My search for belonging
- Tamika Green
- Mar 26
- 2 min read
By Tamika Green
Being mixed without the influence of one half of your cultural identity is like being lost without a map. As a child, there’s no one to teach you about your history - the tragedy and the triumphs. There’s no one to lead the way, to show small hands how to detangle tightly coiled hair. Or how to navigate being in spaces as one of few brown faces in rural Suffolk and beyond.
This is my reality as a child born to a white British single mother and an African-American father my siblings and I can do without. From a young age, I battled with my race and raged against the parts of myself bestowed on me by my black heritage.
Learning about the American Civil Rights Movement during A-Level history gave me the opportunity to discover my background, my people, my story. It changed a lot about how I viewed myself and placed me on the journey to self-acceptance.
Tamika as a child. Credit: Tamika Green.
But years later, as communities banded together after the murder of George Floyd, I found myself becoming acutely aware of my ‘mixedness’. I realised being raised by a white parent and growing up in an ethnically barren landscape left me with no cultural framework, no understanding of where I belonged. I struggled to relate to other black communities and wondered how and where I could find people with the same heritage as me.
Naturally, it made me think about the bases - RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath. After all, it’s what brought my father here. Maybe these spaces, as well as churches and community centres in the surrounding areas is where I would find people with similar backgrounds and heritage.
But the bases have become closed off and the American community around them out of reach, it seems, for someone disconnected like me. And I understand, it’s a military base with serious work going on.
I do think the base, as an institution, should recognise its impact on the surrounding community from a sociocultural standpoint. How it has shaped the landscape and the population, bringing together people who wouldn’t ordinarily have been brought together. And the result of this is?
The people, just like me, who may have grown up without access to their community. This recognition could come in the form of outreach programmes or creating spaces outside the base that foster connection and unity to allow those who feel cut off to be part of something bigger.
Being mixed race can be isolating and confusing. For some, it’s a constant search for belonging and knowledge. If there are small ways that can help a group feel a little less marooned and foster a deeper sense of community, then is it not worth giving it a try?
Connect with Tamika:
Comments