Sharmane Fury: Be Your Mixed Ass Self

Mixed Asian Media - November 15, 2022

By Naturally MonaLisa

I have the honor of interviewing Sharmane Fury. She is the host of multiple podcasts, but most famously she hosts the Militantly Mixed podcast, which just celebrated its fourth anniversary and has won two Golden Crane Awards. Militantly Mixed is a podcast about race and identity from the mixed race perspective. The podcast has become very popular in the mixed raced community due to how personable and honest Sharmane is, and she’s not afraid to discuss controversial topics. You can listen to Militantly Mixed on all major podcasting platforms, and can follow Militantly Mixed on social media @militantlymixed. You can also join Patreon and be a sponsor or donate to the Militantly Mixed Podcast Fundraiser on gofundme.com.

Tell me about yourself, and please share your famous tagline for those that don’t know you!

I am the busiest mixed race, bigender, bisexual, polyamorous, atheist, comic book nerd, cat mom, and two-time Asian American Podcasters Association's Golden Crane Award-winning podcaster in this podcasting game!

I am the host of Militantly Mixed, the podcast about race and identity from the mixed-race perspective, where we can be our mixed ass selves. I am also the co-host of BLERDcoMIXed. It is a podcast about Blackness and comic book nerd stuff from a couple of mixed Black blerds. Finally, I am the co-host of Queer and Far, a travel podcast for marginalized travelers. My co-host and I are both queer-identified femmes or women. We are talking from all marginalized groups, such as Black, Brown, disabled, queer, femme, woman, etc.

Why did you start podcasting in the first place, and why did you choose this medium over others (such as YouTube, TikTok, or Blogging)?

I tried blogging several times before I did a podcast. It was more like an online diary about being a mixed person. I don't think I had anybody read it, and I wasn't pushing it. I just put it out into the universe. TikTok didn't exist yet, so I didn’t use it. YouTube did exist, but I thought that YouTube channels had to be flashy and have big titles and all that kind of stuff, and I wasn't prepared to do that work yet. That's why I didn't go that route.

I started listening to podcasts about three years prior to me actually recording my own. I thought this was brilliant! It’s almost free entry into the world. It was very cheap or free-ish to have a podcast. You can have an audience or not have an audience, and it still exists, and that's cool. And if by chance I happen to make a whole bunch of mixed friends, that would be a bonus! That was a selfish move on my part, to try to collect more mixed people in my life. And in the process of doing that, I discovered my niche! I’ve discovered my place! Because I am a talker, the podcasting world ended up being the right spot for me to fall into.

Tell me more about your background in the most comfortable way you want to describe it. And how did your mixed background influence your podcasting work?

My parents are both biracial. My mother is Japanese on her mother's side. On her father's side, she's Appalachian white, which means they've been in Appalachia since 1711. My father is Black and British white. His mother is from England and is Welsh and English. His father is of African ancestry from what is now Gabon. Specifically, three different tribes in Gabon: the Kota, the Teke, and the Tsogo people.

For my ethnic identity, I will list Black, Japanese, and British white. My political identity is Black. That’s where my vote will count, and that’s the community where I grew up in. My cultural identity is Black first, then Japanese, then British white. I grew up as a weekend Japanese because I would spend the weekends with my Japanese family. There are some British things that I do. I have a dry sense of humor, I use an intonation, and I drink tea.

In terms of podcasting, when I was listening to podcasts and became interested in the idea of creating a podcast, I would ask myself, “I like to talk, so what would I make a podcast about?” My partner would tell me, “You talk about being mixed all the time. You just don't have anybody to talk about it with.” I thought I could do something about mixed stuff, and so I did. I could talk about comics, and I could talk about film. However, not a day goes by that I don't talk about being mixed, so this might be my lane. I didn't think I could be a podcaster if I didn't start out being a mixed podcaster.

Speaking of podcasting, so far what has been your most memorable podcast episode? Or maybe your most memorable guest that has been on your podcast?

The first episode was very significant, and it made a huge impression. The guest is Jon Corbin, a hip-hop artist. He is white Mennonite on his mother's side, and British Guyanese on his father's side. He grew up mostly exposed to his white side of his family, and even though he's lighter skin in appearance, he still looks obviously Black. During the interview, he said, “There were times I was just fighting to be seen as white.” That punched me in the gut, it felt very physical! I asked him to explain what he meant. He explained he grew up entirely around white people, and every day it was a struggle for him. He only really knew white culture, but he looked the way he looked and people would treat him according to their stereotypes of Black people, which he couldn't relate to because he didn't grow up that way.

