For a nation proudly flying its flag of diversity, the United States exudes historic and current intolerance toward the microcosmic melting pot of mixed-race children. Self-identity is an inevitable concern of maturing interracial youth in today's America. Society also seems preoccupied with the question of where multiracial incarnations belong. Where are the products of crossbreeding located in the hierarchical order of society? For an adolescent already searching for an established sense of self, this sense of being a national outsider due to an interracial background significantly affects the quest for coming of age. Life in America is built on a foundation of connections; a complex web of relationships shapes each person. For an interracial adolescent, connections are explored between the child-uniracial people, the child-parental figure(s), and the child himself. Mixed-race adolescents must endure what is often perceived as a negative relationship between them and the uniracial population. Racism has infiltrated from generation to generation to reach modern American society in various forms of mutation. This inherited hostility is indeed historical and absolutely alive and apparently directed towards miscegenation. The gulf between multiracial and seemingly uniracial citizens leaves room for racism as well as tolerance. Intense emotional obstacles accompany the second type of relationship: parenting a mixed-race child and marrying someone of another race. The role of parents and extended family is crucial in the development of self-esteem, identity and a sense of belonging to the community. Third, the inner turmoil of the interracial child, between self and self, is the deepest and most primary struggle middle of paper. ......cents' relationship with the uniracial community at large, from which often arises racist views historically embedded in our culture since the days of slavery. Parental figures and extended family can be a source of rejection or guidance, which can significantly prolong or accelerate a positive conclusion in the search for self. Finally, the deepest struggle in a very difficult time is that of self versus self. Although the life journey of an interracial child in the United States is not smooth, gaining a sense of belonging and identity is necessary to come of age. Rather than creating a divide between the closed racial boundaries of minority and majority, perhaps in our nation's future, miscegenation will not be accompanied by negative racist concepts since, after all, "there is no has more purebreds anywhere in the world” (Brown 11).