Being Mixed Race: Am I A Human Rorschach Test? |
Being Mixed Race: Am I A Human Rorschach Test?
Media Diversity UK: Tackling the lack of diversity in UK media and the ubiquity of whiteness
2013-09-03
Just last week I was standing at a bus stop when a gentleman; a complete stranger came and joined me. Nothing unusual about that, we then politely nodded at each other and a conversation started up.
Me: “Evening”
Stranger: “Evening”
Me: “it’s still quite warm isn’t it”
Stranger: “yes it is”; pause; “excuse me mate, but were do you come from?”
Me: “Ipswich”
Stranger: “no, you know, were do you originate from”
Me: “I originate from Ipswich, my mum is English and my dad is Jamaican”
Stranger, sounding surprised: “Really I wouldn’t have thought you were Black, I’d have thought you were Italian or Spanish or something”
Me, politely smiles: “yeah, I sometimes get that”
Now I wasn’t offended by this and this wasn’t the first time or probably won’t be the last time that I’ll have this conversation. I am a light skinned mixed race person with loose curly hair. I have spent most of my life with people questioning my racial identity and for a while I was left questioning it myself…
Read the entire article here.
Tags: Glen Chisholm, Media Diversity UK, Media Diversity UK: Tackling the lack of diversity in UK media and the ubiquity of whiteness