This TED talk changed my life when I watched it last year. It challenged the way I thought about myself and, for the first time, I felt *seen*.

#BothNotHalf

"It's a rejection of easy distinction" https://twitter.com/OfficialJassa/status/1347240458142044164

I watch this talk over and over as the words resonate with me. I truly recognise my white privilege but there are things that have happened to me (and my mixed heritage family), which the rest of the world does not see, or perhaps, understand.

Often, the ultimate feelings are of not *belonging* to either heritage. The cut of the racist words people say because they assume you are white and "the Indians" aren't around to hear. The lack of trust from people when you announce your name, as if you've just made it up.

"How are YOU a Mohindra?"
"Where is your family from?... No, I mean FROM FROM"
"Oh, you don't LOOK Indian"
"Tbh, I just see you as white"

It's been as outrageous as people questioning how I could possibly be the daughter of my father. People have assumed I was his 'young partner' (sorry, it's so gross) before considering that a man with dark skin could have a daughter with light skin.

This is me informing people of life experiences as someone from mixed heritage. Pls STOP assuming or probing people's ethnicity and heritage. I will disclose my life to those I trust, where it flows naturally into conversation and where I feel safe.

All of us are both of something. I am not half X and half Y. I am an amalgamation of two wonderful heritages, I am both, at the same time.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. @OfficialJassa did it waaay better than me, but I felt that my thread has been a long time coming.