity much later in life, and identifies and a Black mixed race woman. She told me how she was glad this diagnosis happened later in life, as she feared being a Black girl being diagnosed would detriment peoples perception of her educational abilities, as her racial identity historically has been associated with these racist and hostile assumptions. 

We always think that the earlier the diagnosis the better - but the reality is more complicated than that. 

I asked the woman who gave me my diagnosis what the experience of Asian families is like when going through this process, as it requires information from your childhood, that usually the parents or carers give the information for.

She told me that, particularly with Indian students and their families , they can be hesitant to get the diagnosis, believe it is real, or even put it on their work forms claiming a disability. She told me the students were worried it would stop them from getting a job, as her culture had ingrained in her mind that that was the case. 

In Asian communities, it is stigmatised to have any form of neurodivergency. In my experience as a Chinese woman, it is seen as making you 'dumb', or anything that makes it more difficult for you to learn in a traditional sense, means you are the problem. Or, they would ignore the issue as they do not want to associate you with any labels that might detriment you in life. There is a cultural divide that is often overlooked. 

We need to not only look at ADHD as neurodiversity, but also as an intersectional experience. Us as people have multiple identities that shape who we are and how we see the world, but also how the world sees us. Without this understanding, we miss out on the complex and diverse experiences that come with these identities and how to best support them. 

Gender and neurodivergency 

Typically, diagnosis' such as ADHD are heavily gendered, associated with 'misbehaving boys' who endlessly move, disrupt, and lack concentration in an education system not built for them. We have this very physical view of ADHD, when there is more to it than just 'fidgeting'. 

As young girls in UK education, we are taught we are not suited to 'misbehave' and 'move'. I remember I wasn't even allowed to play football as that was the 'boys' sport. Emphasis on statements such as 'boys will be boys' or 'he just needs to let it out' continue to associate ADHD with these harmful and stereotypical norms of 'male' actions. 

I did not fidget as a child, I sat still and quiet, it wasn't easy to do, but I knew that's how young girls were 'suppose' to act in the classroom. This meant no one could really see what was happening inside my brain. 

There is a lack of research around how ADHD affects those who do not identify as 'boys' or 'men', but symptoms can also look like:

  • Not feeling like you're acting like 'yourself' around certain people (masking
  • Hyperfocus on subjects you are passionate about
  • Easily mentally distracted, having multiple tasks on at once
  • Getting extreme jolts of joy when learning something new, but sometimes not following it through to the end 
  • Running at a million miles an hour, in your head, not always physically. 

Women typically become very good as masking, as we have been socialised to enact ourselves in a particular way to navigate certain spaces. ADHD can also be more associated with personality traits rather than something that requires diagnosis - essentially, people are not looking for it in us. 

Mixed race and neurodivergency

Self-identification for mixed race individuals is essential as the binary, monoracial codes society is used to using does not reflect who we are. Both are enacting themselves in a white supremacist, neurotypical space, that refuses to transform itself into a space where these identities can flourish. 

Scholars such as Bettez (2010)Ginsberg (2017)Mahtani (2001) and Wilson (2020) encourage the importance of self-description and self-identification, and discuss how they themselves or others have been identified by others in the past, and the ways it affected their mental health, and sense of self. 

I talk a lot about how mixed race bodies can be 'commodified ' or seen as 'exotic goods' rather than as people, much like how ADHD can be seen as a 'trend' or something 'quirky' rather than a medical or educational diagnosis.    

The intersect between being racially ambiguous in predominantly white spaces and the ability to mask neurodivergency gets confusing. 

It is not as simple as being mixed, and not as simple as just having ADHD, but how others decide to reflect and perceive those elements too. It requires heightened self-reflection, and a stress on self-identification. 

There are a lot of cross-overs I reflect on, and I encourage anyone who wishes to dive deeper into this area of research or reflection, to get in contact and carry this discussion further. 

Conclusion

I have come to realise I have been, and continue to be, the 'odd' one out everywhere I go, no matter the spaces I occupy. And I like that. 

What has helped me is knowing racial identity is not a binary, its not a matter of you're either white or Chinese, not a matter if you're racialised or not, it's more complicated than that; that really helped me engage with my new-found neurodivergency and how I embraced it. 

I spent a long time thinking about how my identity is my own, and that I define it how I want. In my previous blog's such as "You're not really Chinese then, are you": Mixed-Heritage experiences in higher educatioand "Do you eat bat soup?": what does it really mean? I talk about how I have come to strongly self-identity, to never allow anyone to identify for me. 

I feel like my neurodivergency is similar. 

I do not want others identifying me, only I do that. 

Any neurodivergency is not a good thing, it is not a bad thing, it is just a thing. It is just a way of seeing the world, and experiencing life, and I love the way it allows me to experience life. Race, is a social construct that continues to perpetuate this idea that you experience one culture, one community, one way of life.

When you've gone your whole life not belonging to a specific community, and being told where you should 'fit', the power of self-identification comes to the rescue. 

Intersectional lens encourages us to re-imagine what space can and should look like. Why do we need facilitate only neurotypical learning? Why must I fit my identity into Chinese or white? There is no answer because they are invalid questions.

Re-imagine your spaces, and facilitate true potential. 


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