Multiracial Heritage Month
Multiracial Heritage Month at UMD takes place every March, and is one of the first in the nation. We spend the month honoring the identities, stories, and histories of mixed-race, multiethnic, and transracial adoptee individuals. Follow @umdMICA on instagram to get the latest updates and announcements!
Multidimensional Me
When light catches a spider web, it diffracts into shifting colors; similarly, multiracial identity can reflect different dimensions depending on where we stand. The 2026 Multiracial Heritage Month theme Multidimensional Me asks us to meditate on the myriad connections and narratives we embody. The image of a spider web illustrates the intricate process of navigating multiple cultural heritages, whether as someone who is biracial, mixed-race, a transracial adoptee, or otherwise living between and across cultures. Like a web, our identities are delicate and intricate, yet strong and resilient. Each strand is a thread of the narrative we get to weave ourselves.
Many of us exist in predominantly monoracial spaces, having to “dimension-hop” between our communities. Though our individual experiences are unique, we share this common thread. This theme urges us to connect across these dimensions and bridge the gaps between our experiences by recognizing that we are not alone in our story. We are our own community too.
Let us affirm that we can be both delicate and strong in our heritage whilst creating something greater together. Though a web may seem fragile, its power lies in the intricacy of its intersections.
Program and Event Calendar
Multiracial is an umbrella term for people with more than one racial identity or heritage. It can also be referred to as mixed-race. For example, someone with Asian and Black heritage might identify as biracial, which is under the multiracial umbrella.
Multiethnic specifically refers to people with more than one ethnic identity, who may also have one or more more racial identity. For example, someone with Japanese and Bangladeshi heritage would be multiethnic, even though they only have Asian racial identities. On the other hand, someone of Thai and Irish heritage would be both multiethnic and multiracial.
Transracial adoptees are individuals who have been adopted into a family with a different racial identity than their own. For example, an Asian individual adopted into a white family, or a white child raised by a Black family.