On Jan.31, the Multicultural Center hosted its inaugural State of Mixedness event, which was an exploration into what it’s like to be a mixed student at Cal Poly.
“The point of the State of Mixedness is to talk about what has been happening on campus for the mixed community,” Gemma Dallas, a student assistant at the Multicultural Center, said.
The goal of the Multicultural Center is to support Cal Poly’s underrepresented students. This was the first year it led the State of Mixedness, which belongs to a series of events including the State of Blackness, State of APIDA, State of Queerness, State of SWANA, State of Women and State of Latinx.
“I think that my favorite part of the event was that the community all of a sudden felt a lot more uplifted and connected to each other,” Dallas said. “You had staff, you had professors, you had grad students, you had student leaders, you had student assistants, people working in so many departments come together and meet and talk about their collective and individual experiences.”
The event was structured as a panel in which five panelists shared their lived experiences as mixed individuals.
These panelists were co-presidents of the Multiracial Student Association Sara Arnold and Isha Thoreson, graduate student Kianah Corey, Gemma Dallas, and music junior Marina Lepe. Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Jennifer Teramoto Pedrotti moderated the event.
Lepe grew up in Merced, California, and comes from a Salvadorian and mixed background.
“I remember always struggling because I wasn’t really raised or immersed in Salvadorian culture, but I wasn’t really raised in a more white culture,” she said. “I was very much a weird kind of in-between.”
It wasn’t until college that Lepe was exposed to the vocabulary around mixedness. Having her mixed identity acknowledged for the first time felt incredibly validating.
During the State of Mixedness event, the panelists discussed monoracism — a form of systemic oppression which targets individuals of multiracial identities that do not fit into monoracial categories within our society.
“We always have to choose a side,” Lepe said. “Pick one that we either look like or the culture that we’re mostly immersed in.”
According to Lepe, there can be a sense that mixed individuals need to be quantitative about their identities.
“During the event we went over the idea that you’re not the fractions of what you are mixed with. Because I think a lot of mixed people, myself included, think well, I’m a fourth this, I’m an eighth, or a half this. But in reality, all those parts come together to make you 100% of what you are,” she said.
After the main panel, individual panelists hosted roundtable discussions where students could walk up and ask additional questions.
“When you have a panel of five people, it doesn’t represent every single mixed person,” Dallas said. So I tried to include with round tables more experiences beyond just the five people that sat in the panel.”
With additional speakers at the roundtables, attendees could have conversations with individuals from all diverse backgrounds.
“I think what is really nice about these panel events is that it feels like a conversation instead of a lecture, and it’s easier to retain as a student that may be new to these conversations,” Lepe said.
Dallas remarked that a little over 50 people showed up to the event. Many students did not know there were a considerable number of multiracial staff and faculty on campus doing things for the mixed community.
Analise Chiu was in attendance and shared that she appreciated the amount of diversity she saw.
“Coming from a predominantly white high school and community and being at a PWI, I am not usually surrounded by people who look like me or who have similar backgrounds,” Chiu wrote. “Being at the State of Mixedness made me realize that there is a community of mixed people here at Cal Poly, and I’m a part of that community.”
This event, Lepe hopes, is a signifier of cultural shifts towards inclusivity and acknowledgement of mixed identities on campus.
“I think the university is really working on putting forth these really valuable activities for students,” Lepe said. “I think as long as we continue to show that this is something we want to foster in our culture at Cal Poly, then it will help to educate the student body.”
