Mix-d: News & Blogs
Brad 27 November 2009
Why I got involved with Mix-d:
A moving speech by, Becky Agard, 19 years old. Nottingham.
I’ve been involved in Brad’s project since it was little more than taking it’s first steps.
Three years ago I was lucky enough to be involved in Nottingham’s first ever ‘Mixed Heritage Youth Confrence’. At first I was skeptical, as is my nature, as is any young person when someone tries to tell them about themselves. However, by the end of the first training day I was alive with excitment- and I can’t recollect a day where my confidence soared as it did then. I was surrounded by people who understood my background and therefore my perspective on life. The strange thing was, instead of feeling less included by recognising my differences, suddenly I felt more comfortable in society. A feeling of inclusion I had never felt before, or even knew that I could feel.
One of the main reasons I’m still involved is that feeling of inclusion I felt, and that I saw others feel when I facilitated at my first confrence. The intelligence I saw rise from previously difficult children when faced with a cause they believed in made me realise, if these children were never given a chance for a voice, it would be an almost tragedy.
Amoung the many other reasons for continuing with this project, the number of broken homes multiplying in Britain is one I feel more strongly about. The cause and effect on all the children involved brings many difficulties, especially to children from a mixed background as many, like I did, lose completely the influence of one side of their heritage.
The way I see it ‘Mix-d:’ listens to the voices of the largest growing ‘ethnic’ group, and projects that to the people who can change things.
Stereotyping of children does not lie solely with the government or the parents, it lies with the education system and with every member of their staff, and as a result their personal attitudes to the correlation between race and education.
Becky Agard, 19, Mix-d:Nottingham
Brad 17 November 2009
School of Health Science, Swansea University invite me over to speak
Thanks to Gill Olumide, Ashra Khanom and Prof Joy Merrell for inviting me to give a talk at the School of Health Science, Swansea University.
It is always a pleasure to share our research and learn more about the mixed-race experience in other parts of the country.
A range of professionals from different community focus organisations and academic faculties joined us. One thing the sociologists (Alison Hann and Gill Olunmide ) raised was the fact that mixed-race is a ‘tricky subject’ because it crosses borders, and that upsets people’s certainties, so they don’t want it talked about, because they can’t cope with uncertainty.
Gill and her colleague Alison Hann are hoping to get a book together which looks at that very question. Not just mixed race but also transgender etc.
I guess that is part of the challenge for us all to try unpack some of the complex issues which surround this subject.
I’d welcome the opportunity to learn more about the mixed-race debate in Swansea. Unfortunately it was a flying visiting but I do look forward to returning to broaden our understanding and possibly developing a Mix-d: Swansea collaboration?
Brad 6 November 2009
A parent of a mixed-race student from Peterborough contacted me recently to discuss concerns she had regarding her child’s mixed-race identity.
Basically, her son was performing well in school but would often ask questions about his identity which she didn’t feel qualified to answer. She had faced this frustration silently for many years and felt quite isolated. In an attempt to support herself and her son she browsed the internet and found out about our work.
She contacted me immediately to share her concerns and expressed how pleased she was to discover that someone was looking at this issue.
I spoke with the parent and she decided to contact her son’s school and was encouraged by their positive response. Basically, Thomas Deacon Academy, in Peterborough were looking for an opportunity to explore this subject a little further.
A meeting was organised between myself, the parent, senior management team at the school and local authority representatives.
As a result we are due to do some work in Peterborough next year.
What a difference a parent can make!!
Brad 4 November 2009
We began October 2009 with a keynote presentation at the launch of Black History Month Trafford. Thank you to Annette Nelson and the team for inviting me, it was a great honour.
Launch of Mix-d: website
On the 2nd of Oct we launched our new website, Mix-d:
Over the past few months I have worked closely with web designer Steve Ireland, from Ivypark media. He has created in my opinion both an intelligent and beautiful site. There is still lots of materials to add and some tweaks to be made but the foundations are solid.
The re-brand and Mix-d: site has been a long time in the making but we feel it really captures where the discussion is going and more importantly puts the voice of young people back at the centre of the debate.
Our new site is much more image driven and we hope it shows how the project has grown and evolved. Over the coming months we will share our new additions with you.
Blog
This is a good opportunity to introduce a close colleague who I have worked with and respected for many years. Malcolm Evans earns his living with The Cultureship Practice corporate
culture consultancy and is currently completing his PhD. Since 2007 Malcolm has contributed massively to the development of the Mix-d: concept.
