How British Punjabi journalist Isabella Silvers champions mixed heritage voices through her groundbreaking newsletter

When she first started publishing the newsletter, she found it challenging to get some of her interviewees to open up about their identities—partly because the topic was so little discussed. What’s more, some interviewees felt their experiences were not legitimate enough to share, particularly when it came to discussing the positive aspects of their identity.

“I think a lot of us feel some sort of impostor syndrome, because being mixed often comes with privileges linked to having a lighter skin,” Silvers says. “Some think that our legitimacy in public spaces is intrinsically linked to how much we struggle. That’s a valid way to feel, but that’s also a conversation we should feel comfortable having.”

This illegitimacy is fading somewhat thanks to a changing social and political landscape, Silvers says. “There’s so much that influences how we feel about being mixed, from geography to climate change, gender, post-colonial legacies, disability and politics.” She adds that the growing understanding of intersectionality around the world has come as a relief for mixed people, for whom the concept is impossible to ignore. 

“From the moment we’re born, we have inherited a very obvious intersectional background,” she says. “Unlike most people, we don’t have to learn that two cultural heritages can be equally valid and true simultaneously—we’re born with that knowledge.”

This reality is something that Silvers cherishes and wants to cultivate and celebrate, but that many people have difficulties grasping. “Too often, people assume that because of this intersectionality, all mixed people are confused about their identity.” 

This, she says, is inherently linked to many of the frames and labels that are imposed on the mixed community—something many of Silvers’ interviewees tell her they’ve been breaking free from. British Punjabi actor Jassa Ahluwalia has been wanting to reframe his heritage by saying he’s “both, not half”, while British author Katy Massey talked about how there’s a need to create a new framework, as she refuses “to define myself according to labels white supremacy has made to identify us”.

Indeed, Silvers finds it empowering to break free from structures made by “people who wanted to box mixed people into labels they could understand”, which also means to break free from stereotypes imposed on them, like that of the “tragic mulatto”. The tragic mulatto is a stereotypical mixed-race character in American literature, who is depressed or even suicidal because they fail to completely fit into the “white world” or the “Black world”.

“Being mixed is something beautiful to celebrate, not a tragic reality,” she says. 

The other stereotypes she’s trying to fight with her newsletter are gender-related and often linked to post-colonial legacies. And there’s a lot to unpack, she says.  

“In the collective unconscious, [where there are] mixed couples involving one white parent, having a mother of colour is more desirable, because it’s assumed that they stay at home and will ground their child’s cultural identity more than ethnic fathers—who are stereotypically portrayed as absent,” Silvers explains. “This representation is grounded in post-colonial legacies, because it’s assumed that these historical dynamics are inherent to some of these relationships, for example, in the case of a white father and a Chinese-Hongkonger mother.” 

The Mixed Messages platform has rightfully been gaining momentum. The newsletter now boasts nearly 4,000 subscribers, as statistic that is a source of pride for Silvers, who created it independently while working as a freelance journalist.

A manifestation of the enthusiasm around the newsletter is the first live events, meet-and-greets with panel discussions and which sold out twice over and gathered prominent figures from the community, such as authors Nicole Ocran and Hanako Footman. “It blew my mind that so many people were ready to pay money to join us in these discussions,” she admits. “But it’s the proof that these conversations and gatherings are needed.”  

It’s fair to say that the future of the newsletter looks bright. As Silvers’ work becomes increasingly recognised, she hopes to bring more celebrities to share their experience. “In the future, I’d love to feature Meghan Markle [Sussex] and Henry Golding in the newsletter,” she says. “Markle because I want to hear about how she feels that her Blackness has been called into question many times, and Golding about his identity as a mixed East Asian and what it means for him as a romantic lead.”

One thing is for sure: Silvers will not stop her crucial work and only wants to continue expanding the spectrum into which mixed people can identify themselves. 

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