Film: Hamza Choudhury

Transcript

[Hamza Choudhury]

I grew up originally in Loughborough, which is a heavily Asian-populated community, if you like.

Quite diverse as well. The school I went to, there were a lot of different races and people from all over the world.

And then when I was 12 or 13,I moved just down the road to Leicester, which was a different community but very diverse as well.

So, it makes it easier to understand that not everyone's the same, not everyone's cultures are the same, but it's OK to be different, you know.

I feel like that was very much a big part of my upbringing. It's OK to be who you are and it's everyone's duty to accept it.

My role model when I was growing up was my mum, for sure. Probably the strongest person I ever met. She really shaped my life and made me into the person I am today.

I couldn't be any more grateful to have a mother like her.I come from a quite diverse family, so she really prepped me for coming across different situations in life and how to deal with them.

Whenever I was naughty, she'd take me home and, rather than shout at me, she'd tell me how she felt if a child was behaving like I was in her class, so it made it a lot easier for me to understand different situations like handling racism.

To get it from both ways, being half-Asian, half-black, my mum definitely prepared me in the best way possible.

And she taught me that it's uneducated people who have these views and opinions and not to take them too personally.

To not stand for it. In any way, shape or form.

Report the person, make people aware, talk about it. So, to not stand for it. It's easy to be in situations and take the back seat and say that it doesn't affect you, but it definitely does.

To be a bystander is almost as bad as committing the act yourself. So, it's important for everyone.

Even if you don't think it affects you, it definitely does.

It's so important, you know. I feel like that's the deep, deep-lying issue. Education.

Talk to your friends, talk to your family members, talk to anyone and try to understand and educate yourself on a personal note.

You'll definitely become more aware and it will affect you then. Once you educate yourself, it will definitely affect you, and you will want to make a change. 

Words can be just as hurtful as physical. Definitely so. To be honest, I screenshot it and put it in our group chat with the team and everyone was just saying how disgusting it was.

To, obviously, report it, which I did, and that they were sorry that there were people like this.

When you know that everyone in the team has got your back and they want you to feel better, and they also feel as strongly about it as you do, it doesn't affect you as much.

It doesn't mean, what they said, it makes it any more right because of course it doesn't. It made me feel instantly a lot better. Knowing that you're not by yourself.