About MixEd

I’m Louise, a Deputy Headteacher in the North West of England. Born in Oldham, Lancashire to a White-British mother and Mauritian father (It’s a tiny island off coast of Africa). I identify as mixed-race and ongoing research points to an Indian origin in indentured servitude.

I aim to move things on, learning from the past but moving forwards with the lessons history gifts us.

Being mixed-race gives a unique perspective that is sometimes not heard. I am saddened when I see discourse around race becoming divisive and polarised. I sometimes wonder if some seek to perpetuate the fault lines in our humanity.

I seek to help all students find the pride in their identity, that I feel about my own now. But I see many students with a mixed-race heritage struggling to form that sense of self, and making choices that perpetuate low self-esteem and limit life chances.

We, the adults must model the behaviour necessary to create healing and make real change; listening to understand, calm discussion, consideration of the power of words, sharing lived experience and most of all seeking solutions.

We must get this right for our young people.

In MixEd we hope to provide such a platform.

Louise

I’m Marcus Regional Director for a large academy trust. I was born in Coalville, a small ex-mining town in Leicestershire, to a White British mother and a father from Ghana (West Africa). I consider myself mixed-race.

I spent my entire childhood living only with my mother and had very little contact with my Ghanaian family.

I have always struggled with my racial identity and have spent most of my child & adult life not knowing where my voice or experiences fit. I have spent a great deal of my life internalising the many personal challenges, struggles and experiences of being a mixed-race person living in communities and spaces in which I have always stood out as being different.

Being mixed-race is such a unique experience with many nuances that labels such as ‘BAME’ or ‘Mixed’ do not accurately or meaningfully capture. My ambition is to provide a platform to encourage others to share their experiences, or listen to other people’s experiences, of being mixed-race and add their voice to the drive for genuine racial equality and diversity.

Marcus