4 Being mixed-race

Mixed-race young people (those with parents or heritage from different racial or ethnic backgrounds) make up one of the fastest growing populations in the UK (ONS, 2021). Despite this, their experiences are often misunderstood or treated as ‘simpler’ than they really are.

Some common challenges mixed-race teenagers report include:

• pressure to ‘pick a side’ or explain ‘what they are’
• being misidentified, exoticised exoticisation in the glossary, shall we amend there?, or subject to fetishising comments
• dismissal of their experiences of racism with phrases like ‘but you’re only half’
• feeling they don’t fully belong in either/all heritage communities.

Lambert (2024) describes how young people with complex and overlapping identities often face ‘conflicting messages about belonging, legitimacy and authenticity’. This can lead to identity denial, where adolescents downplay parts of their background to avoid judgement or isolation.

Yet, the challenges go deeper than just confusion. Mixed-race young people may also experience the following.

• Proximity to whiteness: not in glossary Those with lighter skin or white-presenting features may benefit from social privileges denied to their darker-skinned peers, while still experiencing racism in subtle, coded ways. This can create complex dynamics around inclusion, guilt, or being seen as ‘not really Black/Asian/etc’.
• Discrimination based on skin tone, where lighter skin is privileged over darker skin, is called colourism. Experiences of colourism can shape peer interactions, teacher perceptions, media representation, and even family dynamics.
• Comments like ‘mixed-race kids are so beautiful’ or ‘I want mixed-race babies’ may sound complimentary, but this is actually fetishisation and is often rooted in racialised stereotypes that reduces people to aesthetic ideals. This can strip individuals of their agency and flatten their identities into something to be consumed or admired, rather than understood and respected.

All of this impacts belonging not in glossary. A young person might be embraced in some contexts but made to feel ‘not enough’ in others. Being told they are ‘too white’ for one group or ‘too Black’ for another can leave them feeling invisible, even when surrounded by people.

So what helps?

Educators and youth workers can support mixed-race teenagers by:

• avoiding assumptions based on appearance or family background
• listening to how young people define themselves in their own words
• creating learning spaces that celebrate complexity and don’t expect fixed or singular identities
• teaching about colourism, whiteness and racial hierarchies in an age-appropriate way.

As Lambert (2024) notes, young people thrive when they are given room to be, not boxed into categories they didn’t choose.