Not too long ago, we asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us what people would never guess about growing up biracial, and their heartbreakingly real responses were met with even more stories from people in the comments section. Here are those stories, along with the most eye-opening responses from the original post:
1. "When I was little and out with my dad, people would accuse him of kidnapping me — even though I was calling him 'Daddy!'"
2. "My mom is Mexican and has an accent, but I have a super plain name, so a lot of people don't realize I'm mixed — and when I was growing up, people frequently asked if my mom was my maid or nanny."
"I'm not even from a wealthy area where nannies and maids were common. It always hurt my feelings that people's initial reaction was that my mom was not my mom. I can't even imagine how she felt!"
3. "People don't realize how much of an outsider you can feel at family functions. My sister, cousin, and I look very different from everyone else in the family, and it can feel isolating."
4. "People get very uncomfortable identifying you as biracial. To them, I am white or Mexican, and there is no in-between."
5. "I was with my biracial kids when someone said to me, 'You interact with those kids so well! How long have you been fostering them?' And I responded, 'Oh, let's see...I guess ever since their father came inside me and I got pregnant.'"
6. "People get upset at me for caring about things like 'Black Lives Matter' because I'm 'only half Black.'"
7. "I'm half Jamaican and half Indian, and though I have a stereotypical Jamaican look, I am more in touch with my Indian side. But because I don't have the 'right' features, people often leave me out and doubt me."
8. "A girl at my summer camp once asked me, 'Why does a Black man drop you off and a white lady pick you up?'"
9. "The first time I was asked what I was mixed with, I'd never heard that term before, so I thought the guy was flirting with me. I said, 'Sugar and spice, and everything nice.'"
10. "People have asked me, 'What are you?' and I've started answering, 'Human — what about you?'"
11. "I'm half Colombian, and my daughter's name reflects that. Well, I've been fighting for two years for her school to stop sending information home in Spanish — I don't speak it fluently."
12. "My dad is Chinese and my mom is white, and whenever she took me and my brother out in public, people would ask her where she 'got us from.' She would respond, 'FROM MY VAGINA!' And that shut them up really quick."
13. "We were walking in the mall when this old, white dude approached my white dad and congratulated him on his beautiful, 'exotic' wifey. I was 16 at the time."
14. "People used to criticize my mom for 'giving her child a spray tan' when in reality, my dad is Black."
15. "Practically everyone thought my Dad was my stepdad. But he totally took it in stride and said, 'No, she's mine, but if I was her stepdad, I'd still be proud.'"
"I'm half Korean, and I remember once asking my Caucasian dad, 'Where did my nose come from? It's not yours, but it's not Mum's either.' He didn't even skip a beat when he said, 'Of course not, it's yours! And it came from the factory where they make perfect noses for perfect daughters.'"
16. "I'm Irish, my husband is Chinese, and we have a Thai last name. One of my girls is a pale-skinned redhead, and it's amazing how often I've been accused of cheating on my husband by strangers."
17. "My mom is Black, and once, she was breastfeeding me at the park when a woman asked her if she was my wet nurse."
18. "People are constantly saying, 'You should do 23andMe.'"
19. "My best friend is biracial and taught me something I plan on using with my biracial girls — that they are not 'half and half' of something. They are both white and Latina. Not more or less of anything."
20. "When you're at any store or restaurant, cashiers and servers will almost always ask your parent if you belong to them. It's a weird thing to ask a stranger, but it happened constantly in my childhood."
21. "My dad is Caucasian and my mom is Mexican and Caucasian, and I've experienced people telling me that I'm 'not Mexican enough' and that I 'don't count.'"
22. "I used to feel bad that I didn't fit in perfectly with the kids on either side of my heritage, but now I'm grateful that I don't."
And finally, a story that will seriously warm your heart:
23. "My daughter's father is Black, and I'm a mix of several Anglo backgrounds with some Portuguese thrown in. Well, my grandmother was French, and when I was a child, she was always difficult and cold. But after I gave birth, she wanted to see the baby. I was a tangle of stomach knots, fearing what her reaction to my beautiful baby would be..."
