Boxes and Mixed Race Problems |
SophiaandStuff
2015-07-29
“Oh” the hairdresser paused “Your hair is very curly”. “Yes” I gritted my teeth, water dripping down my neck “I said it was”. The consultation earlier that week, it seemed, had meant nothing. “It’s OK” she went on “I’m sure we’ll be able to manage”. Trapped in the chair, too far in this to go back, I feigned a tight smile. “So where are you from?” She went on “You look…different…” And so it started. Questions about my heritage; questions about Africa, then of course Jamaica; “Can I tell the where people are from by their appearance?” Comments on my hair “It’s actually quite nice”, “Do I ever wear an Afro?” comments on my features “Your lips are black but your nose is more white…” laced with the occasional “how exotic”. It was exhausting. As I left the salon that evening with a more than satisfactory keratin blow dry, I was annoyed. Not just because I had described my hair type before I had arrived; not just because I had been asked personal questions during a long day when I really didn’t feel like answering; but because I had left work excited about the little ‘me time’ I had managed to squeeze in my busy day and was then confronted this. Their ignorance was a slap in the face. I was again ‘The Other’. Reminded that I was different.
With over a million people in the UK now being identified as mixed race, according to the 2011 census, it’s important to ask what impact this is this having on British culture. Are we finally becoming a country that fully embraces different races? I would argue perhaps not. Instead we seem to be celebrating multiculturalism whilst at the same time ignoring the fact that we are still putting people into boxes based on their race. And it’s these boxes which highlight our hidden prejudices…
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Tags: Sophia Leonie, SophiaandStuff