Keshia East: “There’s so much more to being mixed-race than what we look like”
The entrepreneur on rituals, embracing her heritage and being boxed into roles based on your success
Hi, welcome back to Mixed Messages! This week I’m speaking to entrepreneur and creator Keshia East, who is of mixed Ghanaian and white British heritage. Known for her bold curls and bright personality, I was excited to speak to Keshia about how her heritage has impacted her career as an entrepreneur, as well as how she’s felt about her mixed identity over time. She was, unsurprisingly, a joy to speak to, and I’m excited for you to read her story below.
How do you define your racial identity?
If someone asks me where I’m from, I’ll say I’m mixed-race, half-Ghanaian, half-English. That’s the short version, but recently we did a DNA test and discovered that my dad’s side, which we thought was English and Irish, has Norwegian in it. Nobody seems to know where or how that’s come into our family bloodline. We’re always learning about ourselves.
Have you always used terminology like ‘mixed-race’?
It’s a shame that we don’t have a term. If someone is African or Black they can just say that, we’re always in the ‘other’ categories. There’s not one concrete way to call somebody.
I'm comfortable saying mixed-race. I know what you mean when you talk about the term having a stereotype – if you described someone as mixed-race, people think of my skin tone, half-white and half-Black. There’s so much more to being a mixed-race person than what they look like.
What was your connection to your culture like growing up?
One of the biggest things when it comes to family is that it takes a village. [Ghanaians] take that saying very literally, so I grew up with all my cousins on my mum's side, my grandma and aunty and uncle raising me, spending holidays there. Everyone speaks Twi, the Asante language, so my sister and I grew up bilingual, learning that.
The food too – even though my mum was married to my English dad, he was so open to the point where we’d eat 50% Ghanaian meals, 50% English meals. I had a really beautiful childhood and it was lovely that my family was so mixed.
Did you ever speak to your parents about being mixed?
On my mum’s side, that conversation never really happened. It didn’t really mean anything to anyone on my mum's side, it was like ‘you’re still gonna have your hair in plaits, you’re still gonna have canerows, you’re still gonna eat the food and speak the language…’ We weren’t treated any differently because we were half-white.
My dad had a lot of conversations with us. He travelled a lot, so he respected a lot of different cultures. He was always like ‘make sure you tell people you’re Asante, embrace your curls, embrace your colour!’ He was always highlighting it, maybe because for so much of his life he probably never had to think about it. It was nice to know that there was something unique about us, it was always a positive growing up.
Has that positive sense of self always been quite strong for you?
It has always been strong, there’s always been respect for both cultures. There was never an issue until late primary school or secondary school when people challenged my race. I found it odd when people would question how my very pale cousin with ginger hair could be my cousin. I’d be like, ‘do the math.’ People poked me for an answer of whether I think I’m more white than Black… It was those external questions that made me feel like an alien, but I’ve never doubted my race in myself. I’ve never felt like I don’t want to be mixed-race.
In dating, as a mixed-race person it’s not like you can date within your culture, so to speak. Everyone's got their own experiences. I can't imagine dating someone without having to explain things about my culture. Even if I date a Ghanaian man, I still have to explain things about my dad's side and vice versa.
Dating can be very challenging, but it’s how people respond to you. When I had a Black boyfriend, I was never in an interracial relationship. Now I've got a white boyfriend, I’m in an interracial relationship? I'm in the same relationship, it's just the other way around. That's the biggest thing I've realised about being mixed-race is it’s about other people's perceptions of you, not what you have for yourself.
Speaking of external perceptions, have you noticed any stereotypes around mixed-race identity? How do you want the conversation to move forward?
I was dating someone once that had the cheek to say to me that if I had a white mum, they wouldn't have dated me, because girls that have a white mum don’t know culture properly. I can't even tell you how frustrating that is. That falls into so many stereotypes of racial ignorance, of fathers not being good enough or absent. If you have two parents bringing you up, why would one have more of an influence on your life? I find that highly offensive.
When Obama was elected president, people called him the first Black president even though he's mixed-race. But when someone does something negative, they’re mixed-race and not ‘fully Black.’ It's weird how you get defined in these roles based on how successful you are.
Has your heritage impacted your company, No Knot Co?
My hair was one of the things that I found most challenging growing up. Neither of my parents had a clue – my mum would treat our hair exactly how she would treat hers, which was sometimes too harsh, but that’s how she could manage it. Then my dad would treat our hair like his sister’s hair. By the time he was finished, it was just this undefined afro.
I straightened my hair for years because I didn't know what to do with it, then my sister staged an intervention and I started wearing it curly at uni and discovered all these amazing products. In lockdown, I discovered all the routines, but I wanted to upgrade my tools. I couldn’t find anything targeted to or made by Black women, but I just wanted someone who understood my hair. I started No Knot Co because I want people to feel proud of their hair and be able to look after their natural hair.
My sister and I are also launching The Kurl Kitchen to celebrate African ingredients in hair care, like shea butter and black soap. We wanted to cherish this African ritual of our mum and grandma doing our hair, telling us stories. We’re launching five products with ingredients like yam and okra.
What’s the best thing about being mixed for you?
The education on different cultures from a very young age. It makes me so open. I love travelling, meeting new people and exploring different cultures. I feel like I haven't grown up with this ignorance that all people are the same. There's bad in every society, but you also work with the best of two cultures. It's like getting an amazing pass to different clubs, you know?
If you have to think about your heritage and culture often, that activates a journey of exploration into who you are. It’s something that confronts you, you can't hide away from it. When people ask ‘are you more white or Black,’ you ask yourself these questions that maybe other people don't ask, so I think it’s a beautiful gift.
Can you sum up your mixed experience in one word?
Gift. It is a pleasure, it is an honour. Now that I've been born in this skin, I can't imagine taking the journey anywhere else. I'm proud. It continues to be a gift every day.
Shop No Knot Co and The Kurl Kitchen here. Next week, I’ll be speaking to Bunhead Bakery founder Sara Assad-Mannings. Subscribe to get Mixed Messages in your inbox on Monday.
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Mixed Messages is a weekly exploration of the mixed-race experience, from me, Isabella Silvers. My mom is Punjabi (by way of East Africa) and my dad is white British, but finding my place between these two cultures hasn’t always been easy. That’s why I started Mixed Messages, where each week I’ll speak to a prominent mixed voice to delve into what it really feels like to be mixed.