Today there is an article in the LA times, titled Tiaras, Sashes, Diversity”, that highlights the changes happening in Southern California in relation Asian demographics. The article tells the reader that more and more Asians are marrying people outside their race. The article states that Asians are choosing spouses that may be Causican, Hispanic, or African American. To illustrate this trend the article does the story of a young woman, Angela Chao Roberson, that is running for Miss Chinatown. The difference between her and the other contestants is that while her mother is Chinese her father is African American.

As a person of mixed heritage, Angela states she goes through certain emotions that others who that come from the same race do not. For example, she states that while answering certain questions for the contest she felt that she might not be viewed as being “Chinese” enough for the judges. Angela goes on to state that she also felt uneasy when asked to speak in Mandarin because she did not feel she could speak it as fluently as other contestants. In the end, she admitted that many of the concerns and fears she felt while going through the process were her own insecurities about fitting in, and that the reactions of others, contestants, judges, audience, was positive.

I had several reactions while reading the article. One, I would have liked to see the article include some statistics regarding the trend of Chinese marrying non-Chinese. It would have made the article more interesting to see data on things like what age groups are more likely to marry outside their race.

Also, the article made me think how this trend is just a reflection of our larger society where more and more people are marrying people outside their race. While I don’t have any statistics for this I only have to look at own experience, and those that live in my neighborhood. I’m Hispanic and married a Caucasian, and I know five couples in my neighborhood where the couple is not of the same heritage.

This trend will definitely affect how we view racial/cultural identity. In other words, I think the traditional categories we have for identifying each other/ourselves will have to give way to more nuance approach that takes into account of our increasing diversity.