Multiracial & Transracial Adoptee Student Involvement

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.

Monoracism is systemic social oppression that targets individuals who do not fit into monoracial (identifying as one race) categories, groups, or phenomena (Harris, 2016; Johnston & Nadal, 2010).