Sandra Tutwiler sums up the role of race in the US, when she writes, “race categories have historically been used in the United States to separate people for social, economic, political, and ideological purposes” _^(Tutwiler). She dives into how white people have used race to preserve their statuses at the top of the social hierarchy, dismissing those of color and mixed race, stemming from discrimination during slavery. The exclusion and classifications of people were often based on appearance.

In the US there has been a history of treating racial identity as something that maps neatly onto a set of behavior, values, and ideals that can be understood and revealed by how a person racially identifies. In spite of the current tendency to celebrate multiculturalism, many still face a genuine dilemma of where one may place a hybrid body that does not fit into one simple place. In the US there are many biracial people who both embrace and feel alienated by the term Asian-American. Non-acceptance still occurs in a mainland Asian American context, particularly when the Asian descent multiracial are of african and/or latino ancestries _^(Ho) .

In regards to the Asian communities, interracial marriages initially were disdained and not recognized. However, Asian-White marriages boomed after World War II, with U.S. servicemen marrying Asian women during their service. These interracial marriages were better accepted due to the colorism prevalent in Asian cultures. Additionally, intercultural marriages within the Asian community were not common due to prejudices and historical conflicts between nations, such as the Japanese and Koreans. Today, there is more acceptance than there was before for mixed asians in the Asian American community.

Further studies on the identities of mixed invdividuals reveal how these are "edge dancers," in which they may dance between the boundaries of their different cultures depending on the situation _{^{(Houston and Hogan).}} This process of dancing redefines the edges of what it means to be a multicultural indivdual, forcing others to reinterpret their own definitions of certain social groups and multiculturalism. One way of studying the construction of multiracial indenties focuses on: alienation from family members, schoolmates, and others in the communities; complexity, that is the result of having mixed heritage; and finally celebration, in which individuals learned to embrace their mixed-raceness.

Maria P.P. Root introduces an ecological model of racial identity development that includes studying the contexts of one's, gender, class, and regional history of race _^(Root). According to her, the family unit is key in assisting multiracial children in learning about and accepting their cultures. Those who feel rejected by family members or others may develop hatred against a cultural group, associating their trauma with a particular race. Additionally, she points out that factors, such as gender, the history of one's region, dating prejudices, and the labeling of mixed people from outsiders all play a role in the fluid process of identity development.

Root also conducted research in regards to how siblings of mixed heritage identities self-identified differently. Inherited influences, traits, social environments can all differ from sibling to sibling. During her research, she focused on the effects of hazing, family dysfunction, the legacy of civil rights, and other salient identities, including religion and military affiliation on sibling pairs. Traumas caused by discrimination manifest in several ways, such as refusal to date, avoidance of people of a specific heritage, and the need to overcompensate in financial or social success. Feelings of conflict arise when there is incongruency in the way others perceive a mixed individual and how they view themselves. She concluded that for a positive development of identity, one must not confine themselves to the scope of others' perceptions nor deny a part of their racial heritage.

Multiracial people undermine stable notions of race, on this page we highlight some popular multiracial figures in the US who claim all of their racial heritage. The visibility of these celebrities helps to dispell the mono-racial myth surrounding Asian Americans and help to highlight how multiracial people are not an escape from race but a return to it _^(Nishime) .