Individuals living in the liminal, whether it be around their gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, or sex, share some common experiences. We often feel invisible and ambiguous, constantly bridge-building, have an awareness of boundaries around identities and a sense of fluidity.
Invisibility and Ambiguity
Many mixed/multiracial individuals are asked the question, “What are you?” Due to their ambiguity and chameleon-like looks, multiracial/mixed people are commonly mistaken for a different ethnic background than they are. Some use it to their advantage (See Mat Johnson’s piece on NPR). For many, being invisible and ambiguous can elicit great anxiety.
Bridge-builder
Many liminals don’t have communities that have the exact same identity type or gender so they find themselves part of many communities. They become bridge-builders whether they want to or not. Being on the bridge was lonely for me because I rarely could bring people across the bridge. Instead, I would share with them what was on the other side. After doing my research on liminal identity, I was able to see others who stood on their own bridges and create bridges to them.
Being on the bridge was lonely for me because I rarely could bring people across the bridge. Instead, I would share with them what was on the other side. After doing my research on liminal identity, I was able to see others who stood on their own bridges and create bridges to them.
Awareness of Boundaries
Living at the threshold of opposites, liminals are very aware of boundaries. Author Malcolm Gladwell (1998) captures this perfectly in his story about growing up with a Jamaican mother and British father:
“I never feel my whiteness more than when I’m around West Indians, and never feel my West Indianness more than when I’m with whites. And when I’m by myself, I can’t answer the question at all, so I just push it out of my mind. From time to time, I write about racial issues, and always stumble over personal pronouns. When do I use “we”? In a room full of people I do not know, I always search out the ones who fall into the middle, like me, out of some irrational idea that we belong together. (p. 123)”
I never feel my whiteness more than when I’m around West Indians, and never feel my West Indianness more than when I’m with whites. And when I’m by myself, I can’t answer the question at all, so I just push it out of my mind.
For Logan Gutierrez-Mock (2006), he found a connection between his biracial identity and being transgendered:
“Coming into my mixed heritage was a homecoming for me that was intimately tied to my transgender identity. Sitting on the dividing line between male and female forced me to realize that my entire life I’d sat on a similar dividing line between Mexican and white. This dividing line, esta frontera, created a new identity in me: I am half and half, I am both, I am something different entirely…My whole life I have sat on the border between Mexican and white—pushed out of the Mexican side for not speaking Spanish and looking white, pushed out of the white side for being half-Mexican no matter how white I look. Twenty-six years spent between races prepared me for what it would feel like to be between genders—pushed out of femaleness for looking male and having facial hair, pushed out of maleness for having a vagina and breasts. (p. 233)”
Sitting on the dividing line between male and female forced me to realize that my entire life I’d sat on a similar dividing line between Mexican and white. This dividing line, esta frontera, created a new identity in me: I am half and half, I am both, I am something different entirely.
Fluidity
All of these features of liminal identity speak to a fluidity of identity. By being aware of a more comprehensive terrain of identity, liminals can move between boundaries that to some with a more fixed identity, may seem uncrossable. Nico Dacumos (2006) shares his relationship to “mixed consciousness”:
“Thinking about things from a mixed-race perspective started me thinking that mixedness was somewhere at the heart of my discomfort with identity, my inability to “just pick one” no matter what identity matrix I was being sucked into. So I stopped trying. I also stopped trying to like just girls or just boys. I even stopped trying to like just one girl or one boy. I stopped trying to be just a girl or just a boy. Or a transboy or a butch girl. (p. 27)”
Thinking about things from a mixed-race perspective started me thinking that mixedness was somewhere at the heart of my discomfort with identity, my inability to “just pick one” no matter what identity matrix I was being sucked into. So I stopped trying.
Next Steps: Transformation
Though there is a lot of pain in these shared experiences, I believe they are necessary traits for redefining how we see and engage with difference in today’s multicultural world. I also believe these are teachable skills to those that did not naturally grow into a liminal identity.
Reflection
Take a moment and reflect on the following questions. Please share in the comments section as other readers may resonate with your reflections.
- How has liminal identity played a role in your life?
- How have you created bridges during your life?
- What opposites have you stood between in your identity? (e.g. East Coast/West Coast, Techie/Artist, Jewish/Catholic) What were the struggles? What were the gifts?
- What might you do differently with this knowledge?
References
Dacumos, N. (2006). All mixed up with no place to go: Inhabiting mixed consciousness on the margins. In M. a.k.a M. B. Sycamore (Ed.), Nobody passes: Rejecting the rules of gender conformity (pp. 20-37). Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.
Gladwell, M. (1998). Lost in the middle. In C. C. O’Hearn (Ed.), Half and half: Writers of growing up biracial and bicultural (pp. 112-124). New York, NY: Pantheon Books.
Gutierrez-Mock, L. (2006). F2Mestizo. In M. a.k.a. M. B. Sycamore (Ed.), Nobody passes: Rejecting the rules of gender conformity (pp. 228-235). Emeryville, CA: Seal Press.