English/Scottish | Jamaican
My Mum is half English and Scottish, my Dad’s father is Jamaican and Mother I’m not 100% certain. He grew up with adopted parents, so there’s some missing links in the family tree. My main ties to Jamaican culture were always through my Dad’s sister. She was always playing the music and cooking Caribbean food whenever I’d go visit. She introduced me to all of it, would tell me what to buy for my hair, and growing up was a significant person in my life for this. Even down to how her house smells when she’s cooking gives me such a strong feeling of being connected to my heritage and fills me with pride and warmth. Their side of the family is huge so I have extended family all over the UK, lots in the US and in Jamaica too, but my Aunt has definitely been my main connection to culture. I definitely feel proud to be mixed. At 25 I feel comfortable now in my appearance and within myself, which is a good feeling. The main positive is being content with the fact that I’m made up of different nationalities. Different bits & pieces but most importantly they come together and make a whole. My experience of being mixed is much more positive as an adult, but that’s likely down to environment and spaces too. One real positive experience is meeting other mixed-race people and realising you have so many experiences and feelings that are aligned. Having those conversations and realising how you are similar and can relate to each other is so great. One negative is dealing with expectations of you. Expectations that you should behave a certain way or like certain things. I think the expectation to have a full understanding of all aspects of your cultures and background is something I have felt a lot. I’ve found once I accepted people will always have expectations and carry their own prejudices, it’s been easier to navigate in society because you’re never going to be able to live up to them all, and you don’t need to. So much prejudice comes from conditioning and that’s their problem to fix not yours.
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