In Hawai'i, no one needs a book to see that we are part of a multi-ethnic community, but while being of mixed race or "hapa" is common, it's not always comfortable.

"Multiracial people have had to be shape-shifters. We have been ostracized. We have had to figure out how to move and be and live and love in the midst of racial categorization that has left us, the Mulatto Nation, betwixt and between," writes Hawai'i author Rebecca Walker in the introduction to "Blended Nation: Portraits and Interviews of Mixed-Race America."

She continues: "But a new generation, a multiracial President, and a shifting global environment demand we rethink the old tropes of multiracial identity. It's hip to be multi now."

But, as Walker notes, people still want to know "what" people are, and through photographs and interviews, Mike Tauber and Pamela Singh examine race through the perspective of Americans who claim two or more ethnicities.

To an extent, the captions tell part of the story, illustrating that race can't simply be broken down into categories such as Asian, Black, Hispanic or White.

Victoria Navarro Oana is identified as "Half Pacific Islander (Chamorro), Half White (Spanish)," while her husband, Rossiter Kamealoha Oana, is "Pacific Islander (Hawaiian)." Their grandchildren, Christopher and Ariel, add Native American (Cherokee) to the mix. Victoria said she identifies with several ethnic groups: Chamorro, from her Guam upbringing; African-American, because of her late stepfather of 43 years; Spanish, because of her father; and Native American for the same reason.

"Then I went to Hawaii and married a Hawaiian man so now I am very much Hawaiian at heart," she says in the interview included in the book. "I see all parts of myself as essential to the whole person that I am. To have to choose is like being asked to give up an arm or a leg."

In addition to Tauber's photographs and the perspectives and vignettes offered through personal interviews with the subjects, "Blended Nation" includes a forward by Ann Curry and an essay by Alan H. Goldman, which collectively illustrate, but do not define, the changing face of America.