German | Pakistani

I identify myself as a British EurAsian. I am the London born son of a Pakistani fashion designer and German Mother. My mum is from Stuttgart, Germany but now lives in Penang, Malaysia. My dad is from Lahore, Pakistan and moved back to retire there. I divide my time between Turin, Italy and London and run my own businesses www.greenpowerglobal.com and www.greenpoweracademy.com, accelerating renewable energy projects around the World.
I was about 4 or 5 years old when I first understood I was from different cultural backgrounds. I think in Pakistan my relatives think I’m odd and in Germany I’m just a foreigner as my German is not good. Culturally I’m neither German nor Pakistani, I feel British. I don’t think there are bias attitudes towards mixed-race people I would think there is more against ‘pure’ Black and Asian rather than mixed-race per se. Personally I’m not sure I agree with the concept of races, I’m not a mixed anything just a 100% human. It’s difficult for people to pigeon hole me as they don’t understand where I’m from. An example of this is when I’m in Italy, people think I’m straight from Pakistan. When they ask me about my heritage I always start with my mother is German from Baden Wurttemberg which always confuses them.
A negative experience I had due to my heritage was once being pulled off an American Airlines flight in an arm hold and questioned by the FBI for 7 hours because I look Middle Eastern.
I have always been very international in outlook and have travelled widely. I lived in Brazil for 3 years, Italy for 10 years, USA for 3 months and learnt 4-5 languages. As a person you need to correct prejudices and overpower people with wit and personality. However, I would not like to fight the prejudices I think there are for Black people in say the US or UK. I do think prejudice is decreasing as more and more mixed-race people make up population centers, especially in places like London. I think names are an issue, I have a full Pakistani name, but it doesn’t reflect my European heritage and the fact that I speak French, Portuguese and Italian.

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