British | Anglo-Indian
Mixedracefaces have collaborated with UK Parliament to profile some of their staff members and MP’s , helping raise diversity awareness and to highlight that there is a place for everyone in their workplace.
My Mum was born in East London and is of British and Irish heritage. My Nan’s maternal family came here from County Cork in Ireland and settled in Stepney in the East End, whilst her paternal family were Welsh. My Dad was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in India. He’s from the Anglo-Indian community, which refers to the group of Indian people with a European patrilineal ancestor, of equivalent origin to Anglo-Burmese and Burgher people. Anglo-Indian people came about during the colonisation of India; European men were encouraged to marry Indian women and were often given sums of money per child they had there. There used to be millions of Anglo-Indians in India and they’re the only group to have two specific representatives in the Indian Parliament, but due to migration I think the diaspora now is quite dispersed. I think because my parents took a genuine interest in each other’s backgrounds it was quite straightforward to combine their cultures. My Mum is very open to learning about and embracing different culture and she’s just as interested. Being White-passing with a European name I’m conscious of the fact that structural issues that other people face in any workplace don’t affect me even in the same way as it affects other people and even might affect my cousins who don’t pass for White. Thinking from that perspective, though, I think obviously there’s a lot more that can be done, which to their credit is recognised by people who work here. The stuff that ParliREACH and the other Workplace Equality Networks (ParliOut, ParliAble, ParliGender and ParliON) do to promote workplace inclusivity is really important and that should be recognised by everyone at Parliament more often. If I had the opportunity to be reborn I wouldn’t change anything! I think because that the odds were so against us winding up here exactly as we are, given our parents had to travel across continents before they met each other, who are we to want to change that?
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