MIXED MESSAGES

Writer Natalie Morris reflects on belonging, family and the multiplicity of her identity as a mixed-race woman

Your identity is a constellation. Shining points of light in the darkness that, when connected, create a rough outline of who you are. My mixedness is just one of the many lights that make me who I am, but a side-effect of having mixed heritage is that the ability to claim your own identity can slip out of your hands. People tend to project their ideas of who they think you are on to you; they steal your starlight by telling you what you are and what you are not. And the identity that others decide for me doesn’t always correlate with what I see when I look in the mirror, or how I feel about who I am. I am Black Jamaican on my dad’s side and white British on my…

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Red UK (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2021

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