In the coming months he will play a key role in up dating our blog material. He has slipped smoothly into the role of Co-researcher for our The Multiple Heritage Research Arm which we are due to launch early next year. You are going to hear much more from Malcolm, but must send a big thank you to him for all his support and contributions to date.
Professionals workshop, Manchester
On the 6th we showcased the new site at our Mix-d: professionals workshop in Manchester. At the event we were proud to introduce Denise Williams, our keynote speaker and author of ‘Mixed-matters’ an educational manual looking at the experience of White/Black Carribbean students in the education sector. It is due out next year - we will post a blog to remind you.
Also speaking was Alexander Simon, our new recruit. She spoke about her experience of becoming a Mix-d: facilitator, why she felt this was an important topic and how she wishes to continue working with us over the coming years.
Professionals who attended the event came from many different backgrounds and raised a lot of useful comments. It turned out to be a great opportunity to share what we have leant and also created a space for professionals to share their concerns and understandings.
Mix-d: DVD
On Friday 9th we finally completed our Mix-d: DVD which recorded The National Mixed-Race Conference 2008, held last year in Trafford. This is available as promotional tool. Basically, its an opportunity for professionals to hear what the young people have to say and how our model works with student voice.
2nd Professional workshop, London.
On the 20th October we held our professionals conference in Barnet, North London. Among other professionals we had a number of foster carers at this event which added a very interesting dynamic to the overall discussion.
Primary school workshop
In the afternoon of the 20th I gave a presentation to 30 primary school teachers. This was a new area for me and really interesting to understand the needs of the primary sector and find some creative ways to support their students in the future.
New contract
On the 23rd I was over in leicester to meet Ruth Pickering. Leicester College were seeking an external consultant to work on a new and exciting short term project aimed at raising the success rates of dual heritage students in FE. This work is funded by the LSC. I was fortunate to get the contract and will be working with them until March 2010
Keynote
On the 29th Oct I gave a presentation at ‘Mixed-race, mixed-racism and mental health’ organised by ‘People in Harmony’ and CCC limited. It was an honour to speak along side:
Suman Ferdinand - European centre of Study of Migration and Social care
Dinah Morley - Mental Health and emotional well being: a study of mixed experiences
Melba Wison- national Mental Health Equalities Programme Leader
Yvonne Ayo - Systemic Therapy with families
Sharon Evans - The mixed-race couple experience - a personal perspective
A fascinating event looking which examined the disproportionate numbers of mixed-race people in the Mental Health Care System.
I would like to thank all the organisations who we have worked with over the last few months and all the professionals who attended our workshops in Manchester and London. Thanks again to Steve Ireland for creating a wonderful site and Malcolm Evans for his continued support and guidance.
Brad 3 November 2009
- A response to Channel 4’s “Is it better to be mixed race?”
By Malcolm Evans, Research Co-ordinator, Multiple Heritage Project.
Channel 4 ran an interesting documentary last night, “Is it better to be mixed race?”
The gist of the programme was about genetic hybrid vigour – how a broad mix of genes tends to create healthier and longer living people.
This is hardly a revelation. We have long known about the advantages of a broad gene pool and, indeed, evolutionary psychologists would ground the primal incest taboo in that very same knowledge.
The novelty in the Channel 4 programme was in its linking of the healthiness of genetic cross-fertilisation with the extremely rapid growth of the UK’s mixed race population.
Whilst positive treatment of our racial reality is to be much welcomed, there are to our mind two strong caveats to all of this.
The first was the programme’s inability to sketch out more thoroughly what it means to be mixed race. Given the population ebbs and flows, invasions, exoduses and influxes down the millennia, as soon as one in fact dwells on existing hybridity, the very notion of “mixed race” as a purely biological construct collapses. We are all mixed race on this account.
And hence the argument moves on to the ineluctable truth that race must be a social construction beyond the material colour differences of skin.
Hence the programme was somewhat caught between the commonsensical announcement of long-understood biological realities and something of a failure to grasp the ongoing psychological and sociological connotations of mixed race in its UK lived experiences.
The second issue emerges from the first. Again, whilst we welcome any attempt to bring the mixed debate mainstream, we remain unconvinced that the best weapon to defeat the grotesque arguments of racial supremacists is through an inversion of their own eugenics. Whenever we start selecting any racial type as “good”, we are on very dangerous ground – for every “good” there is a “bad” and for every claim there is a counter-claim.
We would prefer a little more subtlety through a more gentle nod to material difference but a much firmer embrace of ultimate human community.
After all, aren’t all comparisons ultimately invidious, particularly when we get down to the level of DNA, which remains perhaps the most dangerously contested political battleground of all?