How one Tweet reveals the mixed ethnic experience

On the 27th of January, I reached a major academic milestone: I submitted my thesis entitled: The Architecture of Whiteness: How Institutional Whiteness Shapes Academic Careers in the UK. 

I shared this milestone on X (formerly Twitter) on February 12th [See the post here].

As a result, my post received over 9 million views and nearly 3,000 comments.

It is safe to say that the main issue people had with the post was not the content (which is not available to literally anyone but me, my supervisors, and my examiners), but my use of the word "Whiteness". 

To understand why this reaction occurred, we need to examine what I mean by ‘Whiteness’…

A deconstruction of 'Whiteness' requires a reading of my thesis and multiple future blogs, but as a quick summary, I take Sara Ahmed's description of what institutional "Whiteness" means: 

"When we talk of “white men” we are describing an institution. “White men” is an institution... An institution typically refers to a persistent structure or mechanism of social order governing the behaviour of a set of individuals within a given community. So when I am saying that “white men” is an institution I am referring not only to what has already been instituted or built but the mechanisms that ensure the persistence of that structure. A building is shaped by a series of regulative norms. “White men” refers also to conduct; it is not simply who is there, who is here, who is given a place at the table, but how bodies are occupied once they have arrived; behaviour as bond."

What struck me most in the response was not just the critique of ‘Whiteness’ but how my own racial identity was debated.

I was recognised simultaneously as 'Chinese', 'White', and both, and it was used as a weapon to dismantle my work and identity.

This is a common conundrum for many mixed ethnic people across the globe. Mixed ethnic scholars have shown us that the way a 'racial' identity is recognised shifts with time and space. For example, mixed ethnic populations in Britain have been found to have their identities invalidated from 'both sides', where monoethnic minority and majority communities question whether mixed people are 'fully' welcome, or only 'half' welcome. 

Beyond the theoretical debate, my own experience reveals a broader issue many mixed ethnic individuals face: how 'race' is externally assigned to us.

I have collated several responses to my post, showing my daily experience with this.

First, many people challenged my use of the word 'Whiteness' by claiming I was white:

Ignoring all the more personal comments, it was interesting to see that these responses deemed me 'White'. Some people might see this as a positive; people are recognising you as White, Rhi, doesn't that afford you lots of privilege? 

Excellent question! Thanks for asking, 

Yes, having proximity to whiteness will always afford privilege if it shifts your external appearance closer to being 'white'. As Stuart Hall teaches us: the further an identity physically appears and metaphorically acts from whiteness – or any identity considered traditionally more British - the more that identity is 'othered' in society. 

Additionally, the privileging of whiteness in mixed ethnic identities can sometimes do more harm than good. In the British media, mixed ethnic identities have been attributed to narratives of exceptionalism, attractiveness, and the 'future' of multicultural Britain. While these characterisations of mixed ethnic identities are not always overtly racist, they also do very little for the movement to benefit mixed ethnic identities and eliminate structural racism from the country.

In fact, a lot of mixed people actually distance themselves from their white identity because they associate it with being oppressive and 'bland'. 

However, for many mixed ethnic individuals, external identity validation—primarily from monoethnic communities—plays a significant role in how they perceive themselves and are not always afforded the luxury of self-identifying as openly. 

This requires a more critical lens from a mixed ethnic perspective because, ultimately, we do not always get to choose how we are perceived, and whiteness does not always protect us from racism.

For example, while being identified as white, many of the other comments said otherwise:

My issue here is when this type of racist abuse happens for mixed ethnic people (and trust me, it does), where do we go for support? How do we handle the daily dilemma of not wanting to take up space when talking about racism, but not be silenced when these comments occur?

Despite academic and theoretical acceptance that ‘race’ has no biological basis, the British consciousness on mixed ethnic identities often returns to the biological. Resultantly, mixed ethnic people often struggle with external identity validation, which can impact their mental health and sense of belonging. 

In response, many mixed ethnic people have felt tempted to fashion film and fixed identity categories to access ethnicity-based solidarity in times of racist abuse - but risk being isolated from these spaces, or self-silence their experiences because they feel they are not validated to do so. 

To support growing multiethnic populations, we need to create spaces for dialogue and acknowledge the complexity of racial identity beyond rigid categories.

While this was a difficult experience, it presents an important opportunity to better understand the lived realities of mixed ethnic people in Britain, and work towards creating more spaces where we can explore and dismantle 'race' as a biological phenomenon for good. 

Let's make multiethnic matters, matter.