Naomi explores her experience of being mixed race and having a complex ethnic identity. When asked where she is from, she cannot provide a simple answer since her father is from Liverpool and mother is mixed Irish, English and Sierra Leonean. Rather than feeling she belongs to one place, Naomi sees her identity as a mixture of her family's varied histories. She interviews other mixed race students who also struggle to define their identity in terms of one ethnicity or location. As more people of different backgrounds have children together, traditional categories of race and identity are becoming outdated. Moving forward, Naomi hopes people will accept and celebrate diverse ethnicities rather than trying to define others within limited definitions.

1. FINDING YOUR IDENTITY WHEN YOUR
HOME IS GLOBAL
Naomi explores the intricacies of ethnicity through her own experiences and those
recounted to her. She reflects on how being mixed race can often feel like you’re
from more of a ‘dreamworld’ than a real place…
Considering the amount of times I have personally been asked where I am from, I
should have come up with a stock answer by now. But when it comes to
ethnicity, my answers are as varied as my heritage. My father is from Liverpool,
as are his parents, and he lived a happy childhood in the scouse county. My
mother is mixed race, (Irish, English and Sierra Leonean) and lived an equally
happy childhood in Sierra Leone. So what do I say when people ask where I am
from? Do I say my hometown, where I live now at University, my mum’s
hometown? Or my dad’s? Or do I sit them down and explain exactly the genetics
that led to my wild curly hair, tanned-all-year skin and booming laugh?
At first glance, this can seem like an over-thought problem. Why not just stick to
saying where I grew up? Well, apart from the fact that many haven’t heard of the
small ex-mining town in South Yorkshire, my answer is usually followed by a
clarification: “noooo, I mean, where are you from originally?” It is still expected
that if your skin isn’t white, and at least one of your parents certainly isn’t, then
there is more to your ethnicity than where you were born or where you grew up.
And this is certainly true; the mixed ethnicity population has nearly doubled
from 1.4% in 2001 to 2.2% in 2011, with 0.5% ticking ‘other mixed’ rather than
the traditional ‘white and Black African/Asian/Black Caribbean. But what does
this mean in societal terms? More children are being born with a mixed heritage,
with parents from different countries, that now have to figure out where they
feel they belong.
I don’t see myself as coming from one place,
but as a mixture of all the histories of my
family into one.
For myself, growing up non-white has been a blessing towards my
understanding of the world. I am lucky that my mother takes a complimentary
approach to her past, and I have enjoyed the many facets of her ethnicity (and
mine) for myself. Being able to understand and enjoy a culture that is over 4,000
miles away from England is pretty incredible, as is visiting my grandmother in
her city of Liverpool and walking around the Albert Docks together. Your
heritage is your own to have and to understand, but when it is a mixture of
different places it can be hard to pin point your identity within a clash of
cultures. This often means that I don’t see myself as coming from one place, but
as a mixture of all the histories of my family into one. Therefore, my identity

