Growing up in Maine with a white mom and a Chinese dad, I rarely saw characters in movies and TV shows that looked like me. Scratch that—I never saw characters that looked like me. When I got older, friends compared me to Mulan or Lucy Liu, but that didn’t feel accurate (talk about a dearth of Asian female representation when you’re being compared to a cartoon character). Honestly, I didn’t think that representation was something that I was missing. How can you want what you’ve never had or what you don’t think that you deserve?
According to the 2020 census, about 10% of the total population now identifies as multiracial. And Hollywood is finally starting to reflect that reality. Multiracial people are not a monolith setting out to take over the world (yet). They represent a diversity of cultures, ethnicities, nationalities and life experiences. They are our family, friends, children, coworkers, neighbors, and ourselves. Kids from multiracial families deserve to see themselves as the main characters in the story, as the heroes and the villains, the love interests and the frenemies, the doctors and the lawyers, the comic relief and DMV pencil pusher #3.
What do we want? Multiracial protagonists that reflect our lived experiences. When do we want them? Now!
Here are ten TV shows and movies that feature mixed-race protagonists.
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