|
Intermix.org.uk is a website for the benefit
of mixed-race families, individuals and anyone who feels they have a multiracial
identity and want to join us. Our mission is to offer a view of the mixed-race experience, highlighting icons, film, books, poetry, parenting techniques, celebrities, real lives and much more. Our online forums are a great place to meet others, ask questions, voice your opinions and keep in touch. Sign up for our monthly newsletter and delve into our pages. Want to join in? Become an Intermix member to take part: |
David James - Footballer
'People
always commented on pieces of me - my hair, my colour - no one ever
said anything nice about the whole of me.'
Growing up surrounded
by white faces in Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, David James was
the only non-white child at his junior school. 'I was called a coon and
a black bastard,' he says.
'I lived with my white mum so I couldn't go back to an ethnic home and
relate the experience. At school I was asked if I was adopted. I got confused
and I'd go home and ask my mum if I was divorced.' David believes that
there was a direct correlation between bullying because of his mixed-race
background and his low self-esteem. 'Trying to break records in goal was
all about proving that I was valuable.'
David also had a problem with the term half caste saying:'Being described
in fractions is like being seen as abstract parts. It was a subtle prejudice
that I felt,' he says, 'but people always commented on pieces of me - my
hair, my colour - no one ever said anything nice about the whole of me.'
Source:The Observer