2. shifts from the physical to the metaphorical: a ‘dreamworld’ that is more tangible
for me than anyone else, rather than a real place.
Since coming to University, I have encountered many different people of
different ethnicities, and I decided to ask some of them about their own
experience of identifying as mixed race and what this meant to them.
Although Mathilda, 20, is half Antiguan, she describes her ethnicity as English. A
proud Bristolian, Mathilda says that her culture plays a big part of who she is,
and because she has only experienced English culture so far she identifies as
British. When asked where she is from, she often gets the line ‘where are you
ACTUALLY from?’ to which she replies England, and even when describing
where her parents are from she says Shrewsbury and Bexhill. People are often
still dissatisfied with her answer, showing that being non-white in England still
requires an explanation other than just being English. She admits that she
doesn’t always feel ‘fully English’ because of how other people view her skin
colour, and has been mistaken for Spanish and South American before. However,
these misinterpretations and apparent dissatisfaction with her answers are
viewed with amusement. Mathilda states that she doesn’t often describe her
ethnicity in full, as she doesn’t think being mixed race changes who she is. She
adds that being mixed race does not define her, and growing up in Bristol has
shaped her character more than being half Antiguan has. Ultimately, a denial to
conform to the expectations others have about her skin colour has led Mathilda
to adopt her hometown as her true home.
Kearti, 21, describes herself as half-Asian and half-European, with her mother
being Northern Irish and her father being Indian. She admits that at times, she
finds it difficult to tell people where she is ‘from’ when people ask about her
heritage. She feels conscious that they may be asking in order to find out why her
accent doesn’t immediately match the colour of her skin, as she has kept true to
her Irish roots and speaks in an Irish accent. People often think Kearti is Spanish,
and she admits that not “looking Indian” can make her feel ostracised from her
Indian background. However, she much prefers to explain her ethnicity than
simply state her hometown of Bristol. “It’s an exciting mix!” she adds, saying that
a mixture of her two cultures has shaped her identity more than her current
hometown of Bristol has, especially as she has fond memories of from her
childhood of growing up in Ireland. Her answers certainly show a pride of
ethnicity that is fostered from understanding and partaking in both sides of her
cultural heritage.
I have already made clear the advantages that I feel come with being of mixed
ethnicity, but much like any dream, it is never a fully positive experience.
Throughout my life I have been mistakenly profiled as Indian, Spanish, Native
American, Thai, Pakistani… the list goes on. Sometimes these situations are
hilarious; every year without fail someone approaches me speaking their native
language when I am holidaying in their country. I smile and apologise for not
speaking their language, and explain I’m English, and their reactions range from
incredulous to suspicious. However, sometimes they are less so. Unfortunately,
due to the rise in terrorist attacks from despicable organisations such as ISIS and

3. the Taliban, and the inaccurate media reports that go with these attacks,
‘Islamophobia’ has grown in Britain. To a very select group of misguided
individuals, anyone without a white face is a suspect of being a threat, and I have
received many comments that are unfounded and frankly incorrect. I have no
ties to the Islamic faith; no middle-eastern blood runs in my veins (as far as I can
trace back), but still the comments sting. In an ever increasingly global world, if
you are not easily identifiable into the pre-made categories of society, you will be
put in one anyway. Because my facial features, hair and tone of skin are not
immediately recognisable, people make assumptions that betray their ignorance
of the racial progression that is occurring all around them.
People are not limited to one town, county
or country any more, and they may fall in
love and reproduce with anyone they
choose.
So what is to be done? People are not limited to one town, county or country any
more, and they may fall in love and reproduce with anyone they choose. Gone are
the days where segregation was the common consensus, and races are kept
separate to protect their ‘purity’, or to prevent the spread of their ‘impurity’. In
America, the election of President Obama and the rise of movements against
police brutality such as #BlackLivesMatter has shown that the States are starting
to seriously consider the historical problems of race inequality with more
urgency, and are less willing to accept outright consequences of racism. Of
course, the world is a long way off accepting all races as equal, but in my
optimistic eyes we are moving in the right direction. In an article for National
Geographic that certainly inspired my own writing, Lise Funderberg explores the
‘melting pot’ spectacle that is occurring across America and how these people
are choosing to identify themselves, ranging from ‘Blaxican’ to ‘Juskimo’. She
concludes by suggesting “if we can’t slot people into familiar categories, perhaps
we’ll be forced to reconsider existing definitions of race and identity,
presumptions about who is us and who is them.”
The sensation of an increasingly mixed race is therefore challenging bigger,
historical, institutionalised perceptions about race and identity. Trying to ‘guess’
what someone is, or making assumptions about their heritage is becoming
harder. Even if someone describes the ethnicity of their parents, this does not
reveal the heritage of their wider family, the place they grew up, or the cultures
they share. Instead of trying to place this new and ever-growing race of people
into out-dated, binary categories, maybe it is time to reconsider race altogether.
In a global world where nowhere is out of reach if you have the money and the
time, why do we still insist on tying people down to one place when it comes to
the colour of their skin? We are all one species, and it’s high time we started
acting like it. As we continue to mix together in varying beautiful forms, binary
ethnicity categories will become obsolete in their attempt to describe a person’s
heritage. Moving forwards, I hope that the number of people asking me what I

4. am, or where I am from originally will decrease, and instead I will be accepted
and celebrated as another outcome of our global community.
Words: Naomi Walsh
Artwork: Naomi Walsh and Louis Luscombe
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/key-statistics-for-local-
authorities-in-england-and-wales/rpt-ethnicity.html#tab-Changing-picture-of-
ethnicity-over-time
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/changing-faces/funderburg-text