People tell me I’m black-fishing because they don’t believe I’m black
I may look white with straight hair and light skin but my great-grandad was from South Africa.
Let me start by telling you a little backstory about where I came from, so my great-grandad was amazing, I never met him but he grew up in Africa which is a completely different life from what I live today. He moved over to England for a better way of life and married, then came along my grandad.
With his Afro hair and dark skin he carried the similar features of his dad, but when he married my nan who was light-skinned, things changed.
My mum was born and she looks tanned she still has features like a flat nose and curly hair but she always got told she didn’t have black skin so never felt accepted.
This is the reality for me, with my features even less visible I get told I’m black fishing.
I have curly hair, and large lips, and people ask if I’m Mediterranean because they don’t think I look white.
I used to be friends with a dark skinned girl in school, she used to always tell me to own my white privilege and to never say I’m anything but white but I don’t Want to hide the past. That would be like pretending my grandad didn’t exist.
I might not look black but I have African roots in me and when describing my ethnicity I always struggle to find the right category for me and choose “other”
It’s hard because to not look black I get deemed as white, but that’s not truly who I am. I would love to hear other’s perspectives on this as throughout school they said the black community doesn’t accept me as I’m not black.
But doesn’t my roots mean anything?
Here is a photo of me with my natural hair:
Thank you for reading and please comment your views on this :)
