Throughout his life, Michael Shiono has never been comfortable with the way race is defined in American society.

Shiono, a 20-year-old music major, comes from a multicultural background; his father is Japanese and his mother is Irish. Although he feels connected to both sides, he has always felt outside pressure to identify with one race more than the other.

From early on, he wanted to identify himself non-specifically as multiracial/biracial because he did not feel like he was fully accepted by either group. However, it has been difficult to reconcile his ideas with the expectations of everyone around him.

“With white people I’m the Asian guy and when I hang out with Asian people I’m the white guy,” he said. “So I have these little roles I have to play, especially with family....sometimes it’s very frustrating.”

When Shiono came to SF State he found a community in which he felt like he belonged. He saw a flyer on-campus for Variations, a club for multiracial/biracial students on campus. He found people who shared similar experiences and like himself did not want to be bogged down by racial categorization. He was one of three founding members of the club and now he serves as president.

Nearly 6.8 million people identified themselves as belonging to more than one race, according to a 2000 Census.

That number is expected to keep increasing over the next 50 years. Yet, many people, like Shiono, still feel that even in this day and age multicultural/biracial people are underrepresented or misunderstood.

“There has been a gradual shift in our country (from the idea) that your identity is imposed upon you as opposed to something you choose,’ said Alfred Padillo, education projects manager at the Mavin Foundation. “I’ve seen a feeling of importance (among students) recognizing their history.”

Variations was the brainchild of Asian-American Studies Professor Wei Ming Dariotis, and former SF State student Lynn Irving. They started the club to have an on-campus community is not only for multiracial students, but for students who were transracially adopted, people in interracial relationships and anybody else who might be interested in multicultural issues.

Although the club is relatively new, they have been able to accomplish a lot in their short time. Last spring, Variations hosted the Mavin Foundation’s Generation Mix Tour. The tour consisted of a group of five multiracial teens and young adults driving throughout the country in an RV to raise awareness.

Students have used other Variations events for community service in Asian-American Studies classes. They also intend to host summits with other ethnicity-based clubs on campus to inform them about the growing multiracial movement in the country.

They also held a bone -marrow drive on campus to get more multiracial people to come out, since their numbers are usually low.

“I think it is important because the club provides a focus for developing awareness on campus—and there are tons of mixed-heritage students on this campus,” Dariotis said. “But they are invisible in our binary way of thinking about race. If everyone is either one thing or another, mixed heritage disappears.”

The Mavin Foundation is one of the leading multicultural advocacy groups in the country, along with Swirl, Fusion and I-PRIDE. Besides sponsoring the Generation Mix Tour last spring, the organization was also apart of the national campaign to have the federal Office of Management and Budget Government change the racial categories on the census.

Mavin recently completed a report on how national universities are complying with the new categories on their admissions applications.

Before the 2000 census, multiracial people only had the option of choosing one race or checking the box
for “other,” which is the box for racial makeup that is not easily identified. The 2000 census noted the first time in the race category that anyone could “check all that apply.”

Historically this was not the first time that a multiracial category was offered on the census, but it was the first time that the terminology was not based the percentage of “white blood” that the person in question had.

In addition to being recognized on paper, multiracial people, especially celebrities, are also clamoring to be identified as such in the national spotlight. Actors like Vin Diesel and Rosario Dawson are choosing to either not identify themselves by race or always listing every part of their racial makeup when asked.

Golf champion Tiger Woods, commomly referred to as the first black golf pro, surprised many when he skirted conventions by creating his own racial category—Cablinasian—to emphazise his Caucasian, Black, Native American and Asian ancestry. But he’s not the only one - there are 86 user submissions on the mixedfolks.com Web site that are used to describe people with multiracial backgrounds.

While being formally recognized is important, for Shiono and many others it is not simply about checking a box or being able to easily answer people’s questions. It is about working hard through Variations to inform others about the people behind image that many find so hard to classify.

“By not having to choose ... I could identify as what I wanted to, I hope that a lot of other people get to do that too,” said Shiono.

“There’s a lot of pressure, especially when you have two conflicting sides and with different expectations.”