“Perceptions of mixedness are still so frustratingly binary and often centred around whiteness.”

Posted in Excerpts/Quotes on 2021-05-24 18:01Z by Steven

“I wrote Mixed/Other to add some much-needed nuance to a conversation that is so frequently stilted and oversimplified in mainstream spaces. Perceptions of mixedness are still so frustratingly binary and often centred around whiteness – I wanted to challenge those narratives and open a more inclusive conversation. I wanted to tell stories or joy, hope and belonging as well as the more painful and sometimes complicated parts of being mixed. It’s the book I wanted to read in my teens and early twenties.” —Natalie Morris

Isabella Silvers, “Natalie Morris: “Ideas of mixedness are binary and centred around whiteness”,” Mixed Messages, April 19, 2021. https://mixedmessages.substack.com/p/natalie-morris-ideas-of-mixedness.

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Natalie Morris: “Ideas of mixedness are binary and centred around whiteness”

Posted in Articles, Autobiography, Identity Development/Psychology, Interviews, Media Archive, United Kingdom on 2021-04-19 17:36Z by Steven

Natalie Morris: “Ideas of mixedness are binary and centred around whiteness”

Substack
2021-04-19

Isabella Silvers

Hi, welcome back to Mixed Messages! This week I’m speaking to journalist and author Natalie Morris, who is of Jamaican and white British heritage. I first came across Natalie with Mixed Up, a series on Metro exploring the nuances of mixed identity. Continuing this vital conversation, Natalie has just released her first book, Mixed/Other: Explorations of Multiraciality in Modern Britain. Read on to hear Natalie share her own experiences, plus what she hopes everyone can take from her important work.

The author of Mixed/Other on the duality of holding two truths simultaneously and the isolation of being mixed

How do you define your ethnicity?

My dad’s family is Jamaican and my mum is white British, so I say I say mixed or mixed and Black. I’m trying to move away from ‘mixed-race’ as it implies a kind of essentialism.

The terminology changes and develops, which is good, but it can be tricky to keep up with that. There’s no wrong or right way to describe yourself, but it’s important to be open to those changes. It’s important that people also listen to what mixed people want – so many things are forced on you when you’re mixed, and it can be hard to push back against that…

Read the entire interview here.

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