UNC-CH SWIRL provides space for students with multiracial and multiethnic identities

A new campus organization wants to make clear that races and ethnicities are not just black and white, and they shouldn’t be portrayed as such.

UNC-CH SWIRL, which stands for Students With Interracial Legacies, seeks to provide a welcoming environment on campus for students with multiracial and multiethnic identities.

“A lot of people don’t really know about multiracial students as a whole,” founder and president Leona Amosah said. “Oftentimes, multiracial students are forced to choose certain aspects of their identities over others.” 

Amosah, who has West African, Russian and Armenian heritage, said she has had to choose how to identify and present herself to others. She was initially interested in joining clubs on campus for African-American students, like Black Student Movement and the Organization for African Students' Interests and Solidarity, but felt they didn’t wholly represent her identity.

“Black was such an omitting term for me because my Russian cultural identity has been at the forefront of who I am,” Amosah said.

“Identifying as a black student did not acknowledge any of that. I always felt like I had to separate my two identities, and I felt like there needed to be an organization that allowed for students to identify as everything they are, all at once.”

SWIRL was partly inspired by a documentary Amosah watched over the summer called "Little White Lie." The film centers on a Jewish woman who looks into her family history and finds out her biological father is black. The theme of grappling with biracial identity struck a chord with Amosah. 

“That brought me to tears,” she said. “I feel like that’s been a constant struggle for me, and a constant struggle for a lot of people — figuring out how to fully embrace that you come from so many different cultures.”

Amosah decided it was time for a change. She reached out to students on Facebook starting in late July to get a sense of the mixed-race and mixed-ethnicity population on campus.

Amosah said only three people showed up at the club's first meeting. First-year Olive Fadale was one of those three.

“In my experiences, there has been no space that will truly accept me,” Fadale said. “When I’m with white people, they think of me as Indian, and when I’m with Indian people, they think of me as white. SWIRL provides a space to really talk about that experience.”

The club has used social media to expand membership since its first meeting. Outreach Chairperson Mackenzie Kwok became involved when a friend of hers sent her a screenshot of a flier from the club’s first meeting.

“I have been waiting for a multiracial organization for a very long time,” Kwok said. “There wasn’t really a space for me to be a person of color who also has white privilege and explore that intersection. It’s really comforting to know that there are people on the same page as me.”

Taffye Clayton, associate vice chancellor for diversity and multicultural affairs, said she applauds and supports SWIRL and its members.

“It’s certainly like Carolina students to want to create an organization that allows them to engage one another, and people who are similar, but also to share with others who are dissimilar about what their experiences are,” she said.

Amosah and Kwok, along with Amy Townsend, the club's vice president, are in the process of organizing the club and making it an official student group. SWIRL's biweekly meetings are held Mondays at 7 p.m. in the Student Union. 

“By having this organization exist, we can let people know that we exist,” Amosah said. “People are aware of students who identify as multiracial, but it’s not something that people think about a lot. We need a space, we exist and we’re important.”

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