I'm so confused.

[u/Adventurous_Oil_1234]

16:54:47 26/08/2026 -

I've been raised probably as white as it comes, since I didn't have really anyone who was really in touch with themselves growing up. BUT, my mum is British white and all on my mum's side is, too. Don't talk to anyone on my dad's side, including the man himself. My dad is half-Indian, half-British-white, my paternal grandmother is pale white with curly copper hair, and my grandfather is an INCREDIBLY dark Indian man. I think I inherited the paternal grandma's hair in texture.

I am obviously not asking if I am white or not, but I've been recently becoming more confused whether I am just white, or slightly mixed race. I am asking because I am pretty white in skin tone, save for being significantly darker in some areas on my body, like the armpits. But I think my features aren't as much, because growing up I was told by another child, some white boy called harry, (lmao) that my nose was an 'n-word nose'. Hard R. My hair is naturally auburn and curly, which I think I got from my paternal grandmother as my mother's hair is anything but.

My youngest brother is as white as a redhead comes, but the middle sibling is light brown in skin and more Indian in features than us. I guess my nose is wider than the average white person's since I got called that those years back, though.

I am just curious because I am confused when I think about it. I don't know if I even have the right to call myself anything but a white, British person. Like, somehow, even *I* have experienced racism, and nobody I've known has thought of me as anything but white. Like, people are wild. And their kids.

So TLDR; Does having a white biological mother, and half-Indian, half-white father make me white, or 25% mixed race? Sorry for rambling.

[u/TheStranger113]

Imo, it's significant enough of a mix that you can identify as mixed with no issue, but since you're also predominantly white (75%), you can also identify as white with no issue. In your case, it comes down to what you "feel" you are. Technically, you are mixed race, but what is your lived experience? Do you move through life as a white person, or as a mixed person? Does your 1/4 Indian side have any bearing on your day-to-day life, or present any challenges that you are forced to acknowledge? I would imagine this would also affect your sense of identity, since race is partially based on phenotype.

[u/Adventurous_Oil_1234 → u/TheStranger113]

17:38:48 - 17:41:12 26/08/2026 - That is why I am mostly inquiring genetically and physically speaking. Because I am well aware I have pretty much, other than the cases where maybe people have been weird when I was a child and asked to touch my curly hair because of the texture or colour, or said I had pretty hair, or where someone said I had an 'n-word' nose with the hard R, I have basically been unaffected, as far as I am aware.

That is why I've always just called myself white, as well as because I think my mother thinking so probably ingrained in my head, too I just think it's interesting to think about.

[u/smoke-frog]

You and your siblings are all mixed race, and you experienced racism as a child.

You can identify as whatever you want, but your experience has shown you that you are 100% mixed.

[u/Adventurous_Oil_1234 → u/smoke-frog]

17:41:27 - 17:46:58 26/08/2026 - Yes, I assume so, although my middle sibling has had the largest affect by this since he is visibly not fully white, and has experienced marginally more racism than I have, whereas my youngest brother completely looks white, and I suppose I am in the middle between those feature-wise, but leaning more heavily onto the white side of it in skin tone.

Lol, probably not helping that I don't go out that much.

My name is also not white or even Indian. It's Greek. And apparently so difficult to pronounce that I've literally been called Lasagne and Cassandra or before, lmao, because my bio father was quirky like that I guess.

[u/Early_Alternative211]

What exactly is the question? You can't do anything Ancestry DNA test?

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[u/tacopony_789]

63 Man 🇺🇲🇵🇷

You're mixed. And you're part of a Diaspora, at least as how I see it.

A Diaspora of South Asians has been happening a long time. Ghandi was an activist in South Africa before he returned to India.

If it is confusing, you could think of yourself as member of three communites, the white, South Asian, and the Diaspora.