English | Bajan - NHS Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner
My Mum is from England. My Dad is from the parish of Saint James, Barbados. They met in Barbados when my Mum was on holiday there in the 1990s. My Mum was back in England and spent 6 months totally unaware that she was pregnant, an unexpected souvenir to say the least! I was estranged from my biological Father, the source of my Bajan heritage, until last year, at the age of 24. She lived in England and he lived in Barbados, so they were worlds apart (quite literally). This means I've had very little exposure to Caribbean culture.
I have a complicated relationship with my racial identity. For some reason, I’ve never really thought about it until now, so I’m still trying to figure out who I am. I suppose the ‘disconnect’ with my racial identity partly comes from not knowing my biological Father. I think identity is a big thing when you don’t know a parent, especially when that parent is the person of colour. Having only recently come into contact with him, I don’t have any real connections to my Bajan heritage, but strangely, I have a strong connection to the place.
In light of the recent events surrounding the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, my workplace has established an Equalities Group, aligned to the four staff networks (BAME, Ability, LGBTQ+, and Woman), in order to combat racial inequalities, and to help improve staff experience at work. Although this is a step in the right direction, nothing will change until the lack of Black representation in positions of power is addressed. When no one looks like you in positions of power, it's hard to envisage career progression. I'm saddened that it's taken a horrific tragedy to spark a worldwide movement against racism. But it’s so inspiring, energising, and heartening to see people of all races, backgrounds, and generations at the Black Lives Matter protests. I just really hope that people aren’t jumping on the bandwagon and posting Black squares on social media, as an act of performative allyship.
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