Brazilian photographer Angelica Dass is on a mission to capture every skin tone in the world for her Human Pantone Project. Pantone is the world-renowned authority on color and provider of color systems, and most known for their Pantone Color Matching System. Once Angelica takes a stunning raw photo of a volunteer, she carefully matches the background with the exact same color code as an 11-pixel portion of the model’s face. The project aims to expand the definition of diversity and to shed light on how much skin tone differs from person to person

Around the world, the subject of race plays a big role in stereotyping, discrimination and objectification. Religion, race, gender, nationality and culture are things that are bound to be different from person to person. Many people have embraced this diversity, while others haven't. Some people travel the world to discover new cultures and taste new foods, but others are blessed by having a mixed heritage background. Being of mixed heritage is cool for some people, but they face struggles that single-heritage people will never experience.

Kuwait Times spoke with some people from mixed heritage backgrounds to learn more about their experiences.

Hamza Al-Tal, a 27-year-old software engineering graduate, told Kuwait Times about his life as a Mexican-Jordanian man. The story begins when Tal's father was studying in the US, where he met his mother, a Mexican-American. "I'm lucky to be from a mixed background - my dad is Jordanian with a Circassian mother and my mother is Mexican with a Spanish dad."

This has led him to try many tasty cuisines. Also, working in Istanbul added its own flavor to his gastronomic repertoire. When his family gathers, the table is a United Nations of food and cultures representing many countries around the world.

Growing up in a Mexican-Jordanian environment was not hard, as both countries share similar traditions and his parents are on the same wavelength. "I never felt awkward joining cultural groups even if my background is all mixed up," Tal said.

Tal speaks three languages - Arabic, English and Spanish - as both his parents shared their native languages with him. "My name in my Jordanian passport is Hamza Al-Tal; however on my Mexican passport, it's a must to add my mom's surname, so my name in Mexican documents is Hamza Al-Tal Morales. My Mexican passport makes it easier for me to travel without a visa," he added.

Sharing the same societal values, habits and traditions, Alanood Al-Ghamdi's parents decided to marry after falling in love. "My father is from Saudi Arabia. He was a close friend of my Kuwaiti mother's brother. After getting to know my sister, he proposed, resulting in a mixed Gulf environment for me to grow up in," she said. Ghamdi speaks the Kuwaiti and Saudi dialects fluently. She notes that both her parents share the same Gulf mindset, but the difference is that Kuwait is more open and liberal.

"My father's family always rejected my mother, and this eventually led to divorce. The tradition in Saudi Arabia is that the man should marry a relative. My father was influenced by Kuwait's open-mindedness and from his studies in the US, but I suffered from my cousins' traditional views," Ghamdi said.

Reem Abu Qaoud is a 33-year-old economics graduate born and raised in Kuwait. She told Kuwait Times about her life as a half-Jordanian half-Egyptian with Palestinian roots. "My parents were neighbors in Kuwait and they both studied in Alexandria, so I believe the so-called love story started there," she said. Qaoud enjoys being of a mixed background, and loves the look on people's faces when they cannot figure out her ethnicity.

"My dialect is a mix of Egyptian, Palestinian, Jordanian, Lebanese (blame the singer Fairouz) and Syrian, as we have relatives of these nationalities in the family, and Kuwaiti too. I get reactions like 'Are you Egyptian?' 'I thought you were Lebanese!' 'You sound like a Kuwaiti!' and 'What it is your nationality?' It's cool to see people's reaction," Qaoud exclaimed.

She affirmed that although both her parents are Arab, she feels awkward when she joins a specific cultural group, as the Egyptian and Palestinian cultures are different. "I feel left out most of the time, because I don't share the same point of view, as my values are a mix of four countries. I have few friends of these nationalities, but I have close friends that are mixed like me, so that we can suffer together," she quipped. Qaoud does not feel she has to fit in a society that does not understand mixed-race people. "I feel weird, but once someone told me 'you are not alone; you are a child of the universe, where you belong everywhere and hold all countries in your heart'," she said.

Qaoud leans towards her Egyptian side, as she finds it funny, sarcastic and kind too. "I never ever fitted in totally. I'm always the weird one in any group, unless the group is mixed. People usually gossip about my ethnicity and make me feel that I belong to neither Egypt nor Palestine. For example, when it comes to football, I get reactions of 'Why do you care! You are not fully Egyptian/Palestinian'. This makes me sad. For my marriage, I think I will not choose anyone from these countries. I will create my own mix!"

China, Philippines, Spain and Portugal are part of the life of Maria Fatima Henriques, a 36-year-old IT graduate. "My father is a Chinese-Spanish-Filipino and my mother is Chinese-Filipino. I'm married to a Portuguese Indian Goan man. I always joke about how my kids will be like the United Nations," she told Kuwait Times. Henriques speaks Tagalog and a little Spanish. "Being a mixed person feels awkward, especially with extended families. I try to see common things, and it isn't hard. I feel uncomfortable especially when race jokes begin. The most common aspect is that we all share the Catholic faith, so holidays bring us together!" she said.

"People tend to generalize and I have learned that this is natural. The way I talk or act or react to things makes people say 'Oh you are not fully like them' or 'Oh you speak differently', but I think I am unique as an individual," Henriques said.

The views of mixed heritage people often reflect their sociocultural realities. However when it comes to discrimination, race has long been a tool utilized to suppress certain groups. Scientific research, however, proves that the concept of 'race' is a socio-political construct and not a scientific fact.

Indeed, there's no scientific basis for race

'Race' cannot be biologically defined due to genetic variation among human individuals and populations. An outdated concept identifies "five races": African, Asian, European, Native American and Oceanian.

Then a landmark 2002 study by Stanford scientists examined the question of human diversity by looking at distribution across seven major geographical regions of 4,000 alleles. Alleles are the different "flavors" of a gene. For instance, all humans have the same gene code for hair: The different alleles are why hair comes in all types of colors and textures.

If separate racial or ethnic groups actually existed, we would expect to find "trademark" alleles and other genetic features that are characteristic of a single group but not present in any others. However, the 2002 Stanford study found that only 7.4 percent of over 4,000 alleles were specific to one geographical region.

Furthermore, even when region-specific alleles did appear, they only occurred in about 1 percent of the people from that region - hardly enough to be any kind of trademark. Thus, there is no evidence that the groups we commonly call "races" have distinct, unifying genetic identities. In fact, there is ample variation within races.

Ultimately, there is so much ambiguity between the races, and so much variation within them, that two people of European descent may be more genetically similar to an Asian person than they are to each other.

Brazilian photographer Angela Dass' internationally Humanæ Project challenges modern conceptions of race by showcasing the diversity of human skin tone utilizing the Pantone spectrum.

By Faten Omar