Am I "Black Enough"? Biracial Identity in Minnesota
- Deyona Kirk
- Sep 17
- 3 min read
Sometimes the conversations that feel the most ordinary are the ones we’ve been waiting for all along. In this episode of Divine Konversations, co-hosts Tatiana Burgum and Tatianna Kirk - better known together as T-Squared - turn the mic on themselves. Instead of interviewing a guest, they open up about their own lived realities of being biracial women in Duluth and Superior.
It’s a topic that’s often hinted at but rarely spoken aloud: what it means to grow up in two worlds, to carry multiple identities, and to navigate the subtle and not-so-subtle ways people respond when you don’t fit neatly into one box.
Tatianna K. shares her story first - raised between the Twin Cities and Duluth, daughter of a Black father and white mother, and now the operations manager at Divine Konnections. Her life has been shaped by moving between spaces, blending experiences, and often fielding questions that come with assumptions: “Where are you from?” or “Are you really from here?”
For Tatiana B., the story unfolds differently. Adopted as a baby into a white family in Superior, she grew up as the only child of color in most of her classrooms. The small-town dynamic carried both love and tension. While her family supported her, the larger community left her with a quiet sense of survival - learning how to shrink, how to adapt, and eventually, how to embrace her full identity after moving away and experiencing more diverse spaces.
Together, they laugh through stories of awkward encounters - like strangers commenting on braids as though they were magical overnight hair growth - and they sit with harder truths about code-switching, professional bias, and the way natural hair has too often been policed as “unprofessional.” Both recall the pressure to straighten their hair when younger, only to rediscover later the freedom of embracing curls, texture, and authenticity.
What grounds them now is community. At Divine Konnections, they’ve found a workplace where showing up fully - lashes or not, natural hair or not - is not just accepted but celebrated. It’s a space that feels like an exhale, where professionalism doesn’t mean erasure.
They also reflect on family and parenting. From interracial marriage and raising biracial kids to being mistaken for the nanny of your own children, the conversation touches on the complicated ways race shows up in public perception. Both women name the mental load of constantly being “mapped” by others - people trying to figure out who belongs to whom - and how draining that can be.
Yet, woven through every story is resilience and humor. From mistaken identities to moments of pride, Tatianna and Tatiana keep circling back to the truth that being biracial is not about choosing one side or another - it’s about embracing both.
“Sometimes it feels like I have to pick a side - but the truth is, I’m both. And that’s enough.”
⏱ Chapter Markers
00:00 – Introducing “T-Squared” and the topic of being biracial
01:30 – Tatianna Kirk’s story: growing up between cities and identities
04:00 – Tatiana Burgum’s story: adoption, Superior, and surviving small-town dynamics
07:30 – Pressure to “pick a side” in family and community spaces
08:30 – Straightening, relaxing, and the politics of natural hair
12:00 – Awkward encounters (like the infamous braid question)
20:00 – Being seen differently in professional spaces
23:00 – Finding freedom and belonging at Divine Konnections
26:00 – Parenting biracial children and navigating assumptions
34:00 – Stereotypes, misconceptions, and the reality of blended families
43:00 – Am I “enough”? The biracial question of belonging
50:00 – Spaces that empower and representation that matters
56:00 – What we’d tell our younger selves
Weekly Reflection
If you could speak to your younger self, what would you say about belonging?
What would you want that child to know about their worth?
Watch & Listen
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