BEING a mixed-race black person… |
BEING a mixed-race black person…
Max News: ‘View from the Bottom’ Magazine of Kevin Maxwell
London, United Kingdom
2014-11-05
I was talking with a black woman earlier, and we happened to get on to the subject of race – something close to my skin, literally.
She said that a lot of mixed-race people only identified as black, when they had experienced racism. I thought, how true.
Prior to my own challenges against racism within the police, I’m unsure how I described myself. I mean, the Government gave me labels on forms like mixed-race because I have a white mother and black father – but, I was just me.
It was the Metropolitan Police which ironically got me to look closer under my skin, at my race and identity.
I wrote in The Nubian Times for the recent Black History Month that, in my challenges against discrimination within Scotland Yard the Met said I wasn’t black (enough) to be discriminated against.
I was like, this is just stupid.
The first thing people see when they meet me is my black skin, and it’s how I identify anyhow too – which, is what is important…
Read the entire article here.
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