Everson, who is part Chinese, part Japanese and part Caucasian, was born and raised in Japan, where he says people treated him like an American. At age 8 he moved to California, where he was viewed as Japanese.
In junior high, "I was...labeled by the Asian people as being white and by the white people as being Asian," Everson says.
Weisinger, who is half-Chinese and half-Caucasian says, "The issue of being mixed wasn't an issue for me until college admissions." But she still felt that she was viewed as white in elementary school and as Chinese in high school.
Still, being a member of a diverse racial background has its benefits as well.
"It's a unique experience growing up with two different backgrounds, two different cultures," Everson says. "[At home] we celebrated the fact that we could understand more than one culture."
Everson, who is also co-president of the Japan Society and public relations director for the Asian American Brotherhood, says that being half-Asian has given him "a better perspective on things," strengthened him as an individual, and allowed him to easily adapt to different groups.
HAPA's major project for this year is organizing the "Fourth Pancollegiate Conference on the Mixed Race Experience: Redefining Other," to be held at Harvard, April 14-16.
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