Marsha Thomason: “I feel a sense of pride and allegiance to my Black people”
The actor on being Black with a capital B, empathy and what being mixed means to her
Hi, welcome back to Mixed Messages! This week’s guest is actor Marsha Thomason, who is of mixed Jamaican and white British heritage. Marsha is back on our screens as DS Jenn Townsend in S5 of The Bay, investigating the death of student Hannah and her bitterly divided family. From growing up in Manchester to now living in LA, Marsha has grown to feel political in her identity, as well as proud. Read her story below.
How do you define your identity?
My mum was born in Jamaica, she moved to England when she was ten years old. My dad is white, with English, Irish and Scottish DNA.
I wish we were all better at sharing our stories and who we are with one another, especially across generations, then it would carry on. Some families are better about it. I did my Ancestry.com, but I know very little about my family beyond my great grandmas on both sides.
Why did your mum move to the UK?
My grandad came from Clarendon, a small place in Jamaica. He went to England first and was there for a year to get a job. He was a Pentecostal minister, so he stayed with people who had already come to England from the village. Then my grandma came over, followed by my mum and her siblings, before they went to Manchester. My parents met at a youth club when they were pretty young.
How has the way you describe yourself changed over your life?
When I was a kid, the term was ‘half-caste.’ At some point in the ‘90s, we started referring to ourselves as mixed-race. I always say that I’m mixed-race, my mum's Jamaican, my dad's English, because being mixed-race is many things. In America we say biracial.
I also refer to myself as Black, with a capital B. That's evolved. When I was younger I’d definitely say mixed-race, and as I’ve gotten older and more political, gaining more of an understanding of what it is to be Black in this world, I feel a sense of pride and allegiance to my Black people.
Has anyone ever questioned your Blackness?
No, not in the UK. My life is in two parts, America and the UK. In the UK I don't feel like it was ever questioned. In the US it’s a bit more complicated, because I'm English as well. Sometimes people don't necessarily think of me as really Black because of that. I do sometimes get the sense that African Americans don't necessarily think of me as Black in the same way they are.
Is being mixed something you ever spoke to your family about?
We talked about race a lot. Apartheid was alive and kicking when I was growing up, we weren’t allowed to eat certain chocolate bars because they were from companies that supported apartheid.
We talked about being Black in this world a lot and incidents of racism at school. A girl called me a racist name, but I stood up for myself. I didn’t deal with that much overt racism at school. I was the only Black kid in my class, so I remember feeling ‘othered.’
Did that feeling of being ‘othered’ affect you?
I think it has changed over time, which speaks more to me educating myself on the history of the world. I didn't receive an honest education. Waking up has definitely changed my relationship to Blackness, because I now know what we've been through, the insidious nature of oppression across the globe. I was never ashamed of my Blackness, but I have much more pride now.
My relationship to my race has changed with time, but I’ve always had a strong sense of who I am. I do think that brings confidence. I never felt this confusion of “am I this or that?” I'm close to both sides of my family, which was really helpful as well. I grew up in North Manchester, which is very white, but food and music connected me to the culture: curry goat and rice, patties… I love to dance too.
What has your journey as an actor been like?
I've been doing this a long time. I started acting as a kid, and I was always the only Black person in the cast. Then I did this play called Breath, Boom, written by Kia Corthron, at the Royal Court Theater about girl gangs in New York. The cast were all Black women, a Black guy and one white woman. One of the actresses felt a kind of way about the industry being hard and there only ever being room for one, and that I was it. What she said was fair, but at the time I didn’t understand it. I felt attacked, but she’s right. There were so few of us, and it was like there really was only room for one.
When I moved to America and started receiving scripts, it was never to be the lead and I just accepted that's how it was. Even though I was annoyed by it, I don’t carry it as a weight. Then it changed at some point in the 2010s, and I started receiving lead role scripts. Now I see all these beautiful actors of colour thriving, and it isn't where we need to be, but boy we’ve come a long way.
We’ve seen this shift on TV, particularly with women leading crime dramas. Shows like DI Ray and The Bay have also explored themes of race and identity. Is that something that’s important to you?
Absolutely. It’s also what I want to watch. In S3 of The Bay, I learned things I didn’t know about South Asian culture, and if I'm learning, then the people watching are learning. I just want to know about other cultures. I love to travel, I want to know about how other people live, because we're all people but we're also very different.
Have you noticed any stereotypes around mixedness?
The ‘caught in the middle’ thing bothers me, the tragic mulatto. I’m good! Not to take away from people who have struggled with their identity, because all of our stories are our own, but I’m tired of that trope.
Stereotypes are dangerous, small-minded and lazy. When I meet someone, I want to hear their story. We're not a monolith. Moving to LA, a real melting pot, meeting people from all over and learning about their different cultures has been wonderful. When we pay attention to other people and their experiences, we gain more empathy.
Do you think being mixed helped you with that empathy?
Yeah. As a kid, I would say I feel so lucky because I’ve got the best of two worlds, my white family and my Black family. I get to see a different way people can be and be open to other experiences. That’s really special. But I also think you don’t have to be mixed to be open, travel, make friends and ask questions.
What’s the best thing about being mixed for you?
Having access to two different cultures and world views.
Can you sum up your mixed experience in one word?
Evolving. It also felt complicated, but it’s not complicated to me. I know I am of mixed heritage and I know what that means to me, but when I walk into a room, people see me as Black. So yes, I’m mixed and that means something to me, but I don’t move through this world with people saying ‘but she’s half-white too.’
Stream The Bay on ITVX now. Next week, I’ll be speaking to author Dani Heywood-Lonsdale. Subscribe to get Mixed Messages in your inbox on Monday. Shop Mixed Messages tote bags and bookmarks on Etsy now.
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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.
This piece spoke to me! Reading this phrase, “I’ve gotten older and more political, gaining more of an understanding of what it is to be Black in this world, I feel a sense of pride and allegiance to my Black people.”, I heard myself!!
I identify as Black mixed-race most times if asked (although I get taken for just about everything under the sun), but more and more, my answer is “Black” - with the capital B.