Mixed Race Studies

Piya Chattopadhyay reflects on the privilege of racial passing

CBC Radio
2019-09-20

Piya Chattopadhyay’s daughter and twin sons (Submitted by Piya Chattopadhyay)

‘I spend a lot of time looking at my children and wondering to myself what their skin tone means in 2019’

My daughter Jasmine has light brown hair and hazel eyes.

My son Niko’s hair is even lighter, but his eyes are dark brown.

Same goes for my other son Julian (which makes sense, since they’re identical twins).

They’re all tall and lean. And they’re all fair-skinned, the kind that no amount of sunscreen seems to stave off a sunburn.

By appearance, they take after their father and his lineage.

So I’m forgiving when people say, “They don’t look like you at all,” but a little less forgiving when people confuse me for their nanny…

Read the entire article here.

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Martha Nahar, Internal Communications Officer
Communications and Public Affairs

Science journalist and author Angela Saini tackled the question of why science continues to be plagued by ideas of race.

Angela’s lecture, named after her new book Superior: The Return of Race Science, was delivered to mark Black History Month at Imperial. Organised by the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Centre, the lecture was attended by over 300 people.

In case you missed it, here are our top takeaways from Angela’s lecture.

You can also listen to an audio interview with Angela Saini below…

Read the entire article here.

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