What does it mean to belong when you’re never quite “enough” for either side? Growing up biracial in Minnesota, that question followed us into classrooms, workplaces, and even the most ordinary spaces—like the grocery store or the dentist’s office.

In this episode, it’s just the two of us—Tatianna and Tatiana, aka T²—sitting down to have a conversation we haven’t shared much about publicly: what it’s like to be biracial in Duluth, MN. Our stories are different—I grew up in an all-white adoptive family in Superior, while my co-host spent summers in Duluth before moving here permanently. But in so many ways, the threads of identity, hair, family, and belonging weave together.

We talk about code-switching before we even had the language for it, the stares and awkward questions that follow biracial kids, and how spaces like Divine Konnections have finally given us room to show up as our whole selves.

Key Themes + Takeaways

The “Where are you from?” question. How curiosity can carry an undercurrent of exclusion.

Code-switching + survival. Learning to “speak white” or minimize parts of ourselves to fit in.

Hair as identity. From relaxers and straighteners to embracing curls, and how professional spaces still police Black hair.

Family dynamics. What it means to grow up with blended, multiracial families and the assumptions strangers make.

Spaces of belonging. How Divine Konnections has created a home where we can bring our whole selves without apology.

Advice to our younger selves. “It’s going to be okay. You are enough.”

Pull Quotes

“Sometimes I shut down the part of me that’s a woman of color just to get my point across in white spaces.”

“My favorite answer when people ask about my braids? A random number. It keeps them guessing.”

“If you didn’t feel like you belonged before, this is the space where you do.”

“I can be professional with my natural hair, my nails, my lashes—or without any of it. I am still enough.”

“It’s okay to be different. It’s okay to talk different, act different, look different. You are enough.”

Chapter Markers

00:00 – Growing up biracial in Minnesota

06:10 – The “Where are you from?” question

10:01 – Code-switching + survival in white spaces

12:35 – The hair conversation: relaxers, braids, and respectability

20:00 – When professionalism gets tied to straight hair

23:44 – Finding belonging at Divine Konnections

27:50 – Parenting biracial kids in Duluth

35:16 – Small-town mapping + the mental weight of stares

43:10 – “Am I Black enough?” and the fight for belonging

49:30 – Spaces of empowerment + representation

56:01 – Advice we’d give our younger selves

Your Turn (Reflective CTA)

This week’s reflection: When have you felt the pressure to shrink or hide part of who you are just to fit in—and what would it look like to show up as your whole self instead?

🙌 Stay Connected + Keep the Conversation Going

Website: ⁠⁠https://www.divinekonnections.org/⁠⁠

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