McBride himself learned something about pride from his professor Wendell Logan, a black jazz composer, while studying at Oberlin College in the ’70s. At that time, the music conservatory did not view jazz highly, and Logan was treated very poorly, McBride says. But it was Logan’s response to the mistreatment that inspired McBride. “He would never let anybody know that it was bothering him,” McBride says. “His students saw that, white and black. The dignity that he possessed was a lesson.”

But the lessons don’t end in college, and neither does the formation of one’s cultural identity. “I don’t think it’s something you work out in college,” McBride says. “I think it’s something you explore in college — the joy is in the journey.”

In most cases, the search for belonging that biracial and multiracial students experience is not negative but is a healthy part of the developmental process, Neal-Barnett says. “There is this belief that is still prevalent that biracial adolescents are confused and don’t know who they are. That is not true.”

For Nikki Frye, sophomore interior design major, part of celebrating her cultural identity is being knowledgeable and proud of where she comes from. Frye is half Japanese and half white. Her mother is from Okinawa, Japan. Frye’s middle name, Chiharu, means “beautiful springtime.”

Seeing her parents standing side by side shows the melding of Frye’s two cultures. Her mother is a traditional Japanese woman, and her father is an “ideal all-American,” with red hair, blue eyes and freckles, she says.

Embracing both her father’s and her mother’s heritages means acknowledging both. She plans to have an elaborate Japanese wedding, complete with handmade kimonos. “I want to have both because I already have my American wedding all planned out,” she says, smiling.

She has lit incense during Buddhist prayers to her ancestors while in Japan and has found her father’s family name at Ellis Island. But when she fills out forms, she always checks the Asian box.

“I’m very proud of my Asian side,” Frye says. “I’m proud I have that culture in me. It’s different from the usual American background.” She plans to continue learning about her heritage and will soon return to Japan to absorb more of that part of her.

Like Frye, Nadal plans to continue learning about her different cultures during and after college. Both women will take classes in their native languages and cultures, helping deepen the depth of their identities. “I’m still working on it,” Nadal says. “Growing up, I learned more about the African-American side and the Native side. I didn’t really get to experience the Puerto Rican culture.”

Nadal decided to continue learning about her Hispanic culture by choosing Latin American studies as her major and by becoming the treasurer of the Spanish and Latino Student Association. “I want to learn more about my peoples,” she says happily. In SALSA, she helped prepare for Hispanic Awareness Week at Kent State by inviting speakers and visiting dance troupes. “I would love to bring open-mindedness to this campus,” Nadal says.

Frye knows what it is like to desire more understanding from her peers. She has dealt with ignorance about her Japanese culture, usually in the form of
rude questions.

“(Japanese) have beds, and they don’t always sleep on the floor,” she says. And only parts of Tokyo are a hub for extreme fashion. Most Japanese are modest in their dress.

“I went to see Pearl Harbor, and I almost walked out of the theater,” she says. Vicious comments about the Japanese spewed from the mouths of audience members. “It makes me mad when people are ignorant about it.”
Isaacs echoes Frye’s experience. He recalls being asked whether he wears grass skirts and lives in a straw hut in Hawaii.

Multiculturalism can thrive most easily when all are educated about other cultures in addition to their own. Ultimately, each person will identify with the culture or cultures he or she feels most at home with, Neal-Barnett says. “You choose for yourself a racial identity that’s you, which means an identity that’s comfortable for you.”

Ten-year-old Kaishawn Kent lives with a white family, but her cultural experience is biracial. Her mother, Terri, is deliberately raising her with both white and black culture. “We took our whole family to a black Baptist church,” says Terri Kent, associate professor of theater at Kent State. Her family also celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Cleveland. “Not just Kaishawn, our whole family.”

Kaishawn says students in her fifth-grade class ask a lot of questions about her family. “Like, ‘Who is your real mom?’ or, ‘Why are your mom and dad white?’ ” Kaishawn says. “I just say it’s because I was adopted and because they’re my mom and dad.”