British | Indian (BHF Research Relations Graduate)
I identify as mixed-race. When people ask for specifics, I say that my Mum’s White British, and that my Dad’s parents moved here from South Africa and are Indian, so I’m technically White/Indian. I’m not religious, and culturally I have little connection to my Indian heritage. Both my parents were born in England. My Dad’s parents grew up in Indian communities in Durban, their ancestors having been brought to South Africa from South India to work on sugar cane farms. They moved to England and Ireland separately and met in London, where my Dad was later born.
My Mum grew up in North Yorkshire, my Dad in London, and they met at university in the late 1980s. They moved to Manchester soon after, which is where my sister and I were born, before we settled in a rural part of Lancashire.
I've been brought up with little connection to Indian culture. And whilst British culture is naturally a big part of my life, I'm not religious and have little sentimental attachment to this country. My 'culture' has therefore had no impact on how I've chosen a partner. I've been lucky enough to always be in environments where I can feel comfortable and be open about who I am. I've therefore never had reason to hide part of my identity, and, when asked with good intention, am always happy to talk about my mixed heritage.
I think that interracial relationships today are an increasingly common, accepted, fact of life. I know that when my parents got together my maternal Grandparents were really happy for them both, but that wasn’t something that could be taken for granted at that time. There was a general sense that interracial relationships were tolerated but could easily be looked down on, with some people unbothered as long as the relationships didn’t involve their own family.
I’m not naïve, I know there will sadly be a lot of people who still wouldn’t be comfortable being part of an interracial relationship, but I do think we have seen real, meaningful progress on this matter. Moving forward, I believe and hope that interracial relationships will only become more prominent, with standard ethnicity tick boxes struggling to keep up with the diversity this creates.
I think we have a long way to go to tackle racial inequality. I do believe we need to seriously address the way that so many structures in our society perpetuate injustice and work to dismantle these. There also needs to be a change in outlook, moving from seeing racial ‘tolerance’ as the goal, to a vision of a society where we all embrace and value diversity. I believe this change in social attitude is a crucial partner to systematic change.
Growing up in in an overwhelmingly White part of the North West, I didn’t consider my mixed heritage much. I know that ticking ‘White/Asian’ in an ethnicity box used to confuse me (I didn’t know any family members born in Asia!), but apart from that I didn’t particularly think of myself from a ‘mixed’ perspective. Being one of the few ‘non-white’ children at school until I was 16 meant I very much saw myself as brown and focussed on this part of my identity, a clear contrast to my classmates.
As I’ve grown older, I have become more aware of my mixed heritage. My name, my light Brown skin, my middle-class, northern upbringing, all combine to create my identity and often give me lots to think about, both in terms of the great amounts of privilege I have, as well as some of the challenges they can throw up from time to time. Moving to London has also helped me think about what being mixed-race means to me a bit more. It’s nice to think of my story as one tiny part of the city’s wonderfully diverse mosaic.
As I grow older, it’s possible that my outlook on being mixed-race might change, particularly as a result of having children. I’m not sure who they’ll be or what they’ll look like, but I’m sure they’ll have plenty of questions that might give me a new perspective. But for now, I feel I have a great relationship with my identity and imagine it’ll stay that way for some time.
Personally, I do feel my workplace is accepting of different parts of my identity. I think it would benefit from being a more diverse organisation, but I’ve always felt comfortable being who I am at work. It’s great to see more focus being shone on the diversity we do have too, from acknowledging different cultural celebrations to collaborations like this. I think it’s an important way to recognise we want everyone to bring their full selves to work. Outwardly, I think we could be bolder and more specific in our recruitment language, including acknowledging the limited diversity in our current workforce. We must also think about how the audiences we reach through our work links with the perceptions of our organisation and who’s attracted to work here. Within the BHF, I think it’s important that we continue to find new ways to celebrate our diversity and introduce ways of working that promote continued learning about these issues at all levels.
If I had the opportunity to be reborn I’d love to remain who I am. I’d probably choose to grow up in a more diverse area so that I could have greater appreciation of different ethnicities and cultures from an earlier age. But aside from that, I see my mixed-race heritage as an important part of me, and a part I wouldn’t want to be without.
When managing my wellbeing over the last few months I have focussed on the joys of fresh air, getting out as much as is safe and legal. I started running at the very beginning of the pandemic which I’ve managed to keep up (although I’m still not sure if I actually enjoy it), and I like to walk plenty. I’ve also appreciated the slower pace of things and made the most of having longer evenings.