Charli XCX on her Indian heritage

Half-Indian representation hell yeah

I’m mixed and I really relate to Charli’s childhood experiences here (especially the struggle of “which side am I on?”). Props to the interviewer for asking her this question because this might be the first time I’ve ever seen Charli speak about her Indian side.

I wish she would lean into it more, assuming her image would let her do that

I love that she’s speaking on it. As a half-Asian, I completely understand where she’s coming from. There’s also invisibility that comes with being half-Asian if you’re not half white or half East Asian.

as someone who is also white passing mixed race in the UK, it’s a really difficult topic to kind of talk about because a lot of us realise that we have a certain amount of privilege that aren’t afforded to non-white people in the UK, but we still faced discrimination once people find out your background, and you still watched closed members of your family face discrimination? there’s that level of “I didn’t have it as bad as others” guilt. but then we still get shit for being non-white, non-British people? 

I totally get her hesitation and difficulty in choosing her words when talking about this 

I didn’t know she was half Indian. It turns out her mum is from a Muslim gugarati family, same as me! That’s exciting. Bless, it can’t have been easy being in two worlds.

This is something that people can relate to in the UK, and something that isn’t really talked about in mainstream spaces. I don’t have much connection to my heritage and have been pushed away by people because I’m not their version of that heritage. I speak too posh, I hold myself differently, I am not exactly like some of these people and so I am judged for it.

Yeah, in my experience as a half Asian person, it can be awkward talking about the topic for me because my Asian side of the family has no solid ties to our culture, traditions, or even our distant relatives out of the States. This was largely due to my grandparents’ desire to assimilate into American culture as quickly as possible, so we weren’t even taught a second language, just English, and then they passed away quickly as well, so their kids were raised without knowing much of their parent’s culture and then were raised by relatives who also focused on assimilation.

I was basically raised in an environment that encouraged me to be as close to my white side as possible. The community I grew up in was majorly white as well (90+%).

As an adult now, there’s lingering feelings of shame in not being able to easily engage in the language or other parts of the culture. And it all stems from family decisions that were outside of my control.

I started fully realizing this dynamic in my early 20s. Lately I’ve been pestering my mom and other relatives to start applying for the dual citizenship they’re entitled to! It’s only the first of many steps for them, but hopefully, from this, we’ll be able to get in touch with our distant relatives and culture more.

I’ve never thought about this topic too much, but it must be so difficult to experience that feeling of not being able to claim your own roots.

My own heritage and background is such a huge part of who I am. I can’t imagine how isolating it would feel to feel that you don’t really fit in to your place(s) of origin and aren’t accepted into either culture.

I’m mixed with a Hispanic father from El Salvador who was absent since I was 5 and a white mother born in the US (specifically the south). It’s always been tough growing up deciding what ‘side’ you’re on, especially with my mom being a white, racist southern lady. Her hate towards anything different made me resent the environment I grew up in and made me feel like I don’t resonate with much ‘white’ culture. Meanwhile I remember a specific time hanging with a Mexican girl when I was 18 and she was with a bunch of other Hispanic people. I knew very little Spanish and they were all obviously fluent and were speaking Spanish and I told them I was half Hispanic and they all kind of laughed at me because I couldn’t keep up with what they were saying. It was really embarrassing and partially a core memory for me because it defined the feeling I got whenever I told people I was mixed, that being that I’m not Hispanic enough to be Hispanic but also didn’t feel like I resonate with white culture due to what I was exposed to growing up. I’m very surface level with telling people my background when meeting them just to avoid feeling like I did that day.

To clarify my overall point, being mixed can be very hard, especially growing up. You feel like you don’t really have an identity and almost as if you are a drifter in a cultural sense.

looking at this thread, I just realized the wasian discourse of May 2026 that took over my life was truly just a micro event