White Yardie: “I never knew about racism ’til I come to England.”

Education is the top, middle and last line for Harry, aka White Yardie in this conversation. And it’s really testament to the essence of this series: intent is so important in these conversations and spaces. Offensive language and microaggressions can be both deliberate and accidental. People do make mistakes without meaning to; we’ve all done this. I feel like we can learn to forgive these, if people then aim to learn and make changes when moving forwards. Because, once we learn what is not okay - we have the option to improve for the better, if we intend to. For those who make mistakes and don’t want to make changes - or for those who are deliberately being offensive? Maybe progress isn’t so clear a path in those instances. In this chat, Harry fully unpacks what he’s learned about all of this. And of course, we also learn how he feels about the question, “Where you from?” - and what it means to him. Another theme that Harry and I chat about, is the nature of being forced to explain where you’re from: being forced to justify why you are here and how that came to be. This is so exhausting. So, it’s a shame that a part of this conversation is about as to if Harry’s been forced to convince people, when saying where he’s from; none of us should ever have to do this. Thanks for listening. Subscribe and leave a review! And let me know what you think: I’m @lilliealmond on Twitter - and on Insta, I’m @almondsweetness.