During her formative years in Texas, Alethea Pieters, a half-Asian, half-black junior, accompanied her parents to meetings of the Interracial Family Alliance for Houston. There, she found kids like herself, who knew what it was like to be asked, on a regular basis, "What are you?"
Pieters extended this experience with some fellow students at Tufts by creating a similar forum for students of multicultural backgrounds. The result, The Multicultural Union at Tufts (MUTT), provides students the opportunity to discuss issues pertaining to their background.
MUTT is a "support network for students of multicultural backgrounds to come together, in a comfortable environment where they can come talk about similar issues they all face," Pieters said.
Sophomore Josh Hwa, another club founder, said the club provides a place where "people get together with a common interest or common background."
"A lot of biracial kids grow up with no one to relate to," he said.
With an identity that spans more than one culture or race, students may feel that they do not fit in, according to sophomore Beth Mochizuki, who was also involved with the club's creation.
"I think, identity-wise, community-wise, there's no real space for being biracial, multiracial, or multiethnic here at Tufts... we're trying to create our own space," she said.
For next year, in addition to holding regular meetings, MUTT hopes to change the racial designations on Tufts' admissions application. "We want to lobby the administration to get the 'other' box removed from the form, and have a mixed race [box]," Pieters said.
The question of the box has also engaged groups such as the Arizona-based Association of Multi-Ethnic Americans, which fought to add such a category to the 2000 Census. For Mochizuki, whose father is Japanese and mother is white, the categories are narrow and non-inclusive.
"Usually, you have to check off just one [box] and then you have to pick Asian or Latin or whatever - you have to give up one side. No matter what, there should be a category. There's a large population that doesn't fit into one of those sections," Mochizuki said.
For Pieters, no individual box encapsulates her identity. "I fill in half of the black bubble and half of the Asian bubble - I'm not 'other,' my options are there," she said.
So far, the club has held one meeting, though its e-mail list has over 50 names. And already, a controversy has surfaced over the club's name, with some students taking offense to the acronym, which they call a racial slur.
"They feel that it's as negative a word as nigger or spic," Pieters said, adding that the group is looking into changing its name because it doesn't want to alienate possible participants.
Mochizuki, however, says the name is a positive reclamation of a slur. "I feel there are a whole bunch of instances in history where people claim a derogatory name to empower themselves," she said.
Pieters said the group members who have attended meetings are fairly diverse, though she said that most multiracial students at Tufts are a specific mix.
"I feel like there's a nice mix, although I do feel there's a larger number of half-white, half-Asian people on campus, so the membership is predominantly half-white and half-Asian," she said.
But Pieters says that club members with unique racial backgrounds still find a home in MUTT. "When people are mixed, they still have enough common ground to relate," she said.
The club is called "multicultural" because its members do not want to draw divisions between those of mixed race and mixed culture. Pieters points out, for example, that some Asians grow up around white students, providing for a mixed culture background.
"I don't want it to be seen as a separatist thing," she said. MUTT is welcoming to all people, she said, "it's important that it's multicultural, not just multiracial."
Next semester, the club hopes to hold various activities, invite speakers to campus, and attend conferences at other schools pertaining to mixed race or culture backgrounds.
