Ayeshah Rose Reclaimed

There's a little something that I find quite disturbing and that something has lead me to ask the following question: when a black person has a feature like soft hair, small lips or a straight nose, why do we always jump to the conclusion that they are mixed with something? Why can't that person just be black? The majority of black people have Indian or white ancestory so why would it be surprising if they don't have "typically" black features? Clearly that person has inherited a feature from an ancestor, from their blood. Furthermore, what is a typical black person supposed to look like? I'm intrigued to know. I see light skinned black people begging heritage because they have soft long hair or chinese eyes. Errrr....no....you're black and there is nothing wrong with being black. I'm proud of what I am. I have a strong family and a culture that I would never want to change. I know who I am. Why would I want to start pretending to be someone I'...

Race is a very sensitive subject. You have to be so careful about how you refer to or describe someone just in case you cause offence but these days that can be said about anything. The tone, manner and circumstance of what you say makes a big difference to how something is taken. When I was in Cyprus a Pakistani sister from Manchester was in conversation with a German sister. The German sister was referring to black people as coloured. The Pakistani sister to my surprise told her off to which the German sister replied "no no you mustn't say black it's wrong". I had been keeping out of the conversation until this point when I felt the need to inform this sister that there is nothing wrong with calling a black person black. Many black people find the description "coloured" very offensive. To this the sister said "but you're not all black anyway. Some of you are brown, some of you are light brown, some of you are caramel". I had to laugh at t...