Indonesian | Chinese/Jamaican/Scottish
I identify as mixed-race - Other, spiritual & straight. My mum is Indonesian, and my dad Is mixed Chinese, Jamaican & Scottish. I was raised in Saudi Arabia until I was 13, then we moved to the home counties until I moved to London after university. I don’t think I ever consciously acknowledged my mixed-race heritage because nobody ever made a big deal about it. In Saudi I went to an International school where ethnicity was never an issue and the area where my parents live in the UK is pretty diverse ethnically. It was only in my early 20s when I started working and people would ask me about my background that I recognized how diverse my ethnicity is. I do feel that there is bias towards mixed-race people, though I do believe there is both positive and negative discrimination due to bias attitudes. For example, sometimes you feel like people are just ‘ticking a box’ to ensure that they adhere to ‘diversity’ requirements. I’m able to speak Indonesian, though not at a business level. I’m able to communicate easily on a conversational level. My father doesn’t speak Indonesian but pretty much everyone in my mother’s family speaks fluent English. I feel closer to Indonesian culture as I see my Indonesian family more frequently and have done since I was a child. A negative aspect is that you’re never really considered part of any cultural group. That can be lonely and isolating. I’ll never be considered 'really' Indonesian nor Jamaican. On the flip side, because you don’t belong to a single ethic group, people in my experience are more open to you and vice versa. I can’t speak for anyone else but for me being mixed-race in today's society I’d say it’s generally positive. The future is mixed-race, you can see that everywhere you look. Just from comparing media from 20 years ago to today. It’s not just ticking a box to be diverse but having representation. If I had the opportunity to be born again I’d want to return exactly as I am, I wouldn’t want to change anything!
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