Irish | Filipino/American
In the context of the University of Oxford, we hope our names; faces and stories will emphasis that there is a place for everyone at Oxford. According to last year’s admissions data, 700 Oxford undergraduates identify as mixed. In 2016, BAME students accounted for 15.9% of the undergraduate intake. Oxford is diversifying, albeit slowly. We hope to empower mixed heritage students at Oxford and foster a community where they can safely share their own opinions, experiences and stories.
My Dad is Irish, and my Mum is Filipino-American. I’ve always known that I am Filipino and Irish, but I first encountered what that meant to the world at primary school. One kid told me to go back to China and I’ve experienced random kids taunting me. I’ve also been called ‘exotic’ or ‘oriental’ and many people just assume that I’m Chinese because apparently there’s only one brand of Asian ‘Otherness.’ I suppose race is something I have been forced to consider more than other aspects of my identity just because of other people making it a thing. Of course, I am very proud to be mixed-race, but I also believe it is something that I should be allowed to contend with on my own terms. My ethnic mix is not for someone else’s consumption. For a while, I think my Irish-ness was the hardest part of my identity to square. At least with Britain, I had the accent but my Irishness was invisible to most people. I remember attending a family event in Ireland and a cousin remarking that it was so strange that we were related, supposedly because of the way I looked. Ireland’s Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar is half Indian and also openly gay. He shows that there is no contradiction in being Irish and being mixed race and that makes me feel like I belong. Coming from London, I was surprised by the lack of racial diversity at Oxford. For example, I am the only non-White person in my subject year. I have definitely felt more ‘foreign’ in Oxford than I ever did in London, yet I didn’t feel like I could engage with national societies at Oxford because I was raised in this country and not fully anything. Oxford Mixed Heritage Society makes me feel represented in Oxford’s racial discourse. The society has started a nuanced conversation about race and identity in Oxford and I feel very lucky to have been here for it. I think it is really beautiful when mixed-race people build communities of belonging and I hope it is something we will see more of in the future.
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