English | Jamaican
Both my parents are English, but my Dad’s parents came from Jamaica on the Empire Windrush. They were some of the original migrants in the 50s and carved out lives in the Jamaican communities of Kilburn and North London. My Mum’s side are English through-and-through. Like me, my Mum was born and raised in the small seaside town of Hastings. The perception of mixed-race people has changed significantly since my parent’s generation. Brown babies used to represent a cultural taboo in English culture. Now mixed-race babies are chic. Strange really. I feel that racial ambiguity is becoming increasingly commercialised, and I don’t entirely know how I feel about that. I’m glad that we’re seeing brown freckled models on the front page of magazines, and frizzy hair on the TV more, but I also worry that we’re paying less attention to the historical contexts of mixed-race people in Britain. I know my parents and Grandparents faced a number of challenges raising two mixed-race babies in the 90s, especially in the White homogenous town of Hastings. I hope by the time I have kids I won’t have to deal with passing comments and judgmental looks, like my family did. I connect to each of my cultures through spoken word. I’ve tried to connect to the two cultures I’m a part of in a number of different ways in my life; I tried acting, being sporty, I tried being playing the guitar and writing songs, but poetry and spoken word were the only things that helped me understand my identity and help forge an identity in an alien city. I’m proud of my mix, and it makes me feel like superman. I love being able to manoeuvre through this world like a weird racially fluid chameleon. I love the fact that, in a way, I represent the future. Everyone on the planet is already mixed in some way or another but being continentally mixed (from people’s traditionally from different continents) is beautiful! I think as I get older, I’m able to understand the significance of my own personal history, and those of my ancestors. I’ve never felt so empowered to talk about the trials and tribulations of my two-tone skin.
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