To ask my mumsnetters with mixed raced children

[pleasemothermay1]

Currently we live in a very diverse area however my husband who is white wants to move back to his home town it's very white and I am worried about our children we have 2 small ones but a teenage son who hasn't exprinced much overt racism due to were we currently live being very mixed

What I want to know so you think I should move I scared of being racially attacked and there have been some nasty incidents in the home town also worried about my children's self asteam growing up not haveing any one in there coummity who looks like them

And on top of all that you still have sectarianism

We looking to move to Belfast possibly

We can get a bigger home by moving pay off about 30k off the mortgage and reduce the rest to about 500pm in a better area however we we scafice the cultural element and possibly open our selfs up to racial and sectarian abuse

My sil who is Asian who lives NI had a brick though her window last year

I live in a fairly multicultural area. My dcs aren't the only non white dc in the school or even their class.

What have noticed over the years is that although they might have white friends their best friends over the years have always been mixed white and black Caribbean like them. Theres a reason why they subconsciously choose to be friends with the group they identify with most but I can't remember it now.

Anyway I personally wouldn't put them in a school where they aren't the token black kid. They aren't oddities and I'd hate them to feel like they were.

Where they are not aren't

I live just outside Belfast but lived in Belfast until a few years ago and have 3 kids at primary (eldest is about to start post primary in Sept) - not to sound like a walking/talking cliche but my kids have lots of friends/ people in their school of different backgrounds including mixed race & from different nationalities.
I wouldn't go near South Belfast especially lower Lisburn Road for love nor money but I never would have. Have you looked at schools? - especially for your eldest.

i would choose very carefully the area. I live in a very white and very middle class village (house prices range from £750K to £2million+) and my mixed race dcs go to the village state school. There are only 2 black children in whole school. Probably 10 mixed raced kids. Our area is very wealthy with many educated and professional working parents. My dcs have never ever been racially abused and I'm confident to say that's because we live in an area and go to school where bullying and open racial abuse is unacceptable. I do think the older generation in my village have views about immigration and racist too but they are dying off IMO .

I think in a poorer area your mixed race kids may well be seen as targets.

My DP is non-white, we have lived all over the UK, including London, and didn't find a huge difference between London and anywhere else in terms of racism. That said, the smallest town we lived in was probably the worst. On the whole we have been lucky though. No DC yet so I suppose that may change things, but we live in a lovely Northern city now and my DP has had no problems at all.

Good luck with your move OP. It's always hard to move to a new place but you'll get there

It depends where you live I live in a very diverse area in the northwest on the edge of a large town if you moved a few miles away to my parents small village I would say it's mainly white .

Piss off spammy

@pleasemothermay1
Wolverhampton is a brilliant option. It's a very mixed city with thousands of students too. I went to uni there, plenty of people of every ethnicity possible, I have seen mosques, temples, churches and never heard of any racially motivated crime. A lot of my fellow students were mixed race, there are a few great hairdressers dotted in and around the city centre that cater for Asian hair and afro Caribbean hair too. In 5 years of uni there I never felt that fear I feel when I go places that don't have such an open approach to different or mixed cultural heritages (I'm Asian, I was racially abused in a shop in manchester once along with a polish girl and it really killed me inside, she cried and called the police, no one stepped up in our defence).
I personally wouldn't do the move you proposed in your post as it's bad enough visiting a town your uncomfortable in your own skin in, let alone living your daily life there.
Move somewhere where you will feel safer. Wolverhampton is a great option for diversity. Plus you'll be able to get a lovely house in your budget in a great area with brilliant schools (I suggest Tettenhall). White black Asian. It shouldn't ever matter, you should never have to feel uncomfortable or scared in your own skin.

well the threads 18 months old so I am guessing the OP has moved by now!

Its not spam, there is a Q asking about hairdressers that can do mixed hair shrugs

ahh that's why you joined MN today just to post on every single thread with 'mixed race' in the title - to be helpful

the OP is 18 months old so you are a bit late

Oh balls! I didn't even see when it was originally posted! Well....this was fun!
Hope OP is doing well