I saw the link for this article on twitter and it immediately struck a chord. So I followed and read it, and although the actual angle of the article wasn’t something that I personally identified with, the sentiment of the title definitely is.
While I understand that not all of Britain is ‘diverse’; my Britain is.
With every new place I go to or live in I get to learn more about the world and the people in it. But I’ve also realised that I was able to learn so much just living in a multicultural city. So perhaps for me, ‘living in mixed communities makes me feel British’ but living away from that makes me appreciate it more.
I took it for granted that in the place where I come from, I could find people of my generation, of different hues, from different cultural backgrounds who have a shared sense of identity. People who understand what it means to be an ‘ethnic minority’ and all the baggage that term comes with. People who understand being in between two cultures, languages, worlds; taking the best from both while struggling to reconcile some of the polarities.
This mutual understanding is comforting. And nothing feels more like I’ve reached home than when I’m being shuffled along at LHR by Polish, Pakistani, and Ghanaian Immigration Officers.
Adekunmi Olatunji 