Vick Hope: “I've grown out of the things that came before me”
The presenter on not apologising, keeping hold of her connections and levelling the playing field
Hi, welcome back to Mixed Messages! This week, in a change to our advertised schedule, I’m speaking to presenter, author and journalist Vick Hope, who is of mixed Nigerian and white British heritage. We sat down at One Hundred Shoreditch after Vick hosted a panel with Mastercard UK, celebrating the next generation of creatives driving change in the music industry ahead of this years BRIT Awards. Read Vick’s story of her mixed identity below.
How do you define your racial identity?
I’ve always said mixed-race, then I’ll follow that with what my mix is because it’s pretty crucial – it’s not one size fits all. I’m half-Nigerian; my mum is Igbo from Imo state in Nigeria. She came over after the Biafran Civil War, she was 11 years old. My dad is a Geordie, he’s from Newcastle which is where I grew up.
My mum made sure we were educated and knew about where we’re from. She’s taken me and my brothers back to Nigeria, she’s always cooked Nigerian food and even braided my hair. I'm very lucky that I've had her making sure we don’t lose that. As you get older and your relatives pass, you can lose your connection to where you’re from.
Your parents gave you a Nigerian middle name – was that a conscious decision on their part? Did you make the decision to alter your name moving into this industry?
Me and my brothers have a Nigerian middle name, so back in Nigeria I’m just called Nwayawu, it’s my great grandmother’s name, it means child of the sun. The name that I present when I’m working is not my full name, and outside of work I’m not Vick Hope, I’m Victoria Nwayawu Nwosu–Hope.
My name has always been double-barrelled. When it came to deciding to drop Nwosu for work, it was a really hard decision that I agonised over for a long time. It was something that was suggested to me by my agents at the time, who I haven’t worked with for years.
I see where they were coming from, they just thought people would spell it wrong, which is so unacceptable. When I first started reporting, I’d often have my name pronounced wrong, so the change was just for ease, and just because it was snappier. I didn’t even used to be Vick, I was Victoria and then Vicky at school. I decided I didn’t like Vicky anymore, so I just shortened it.
So it was a decision for ease, but not one I take lightly and one that I’m a little bit sad about. But I will always be Victoria Nwayawu Nwosu–Hope, and anyone who knows me knows that.
Has your sense of self shifted over time and place, especially growing up in Newcastle and then going to Cambridge? You just mentioned the poem Half-caste by John Agard, which I remember so well!
I felt really validated and seen after reading that poem in the anthology. When it comes to music and literature, it’s about knowing that you’re valid, your story can be told and that you have a voice, because look, it’s allowed to be on the pages of books and in songs and films.
Don’t get me wrong, people can get themselves tied up in knots over the intricacies of who's represented and who's not. It’s not just about how you look, it’s about these experiences and understanding of the world, knowing it’s not just you and that there’s nothing wrong with you.
My sense of self obviously shifted, as it does for anyone growing up, you’re put into different situations and places, which I think is the joy of life. And you know that you’re different, because everyone is. What makes us the same is that we’re all a little bit different, and that’s great.
So yes, in Newcastle, there were no other Black people that I knew, definitely not in our school, but it’s OK – there are now. The whole country is constantly changing and that's a beautiful thing. Yes I went to Cambridge and it was not particularly diverse, but I was almost ready for that. What I wasn’t ready for was the lack of Northerners. I did feel a bit out of the loop.
Did you ever have a conversation with your family about being mixed?
We didn’t have that many. My mum would always just say that we’re all beautiful and that there’s nothing wrong with [being mixed,] that we’re all supposed to look different. Growing up, you’re actually not the same as your mum and dad. If you go out, it’s not actually clear that you belong not just to both of them, but to either. When you’re younger, it can be confusing, not that they have a different skin tone from you, but that they will have had a very different experience of the world from you, and from each other.
But the same can be said for anyone – that’s why this Mastercard UK panel is so pertinent because everyone is having a different experience of the world, whether that’s based on race, class, disability… It’s all about levelling the playing field, we all deserve to be able to enjoy music. It’s our experiences of the world which shape us and mean that we all have interesting stories to tell and music to make.
That’s the reason I’ve always liked the term ‘mixed-race,’ because it’s a mix of lots of things, not just two. It's all of their experiences mixed together, and then my kids will have all of my experiences and my husband’s experiences mixed together. It’s glorious technicolour.
What’s the best thing about being mixed for you?
As the Black Lives Matter movement was really swelling in light of George Floyd's death, I remember my friend AJ Odudu wrote an article for Vogue, addressing sections of it to different people in her life. She said to her mixed-race friends “you don't need to apologise,” because I think we all felt “I’m getting asked these questions, but am I best placed to answer them?”
I have to check my privilege, I'm acutely aware of colourism in my industry and in the world and society, and I don’t want to say the wrong thing that I’m not equipped or in the right place to say. She said “you don’t need to apologise for that, or feeling like you're not enough of one or the other. You are your mum and you are your dad.” That for me was a huge takeaway, because in all of this I just really love my mum and my dad. I think about the struggles they had and what they overcame, they just put joy and love at the centre of everything. If I’m that, then I’m happy.
Can you sum up your mixed identity in one word?
Fertile. I feel very lucky to have had so many places in which I could grow. So many seeds have been sown before me, and so many seeds will continue to be sown after me. I feel like a part of this forest, we're all part of the bigger picture, and that’s really exciting.
I'm obsessed with nature. If things keep growing, they keep creating beauty for us to fall in love with and that for me is the cornerstone of life. We're only here for a very short amount of time and I assume one day I’ll go back to the earth. I want other things to keep growing where I was, and I believe that I've grown out of things that came before.
Vick was speaking as part of Mastercard UK’s panel event, celebrating the next generation of creatives driving change in the music industry, which Mastercard is committed to supporting through its work with The BRIT School and long-term partnership with The BRIT Awards.
Next week I definitely WILL be speaking to May December and Avatar The Last Airbender actress Elizabeth Yu. 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.
Hi Isabella
My name is Francis and I am of mixed Heritage. Jamaican father and white mother, I am coming up 68 years old so I go back to when racism was rife. I have recently written a book that comes out in June. It deals with racism, relationship with my father with my brothers and how I lost myself and my identity. I have just come across this site purely by accident, would you be interested in reading the book or do you do pod casts where it could be aired. The piece written on Vicki Hope was very interesting. Hope we could take this further.
Regards
Francis Tyndale