About this episode

Sharmane Fury interviews Noelle Blanco about her experiences with Mixed Asian identity and the complexities of belonging.

This week on Militantly Mixed, I’m joined by Noelle Blanco, whom I met at Mixed Asian Day 2025 in San Francisco. Noelle ended up joining our We Are Not a Monolith panel at literally the last possible minute, when she had just stepped off stage from another panel, and we invited her to jump in with us because we loved her whole vibe on the previous panel. With no prep whatsoever and me moderating the panel, she did her thing and just killed it! One of my favorite Noelle stories from the panels at Mixed Asian Day, and this episode comes from her childhood. When she would explain her ethnicity, she thought the answer was “Pork and Cheese and Jalapeño,” because that is what Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, and Filipino sounded like. I love finding the different ways we, as Mixed kids, try to make sense of our ethnic identities.  This episode was recorded back in November, but the last few months have been a little rough on my end. I’m happy to report that now that the ADHD medication that was making me feel completely dead inside is finally out of my system, I’m feeling like myself again and excited to be back working on the show. In this conversation, Noelle and I talk about Mixed…

People in this episode

Host: Sharmane Fury

Guest: Noelle Blanco

Topics covered

• Mixed Asian identity
• belonging
• community
• multiracial experiences
• ethnic identity

Keywords

• Mixed race
• identity
• ethnicity
• community
• cultural experiences

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