Indian/Swiss/English | Jamaican
My Mother is Indian Swiss English as my Grandfather was from Mumbai and Grandma is Swiss English. My Father is Jamaican and estranged. They met at a club frequented by dancers in central London, as my Father was a dancer and Mam loved to move, they had quite an intense connection. I grew up in Ireland and so the combination between an Asian/London home life and Irish society was quite the contrast. The cultures are totally different, at home I was given plenty of books and was always encouraged to learn – which I loved. With regards to growing up in a mixed heritage household, my Mother was conscious of my colour and while she often tried to promote African, Indian and Jamaican culture at home, because I just felt Irish I didn’t always welcome her efforts. People nowadays have a fantastic attitude towards interracial relationships and tend to embrace it much more. It has always seemed odd to me anyway how people can discriminate racially, yet actually we’re neurological hardwired to be anxious when we observe the faces of people outside those familiar to us. This is according to published scientific articles and Sapolsky of Stanford often refers to this phenomenon in his lectures. We are more widely aware of this perhaps we would work to expose children and our peers to broader ranges of faces from younger ages. Indeed I wouldn’t be surprised if as diversity on television grows, racial bigotry will fall. I was quite naive when younger regarding colour and labels. I felt like people wanted to label me Black when that didn’t resonate at all, I always preferred ‘mixed’ as to me it felt like an inclusive term. However it does still apply to me and given the historical context and how vibrant and rich motherland Africa is, nowadays I take it as a compliment and honour, even though I retain my personal preferences.
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