R&B Artist, Miguel, Sings About Struggles with Multicultural Identity

Experiencing difficulties fitting in as a child, due to his biracial identity, Miguel makes use of his recent fame to start a conversation about the struggles faced by many kids like him.

American R&B singer, Miguel Pimental, (stage named, Miguel) was born in San Pedro, California to an African American mother and Mexican father. In his song, “What’s normal anyways,” Miguel speaks about struggling with his multicultural identity, not feeling comfortable being around his African American friends or his Mexican friends. Growing up in a predominantly Mexican American community just north of the border between Mexico and the United States, Miguel had an especially hard time figuring out the aspects of his identity. 

In his lyrics, “What’s normal anyway? I’m in a crowd and I feel alone, I look around and I feel alone. I never feel like I belong, I wanna feel like I belong. Somewhere, somewhere,” Miguel reflects on his upbringing and dealing with the confusion of fitting in, acknowledging his differences among others. It was probably easier for Miguel to embrace his Mexican heritage, reflecting on the majority of culture surrounding him. Alternately, being exposed to Mexican culture in this way, Miguel probably had discomforts about the ways that he differed. This would make it more difficult for him to embrace aspects of his African American identity.

He writes about feeling alone and just wanting to belong, wanting to feel normal. He feels as though there are aspects of his identity which make him unable to fit in with each group. This is evident in his lyrics, “too proper for the black kids, too black for the Mexicans, too square to be a hood n****.” This is a problem that most, if not all, biracial and multiracial kids struggle with.

Many people credit Miguel for his openness and advocacy regarding the issues of race in the United States.