I wanna share something with y'all for a second. As a mixed race kid, who grew up with a white mother, I am probably more comfortable in white spaces than some of my peers, BUT there were challenges that could have been different with more visibility!! #BlackAFinSTEM

When we were 4 my mum took us to Jamaica...seems like a strange thing to do huh? When we were 3 we used to sit in the bath and scrub our skin because we wanted to look like everyone else...we didn't understand why we were different

Everyone around us was white, we lived in a rural area, all the TV presenters were white, we rarely saw black people on TV...this was circa 1998

When I was a kid in Australia, the Aboriginal children would get teased/bullied/picked on. My sister and I? Not so much, I guess we were the right shade of brown. Eye opening for a 6/7 year old.

We moved back to the UK age 10. When I was 11, I took an entire year off of school. Why? Because one of the kids in my school told my sister as sports day that "she had dirty African blood". I really wish I was joking.

I became very angry towards my peers and subsequently refused to go to school. I didn't want to be there, I knew if I was there I would probably punch one of them. So I just took the year off.

During my time off I spent a lot of time trying to learn about my Jamaican family history. I watched Roots, I read books, I scoured the internet, I visited slavery museums. I did it all. I was absorbed by this need to find out what happened to my ancestors.

And I became angry. I dare say for a minute there I really hated white people. I couldn't stand to think about the way they had treated my ancestors. Yet, I'm half white. 300 years ago my ancestors on one side of my family could have owned my ancestors on the other side.

That's a strange thing to sit with and reconcile at any point. At 11...extra weird.

When I was in high school my English teacher asked me my opinion about Black poems and writing when they came up. I was the token black voice. The other 3 Black kids in my year (of 250 kids) were in other classes.

A kid I once had a disagreement with, he was in my tutorial group, called me a "Black Bitch"...you bet your ass I reported him, I was 16 and not about to let it slide. His parents called my mum and asked me to drop the complaint so he could still get in to the college he wanted.

When people say the UK doesn't have racism, they're lying. It may not be as overt, brash and in your face as the US but it's there. I'm glad that my nieces and nephews have much more visibility of Black Professionals in the media.

This is why we need change. It's been almost 10 years since they boy in my class was a racist tool and I'm willing to bet not much has changed. We need our White friends to leverage their privilege. Speak up for us, step in, be a witness. We are TIRED.