Italian | Mauritian
My Mum is from Mauritius and my Dad is Italian. They met in my hometown, Colchester, at an Italian restaurant owned by my Dad’s brother. My Mum worked in the kitchen and my Dad was a waiter.
My Mum learnt how to speak Italian quickly after getting together with my Dad and after 3 years of being together they were married. My parents now own an Italian restaurant in which my Mum is the head chef and my Dad is the manager. We visited both countries quite regularly when I was young and I was exposed to both cultures' food and music. Italy is a lot easier to get to so I’ve been there a lot more, I’ve experienced a stronger connection to that half of my heritage. Whereas, traveling to Mauritius is a lot more expensive but my family used to go there when I was younger and I experienced a lot of the culture there as a young child. I love the native music of Mauritius as its full of energy and danceable rhythms. and the food is amazing; lots of sweet and spicy flavour
I would say that my culture is not only Italian and Mauritian but greatly British due to being within the British system all of my life. My Mum, being strongly Catholic, doesn't believe in divorce so has always taught me to be honest and see things to their end. I met my girlfriend when we were 11 years old and she is English, there is a very clear cultural difference between me and her. We got together when we were 17 and we've been together for 6 + years. I know that my grandparents have no problems with interracial relationships and the same goes for my parents. It’s never been brought up as an issue. Love is love. I do think if you want to participate in an interracial relationship you should be prepared to deal with the inevitable difference in values and moral standpoints that comes with amalgamating two cultures. Once you're aware of the difference and willing to make it work then there's no issue. ignoring the difference would be no help. I feel that my parents didn’t think of the difficulties of identification that would arise in their kids and it’s now up to me to go through these difficulties.
I'm very proud of everything that I am and often refuse to hide or pretend to be anything else. I was born and raised in the UK so I speak and dress as a typical British man, but my physical appearance suggests otherwise (i.e. skin colour and hair). When I moved to London from Essex at the age of 18 I noticed a great difference in values between myself and my White friends. Particularly when it came to social interactions and participation. This didn’t lead to me hiding who I was but perhaps questioning who I really identified with. I believe that my parents' culture has instilled many different values in me that perhaps wouldn’t be present in an English, White household so this makes me hold my tongue when it comes to discussing values and intentions.
I believe I have a unique and empathetic perspective of both White and Black peoples culture. Being raised by a strong Black woman within a confusing White world means I am highly malleable within different societies. My broad range of cultural awareness makes it easy to move between social groups.
A challenge I have faced in recent years is people saying I’m 'basically White'. As you can imagine, this is quite a damaging thing to hear as it neglects 50% of my heritage and ignores the ties I have with Mauritian culture. It reduces me to assumptions of my character brought about by the way I have acclimated to society around me.
In recent years my outlook has changed drastically. Before moving to London I was completely unaware of the significance of my mixed-race-ness. After a few years of being in London, my awareness of such began to unravel and my identity was brought to the surface in the form of questions from others and confusion from myself. As a child I didn’t really see a significance in the relationship between how I looked and how I acted. I believe that much of the recent change in outlook has been due to people expecting certain behaviors from me due to the way I look, but then me reacting in a different way due to my different values.
As a music producer I’m lucky to be in one of the most widely represented industries. Music has always been a place for creative people to thrive and mixed people tend to do very well in creative fields.
If I had the opportunity to be reborn I’d like to be reborn into the same body but with the knowledge that I have now. It would be interesting to know how I would have made different decisions.
During the pandemic I have gone on frequent cycles, which normally helps me keep my physical and mental health in check. Also, being a creative person, I find great relief in making music.