Multiracial is people from the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) community. Research shows that multiracial people mostly are at risk for substance/alcohol use disorders. Also, they suffer from various mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and psychosis. But their pain doesn’t end there as even impostor syndrome goes deep for multiracial people. Do you know why for them its is harder to deal with impostor syndrome?
Part of that listed problem is due to the behavioral health problems which exceed the monoracial people. Comparatively, multiracial people have struggled to make a strong connection, including connections with other multiracial people. Researchers attribute such differences to the history and struggle of the multiracial people that has left many disjointed. But the reason impostor syndrome goes deep for multiracial people is more than just unique stressors and past experiences. Let’s have a look at them:
Colorism
There is a prolonged comparison between the multiracial and monoracial people based on their “proximity to whiteness.” Lighter-skinned people are considered “ideal of beauty” in contrast to darker complexion-skinned people that are common in multiracial communities. It leads to multiracial people being mocked, shunned, and discriminated against from time to time based on their skin color, even within their own community.
Lack of Representation
It has forever been believed that multiracial people suffer from a lack of representation. It happens to the extent where they don’t even get the chance to represent themselves. Hollywood is an excellent example of this. As result, they often even have to face stereotype threat.
Isolation and Exclusion
To this date, multiracial people suffer isolation and even exclusion from other multiracial people. Even such discrimination can be seen within an extended family itself. For example, the “Hafu” look people are excluded in Japan and denied fundamental rights and citizenship. Simultaneously, another community of multiracials, “Kiko Mizuhara,” who bears the same “Hafu” look, are accepted and hailed by Japanese people because of their beauty and skin color.
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