In this brief radio documentary from PRX, award-winning independent radio producer, writer, and media artist Dmae Roberts, talks about being a mixed Asian person with the ability to pass for white. Roberts shares her own story and talks to other mixed Asian women about there experiences growing up hapa.
One of the interviewees, Patty, discusses her mom's request that she "pass for white," so that her life would be easier. Patty's story exemplifies how whiteness is a kind of currency that is recognized to have very definite, life-enhancing social and economic value. Patty's story also reveals the choice that many mixed people with the ability to pass for white make to resist these forces of inequality by identifying as people of color.
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