That was the seventh interview I recorded chronologically, but I made that my first episode for Militantly Mixed. People need to know what Militantly Mixed is about, which is the mixed experiences that individuals are facing. People need to know that there are people like Jon out there. That interview affected me so deeply that it was a good way to start my mission of sharing mixed narratives from different people’s perspectives.

Over the years I've had a ton of people that I've enjoyed. I enjoyed Ryan Alexander Holmes, the actor. I followed him for a while on social media before I invited him to be a guest. I wasn't sure if we would vibe because he is younger than me and he’s in Hollywood. And here I am, just a little podcaster. We ended up talking for five hours! I only shared an hour of our conversation on the podcast, but we could not stop talking to each other. Now we have a social relationship because we affected each other during that interview.

Militantly Mixed recently celebrated its fourth anniversary in July 2022 and 100,000 downloads. You also won two Golden Crane Awards from the Asian American Podcasters Association. How do you feel about these achievements?

What was very meaningful to me was getting a Golden Crane Award for content, which was my second Golden Crane Award. My first one was for the show’s logo, which also has a very important story behind it. But my second award for the show was for Best Asian Stories: Culture and Experiences. That is a very good title for an award for any kind of podcast. When I got the award, I saw “Best Asian,” and that made me feel very happy. I've spent my whole life being mixed Black Sharmane and not being able to occupy Asian spaces very much. So it was a big step for me to even apply to be a member of Asian American Podcasts Association, let alone getting an award from them.

For the first year, I applied for the award myself. The second year I was asked by the association to apply, and I submitted the Ryan Alexander Holmes episode. I picked that episode because he said something that I thought was very critical, “It's not that I don't look Asian. It is that you've never seen an Asian that looks like me before.” When I heard him say that, I choked up. Yes, I get to claim an Asian face just like any other Asian!

To be able to hit four years is a big deal to me. Even though the mixed population is growing, not everybody listens to podcasts. The fact that we are still considered a niche podcast and to be able to achieve global downloads up to 100,000, that means that my voice and the voice of many other mixed people have been heard at least 100,000 times. I think that's amazing. More importantly, I’m creating a space that mixed folks can go to hear themselves, see their stories, and see their faces.

Has Militantly Mixed provided you any unique opportunities or opened doors that you otherwise wouldn't have received? If so, what were they?

During my first year of podcasting, I was invited to speak at a community college that I used to attend. I was still in touch with one of the teachers that was at Sierra College, and they invited me to speak during their LGBTQ+ week about mixed race and marginalized identity. After that, I've had the unique opportunities to speak at various colleges and universities, LGBTQ+ organizations, and conferences. I got invited to speak at a mixed-race organization at UC Berkeley, and I got invited to UCLA. Most recently, I went to Northwestern University to speak to their employee NRG groups. I've also been interviewed by several journals, PhD programs and dissertations.

If I was just a regular mixed person that’s just sitting around, these things would never have happened. I wouldn’t have thought of doing this if I hadn't started doing podcasting. I wouldn't have been accepted into these universities with my 94.6 grade average, but I was invited to speak at these places! Speaking at events has been really fun. Give me an opportunity to talk and I will!

Do you have any tips and advice to those that's interested in starting a podcast?

Press record! I had the idea for Militantly Mixed four years before I actually did it. I sat on that idea, and I fantasized about that idea for four years! That self-doubt and imposter syndrome is a lie! I could be hitting my eighth anniversary now (rather than fourth anniversary) if I did it when I had the idea originally.

So my advice is to press record. The thing is, you can always stop if it's not right for you. You can also pause and grow. You can take some time to build on it. Two years before I pressed record, I got all the handles for the podcast. I got the handles on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Periscope (which doesn’t exist anymore). It still took me two more years until I finally pressed record, and I'm glad that I finally did it because it saved my life!

What do you have going on right now? Any upcoming projects or events that we should look out for?

I have a few things that are coming up in March 2023 (stay tuned!), but I'm trying to let the rest of my 2022 be calm because I've just traveled to six different conferences in seven weeks (that includes Dragon Con, ClexaCon, and New York Comic Con). I’m continuing with the podcasting, elevating the different shows that I do, and trying to get bigger audiences. I'm also fundraising for Militantly Mixed right now, so I'm gonna focus on that area until the end of 2022.

Naturally MonaLisa wears many hats and has many passions. She is an experienced corporate trainer and a certified HR professional. She has a small YouTube Channel where she shares her personal experience with eczema and asthma, and she promotes nontoxic and vegan products that are safe for everyone to use. She also volunteers at an advocacy group called “BLM Cantonese,” in which she translates BLM-related terms from English to Cantonese to help Cantonese speakers have difficult yet important conversations about Black Lives Matter with their family and friends. You can follow her YouTube Channel called “Naturally MonaLisa” and follow her on Instagram @NaturallyMonaLisa.