French | Algerian - BHF Personal Assistant
My Mom is Algerian, and my Dad is French. My Mom's family visited a lot, we went to Algiers every summer to see our cousins and extended family. She isn't particularly religious, so we mostly participated in the celebrations. My Aunts and my Nan used to make me really lovely traditional Kabyle dresses for special occasions.
My parents had a hard time being a mixed-race couple in France. My Father's parents weren't keen, and they worried that Algeria might be dangerous. My Mom's parents weren't thrilled either, but my Mom has always been known to march to the beat of her own drum, so I think they went with it a bit easier. My parents both love classical music, so that was the main thing we listened to, and the second one was Bob Marley because their musical tastes are too widely different to agree on anything else. We did listen to Fairuz and North African music at home, my Mom loves Chaabi.
I think we're lucky in that the @the_bhf is a pretty open place to work. I think there's a general misconception, that once we've done the right things, it will all be fixed when it's actually a continuous work of improvement. This is something the @the_bhf is making good efforts towards actually.
I do have a ‘big problem’, but it really isn't specific to my workplace, it's the government guidelines on compassionate leave, not only are the allocated times very short, but there are no provisions made for non-Christian cultures. When my Grandfather passed, I technically was only entitled to two days of compassionate leave, but he was Muslim, so the funeral took place over three days, and I had travelled to see him, using a day already. I believe in Judaism the mourning period is 7 days, so a Jewish colleague might have to use annual leave for this. Of course there are allowances made by Managers in a compassionate manner, but this leaves people at the mercy of a Manager that might not understand or be prejudiced against their culture.
Want to read more? Subscribe here #mixedracefaces