The project What Are You, delves into the self-exploration of heritage, class, social stigmas and self-belonging. My Wife and I are a mixed race of English and two other races of people who have been heavily persecuted, throughout history and within our contemporary period.
Living and growing up as a mixed-race person in the world can at times be challenging. As you do not really belong to any perceived cultural environment. Especially if your ethnic part of the family does not accept you and with that comes a loss of identity.
From a young age, I always felt that I was disjointed from the notion of belonging. Furthermore, my family life was also somewhat fragmented, so the sense of belonging or a safe place to call home was a foreign experience.
The challenge of being a biracial person is people's perceptions of what they think you are. Subsequently, being treated in a certain manner from their observations. For example, being perceived as being too dark or too white or of a different religious background.
It is natural to feel the urge to assimilate into the society or culture which is most accepted within, the social environment you are living in. My wife and I throughout our childhood and into our adulthood and even now, subconsciously and knowingly still attempt to conceal the non-English part of our heritage in the dark shadows of society.
In the same way as the non-English part of our heritage in the 20th century, concealed their heritage within their cultural environment. Or who fled into hiding within the dark European forests and mountains to escape persecution.
