She’s 100% Asian, 100% Black, and 100% Yasna Vismale! You might know the Japanese Trinidadian for her videos where her mother does her hair and the two talk about their family dynamics. More than being a multiracial content creator with followings on Instagram and TikTok, Vismale is an author, a film composer, a public speaker, and a community builder.
I sat down to talk to Vismale about her inspiration as a content creator, what she hopes Asian Americans can learn from the gray area, and her current pursuit of being a film composer.
Vismale’s social media accounts first gained traction when she began to share the behind-the-scenes of her relationship with her Japanese mother and what it means to be Blasian (i.e., Black and Asian). She shares that she came from a place of wanting to “spread awareness” with her audience of what it is like to grow up as the product of two cultures and communities.
“It was very helpful to my mom — because she already knows that she’s important to me — to show how relatable she is to so many people. It gave her a lot of confidence, a lot more confidence to stick up for herself,” she acknowledges. “To some people, the only thing that they can see is that there is a Blasian kid and that’s her Japanese mom. To them, I’m like, ‘Well, I’m sorry that race is the only thing that you were able to see. There is also a relationship of just a daughter and her mom exploring our lives and culture.’”
Identity is much more than the color of one’s skin. It can encompass your religion, your ableness, your gender, and more, in addition to your race and ethnic background. For Vismale, “identity is a lot deeper than just perception and race.” It is tied to her upbringing and her community, she notes. As a Blasian person, she would ask herself, “Why am I letting other people who don’t know my background try to label me or distinguish who I am?”
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