Half and Half
Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural
INTRODUCTION
Claudine Chiawei O'Hearn
I was walking down the street the other day, on my way home from the gym, when
a large woman with wiry hair run amok approached me, mumbling to herself and
looking somewhat deranged, as only New Yorkers can look. As she neared me, she
looked me in the eye and barked, "Half-breed bitch." I had already passed her
by the time I figured out what she had said. Shocked, my first reaction was a
mix of surprise and even pleasure: "How'd she know? What gave it away?" It
wasn't until a block later that I became enraged and thought of a witty
retort.
I stopped being American when I first came to the States to live eight
years ago. Growing up in Asia, I knew being mixed set me apart, but I didn't
have to name it until people began to ask, Where are you from? My father was
raised in a working-class Irish American family in Fall River, Massachusetts.
My mother was born near Shanghai, China, but when she was seven, on the ... read full excerpt from: Half and Half ebook
