Biracial People Who Pass For White People Share Moments When Blatant Racism Took Place In Front Of Their Very Eyes

Billy Dunn, also known as @billybillynyc on TikTok, released a video where the 20-year-old replied to a comment, revealing the crazy things people say around him, not knowing he is half black.

“I was at a party and the only other Black person left. After he left, one of the white dudes there proceeded to say the N-word. Not even in a song or nothing, just said it out loud. When I confronted him about it, he said, ‘What? He's not here anymore.' Little did he know, I'm a double agent. Needless to say, that situation was handled,” Billy, who has a black dad and white mom, said in the video.

Eventually, Billy's TikTok went viral, and other biracial people started sharing similar stories as well.

According to a 2015 Pew Research Center survey, multiracial Americans are at the cutting edge of social and demographic change in the U.S.—they're young, proud of their mixed-race, and feel their racial heritage has made them more open to other cultures. They're also growing at a rate three times as fast as the population as a whole.

Atlanta-based hip-hop artist Cole Hedgecoth is one of the people whose TikTok you will see in this article. He's also very proud of his racial background. "I love my family and it's given me a unique perspective on racial inequality," Cole told Bored Panda.

"[My racial background is an important part of my identity], though it isn't everything. I celebrate diversity and want people to know that I'm proud of who I am, but I won't let people dehumanize me by saying racist things."

Hedgecoth said that being biracial (black-white) has allowed him to understand the scope of racism in the US he wouldn't have if he was just white. "Having experienced it opened my eyes to a whole new perspective. I'm grateful to be able to see things for what they are."

Billy himself is also incredibly proud of his racial background. "My dad made a big effort growing up to tell me and my siblings stories about what he and his family members experienced as black people from the south," he explained to Bored Panda. "I credit him with a lot of the knowledge that I have about the civil rights era."

Being biracial has always been a big part of Billy's identity but it is also something he's struggled with. "Mainstream media oftentimes makes people with similar backgrounds to me feel like they have to fit into one racial group or another. As I've gotten older, I've realized that being biracial gives me a unique perspective into a lot of topics in the media today, such as racial profiling and police brutality. I always aim to try to use my privilege and platform to advocate for things I believe in."

According to the aforementioned survey, the majority (55%) say they have been subjected to racial slurs or jokes, and about one-in-four (24%) have felt annoyed because people have made assumptions about their racial background.

While multiracial adults share some things in common, they cannot be easily categorized because their experiences and attitudes differ significantly depending on the races that make up their background and how the world sees them.

Multiracial adults with a black background experience discrimination in a similar way as single-race blacks. For example, among adults who are black and no other race, 57% say they have received poor service in restaurants or other businesses, identical to the share of biracial black and white adults who say this has happened to them. 42% of single-race blacks also say they have been unfairly stopped by the police, as do 41% of biracial black and white adults.

Mixed-race adults with an Asian background are about as likely to report being discriminated against as are single-race Asians, while multiracial adults with a white background are more likely than single-race whites to say they have experienced racial discrimination.

"I don’t think you have to be one race in order to educate yourself on race relations in this country," Billy said. "If any person makes the effort to listen to their peers and learn about what’s going on, then that person has the ability to make real change on any level."

"If there was one thing I want people to know about me, it’s that even though I talk about my experiences very openly on social media, it is something that was very difficult for me growing up and something I still can be very cautious talking about. My goal is that if there is somebody who looks like me who may be struggling with their identity, I want them to know that they are not alone and that they don’t have to conform to what society tells them they are just because of how they look," he explained.

"We have an expectation in society of what a black person should look like, or what a white person should look like," Sarah Gaither, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, said. "And if you don’t look like that, that’s disruptful."

The sad thing is that the general public has negative views of the country’s racial progress; more than half say Trump has made race relations worse.

However, as cliché as it may sound, change doesn't start within institutions. We need to enforce it ourselves. And even sharing a TikTok helps.

"As long as the conversation continues, race relations should improve," Hedgecoth added. "I think it’s unlikely that racism altogether dies out anytime soon because racists raise kids to be racists, but if people continue to fight against inequality and have a conversation about discrimination, slowly, people will begin to change their perspective."

"I'm half-Chinese. I used to work for Disney and we would have a lot of Japanese guests there. I had coworkers who, directly after helping a Japanese guest, would start mocking them. Usually, for the shock value, I'd immediately tell them I was Asian and they'd be like *covers mouth with hand*."

"I didn't really realize how racist some people are until I was in an all-white space and people didn't realize that I'm mixed. For example, I was at a pool party one time and this guy asked me, 'What are you?' I was like, 'I'm mixed.' He asked me with what and I was like, 'Black and white.' And he was like, 'So you're a half N-word.' I was like, 'What? Why is that the first thing that came to your head?'"

"I am Mexican and one time I was dating this guy, and his grandpa had just moved to a different house, and he said, 'Yeah, I grew up over here... but it's really different now.' I was like, 'How so?' And he's like, 'Well, there's a lot of Mexicans and Blacks who live over here now. You don't want to live in a neighborhood like that.' I said, 'You don't? Why wouldn't you want to live in a neighborhood with really good food and really cool people?'"

"When I was in beauty school, I was going to one of my friend's houses, and her mom asked me, 'Does it gross you out to touch N-word hair?'"

"I used to work in sales, and this one time, a white lady came into the store and asked me where she could find XYZ. I was busy at the time, so I said to her, 'Oh, you can just see my colleague over there. He will be able to show you where you can find what you're looking for.' She looked over at him, she looked back at me, and she goes, 'What? The fat little (insert racial slur).'"

"If you've worked in film before, you know 11 hours is a normal day. One time, an actress cried to the director. She said, 'My feet hurt, it's time to wrap.' The director said, 'One more take.' The actress said, 'OK, then you're going to pay for my medical bills.' I've never seen a director say wrap so quick in my life. This girl who overheard had the audacity to say, 'Oh, I'm so glad the actress went ghetto on them.' I said, 'Ghetto?' She said, 'Yeah, Black!'"