British | Egyptian/Jamaican
I identify as Black biracial, Atheist & Bisexual. My Mum is British, and my Dad is a quarter Egyptian and Jamaican. They were both born in London, so I think they lived in the same area. I have always known I was mixed-race and always been in touch with it. I grew up in South East London, and I think growing up I felt conflicted with the extent to which I could claim ‘Blackness’, as I grew up with a White family and went to a predominately Black school and felt culturally quite out of the loop. I think growing up around so many Black girls enriched in culture helped me a lot with my identity and feeling a part of the community. I grew up with just my mum’s family, so I didn’t really experience both growing up. I found it awkward in terms of feeling like I belong somewhere or having the right to speak on Black politics. Often when I would speak on Black activism, I would hear that I’m ‘not even Black’ so I shouldn’t speak on it, or that I was ‘anti-White people’, despite growing up with a White parent. I find these two arguments really hard to deal with as there had been many times when they had been proposed in the same breath. I would revise the extent to which I would say I’ve struggled as black biracial person, as my skin is fair, and the largest issue I have is being excluded from a group I felt I belonged to. If I had the opportunity to be reborn I would want to return as Beyoncé, because what else?
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