This is my blog about Race and my personal experiences growing up to now. I wanted to give you a little insight as to how that has been being from a multi-cultural background.
Growing up I remember that my family (White, Indian, Italian and Irish) and another family (Somali) were the only ethnic families in the street. We had so much conflict and our upset was caused because of the colour of our skin, it happened merely on a daily basis. Not so much to me as I was only very little (as young as 4), but I know my siblings had suffered a lot of this. We were called names by the other children and even the parents! It was something we learned to grow up with…which is so horrific to learn!
It can eat a lot of people up inside, and it’s so discriminatory and it does get passed off. It happens daily and we, including me, have admittedly shrugged it off! This isn’t acceptable. It is against the law, but how far does the law push this!? Sadly, not very far in my experience and I can guarantee a lot of others will think the same too!
It goes as far as my friends not even applying for jobs. Even though they had the skills and qualifications they knew that their application would not be considered. Just by the employers looking at the name it would get disregarded – which again is a shocker! But yes, it does happen even in 2021.
The way some people judge and treat another ethnic person is as if they are alienated. I have seen it happen and it’s awful! In school I used to get called names, more so in primary school for the colour of my skin. It was never physical, but again this had happened and I have witnessed it, for someone wearing a headscarf, and they feel they have to take it off to fit in which is totally unacceptable. It gets worse, I have friends that have friends that have even bleached their skin just so that they believe they will fit in!
It’s all about educating and guiding. This topic needs to be made compulsory in schools and spoken about within workplaces and home etc. People are scared to raise the issue concerning race, and it should not be felt this way. If we can’t speak about it then how are we going to attempt to overcome this issue?
When I started working at Cadwyn, I could see that I was the only ethnic person within the office at the time, which was quite hard to swallow. However, I was never and never have been treated differently. My ethnicity has never been a barrier. As time has progressed the workforce has become more diverse which is fab to see as well as our tenants! This reflects our society and I feel as time has gone on we are more of an integrated society and understanding which helps the race situation. This has a massive impact on individuals health and wellbeing and we need to reinforce this subject and prevent racial discrimination from happening within today’s society as it is happening all over the world.
Let’s make a start!
