Moroccan | Mauritian
I identify as mixed Moroccan & Mauritian, agnostic & straight. My Mum is Moroccan & Dad is Mauritian. They met at work. They both worked in Napsbury Park, formerly Middlesex County Asylum. Mum was a nurse & Dad was a district nurse. I was born & raise in St Albans.
I recognised I was mixed-race at a young age. At family events I always stood out against the other children. I can be at a Mauritian family party and not fit in although I’m as Brown as them or at a Moroccan family party and not look Arab. Not being able to speak the languages fluently doesn’t help either with the older generation so again you stand out in the crowd.
My Dads parents had both passed away before they got married so it was just his elder brother that had an issue with him marrying mum, mainly as she was Muslim. I believe my Mums side were fine with her marrying Dad, apart from her Dad as he wanted her to marry a Moroccan guy. Now that my parents are separated it doesn’t make much of a difference as our families no longer mix.
I haven’t experienced many challenges based around my mixed identity, but the main challenge I have come across have been with past relationships. It’s been difficult as I have two religions that clash with both sides, but these were mainly from the older generation as their mentality would be to be/marry someone of the same race.
The friends I have now I’ve grown up with since primary school and are mainly Asian. With partners I have learnt from previous relationships that not everyone will accept my mixed background (families etc).
I don’t think being mixed-race has affected my work life as I work in real estate. I have worked in different areas in London, so you’re bound to mingle with different races and everyone treats you as equal.
I definitely think there are bias attitudes & stereotypes towards mixed-race people, narrow minded people assume a mixed-race person is half Black/half White. The amount of people in London who are mixed is ridiculous, we are a multicultural society.
I can fluently understand Arabic but not speak as much as I’ve always grown up speaking English at home. Not being able to speak Creole or understand any of it has made me feel like an outsider on the Mauritian side.
I connect more with the Mauritian side more than the Moroccan whereas my younger brother has followed the Moroccan side more. It depends on your surroundings, mainly from school as the majority of my friends as Asian whereas his are Arab.
When people ask where I’m from I was say I’m half Moroccan half Mauritian otherwise we’d be there for hours trying to guess.
A positive is that your different to the others (more exotic) and you have more of an understanding of both cultures. The negative is although you’re different, you are different point blank, so you don’t always fit in.
I’ve never had any racial issues or anything of the sort. There are so many mixed-race people in & around London it ends up being exciting discussing everyone’s backgrounds including my own.
If I was born again I would want to return exactly the same, slightly taller and less fat!