I originate from a working class background, I am a female, I am mixed race and I assist with the care of a disabled member within my family. I am the complete opposition of white supremacy, neo-Nazism and obviously 'male privilege' - whatever that is.
Being the underdog voiced in many 'ideal' ideologies, I often felt these pressures, especially whilst at school, as children can be pretty mean and have no filter, voicing their confusion for something that they don't understand, doesn't appear to be the 'norm' or they just want to question. This made me question myself. I questioned my ethnicity, my hair colour, my features, my 'abnormalities'. I disregarded 50% of my ethnicity and replaced it with a more socially acceptable alternative - my Swiss/Italian decent. I became ashamed of being considered a 'paki' due to having a parent from India and I also became fed up of being a female and all of the things that came with it.
Guys would disrespect me by sexually objectifying me and I went through a period of feeling no self-worth. I've always felt like I had something to prove. I had to prove that I was more than a 'paki', more than a sexual object, more than a 7/10 or whatever they wanted to label me that day and additionally I was fed up of being poor and being subtracted from many activities. This anger, turned into my feisty and fierce ambition to constantly improve myself, learn and grow so that I can validate my worth with my brain and my skills beyond my external features.
Analysing this honesty, I can now pin point why I feel strongly towards social activism and why I am a strong advocate of equal rights. We are not our skin colour, our gender, our class, our physical abilities. We are intelligent humans and there shouldn't be a hierarchy amongst us, we are already at the top of the food chain, so why are we making a food chain within ourselves? Categorising some humans as prey and some as predator. We are all the same, our only differences being environmental variables.
My manifestos are that I will not do what this ridiculous hierarchy expects me to do, as essentially, like many others I am at the bottom of the pecking order. I will acknowledge issues. I will voice my opinions. I will be loud and bold. I will make my own identity. I will be fearless. I will be ambitious. I will take risks. I will cross boundaries and borders.
