English | African American
I identify as a ‘Stolen African’. I never felt I had much in common with the Black British, or anyone else for that matter, I was called red, yellow, everything but Black. But when I saw the Ronettes on Top of the Pops in 1964 I realised I looked more like them than the family I was born into. My Mother is English, my Father is Black American and was a jazz musician, playing woodwinds with some important people. They met when he was stationed with the 352nd U.S Air Force band in Bushey Park.
I don’t think it matters being in an interracial relationship today, it’s cool. I grew up in Thames Ditton in Surrey, I was the darkest thing for miles. My infant school teacher introduced me to the class as ‘one of our dusky cousins’.
The minute I went out into the world I was treated as an exotic. I never felt constrained, being homosexual, mixed-race, and even left handed, I never felt the pressure to conform. In New York having an English accent was definitely a positive experience, and I can fit in anywhere from South America to UAE (some Arab girls in Bayswater thought I was Egyptian once, and in Harlem they thought I was ‘frontin’ once because of the accent). I found it hard to be taken seriously as a creative or intellectual because of my colour, but that could also have been because I was considered ‘pretty’ when I was young.
I guess I identify with Black American culture. I grew up in England on Motown, Diana Ross was my first introduction to glamour and she was a Black woman. I don’t think I had an outlook regarding my heritage until I left home. I embrace it and still do.
I was fortunate in that I worked in a creative environment, so sexuality and culture weren’t an issue. My boss in NY told me he hired me because I was a Black man with a snotty English accent (he was Black btw) and an attitude, so no, it only ever worked for me.
I don’t see divisions culturally today and if there were I would find it limiting. Interestingly it was two Jamaican friends that got me into opera years ago.
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