I Drew Myself As A White Person" | David Reid

Ask a child to draw themselves and you'll learn something about the world they're growing up in. David drew a white boy. He was in a south London primary school. Nobody had told him to. And years later, talking to the people he sat beside in that classroom, he found out they had all done exactly the same thing — and none of them had ever said a word about it. David Reed came to this country from Jamaica at three years old, part of a Windrush family who arrived to posters saying "Britain needs you" and signs saying no blacks, no Irish, no dogs. He grew up in Peckham. He came joint second in the eleven plus and received a letter telling his mother he wouldn't fit in at grammar school. He rang a local newspaper about a job in his best telephone voice, was invited in, and watched the room fall silent when he walked through the door. And one morning driving home, he was stopped by police who said they recognised him as a drug dealer, strip searched in the back of a van, and sent on his way without an apology. He complained. He was told he was the one at fault. What his solicitor found in the file afterwards is one of the things you have to hear him say himself. But this is not an episode about what was done to a man. It's about what he decided to do with it. David tells us how he came to understand what had been shaping him, and what he chose to build instead — including his own words on it: that his mission became making sure nobody else went through what he did. Which is the question underneath all of this, and it belongs to every one of us: What are you doing with the circumstances you find yourself in? We don't get to choose everything that happens to us. We do get to choose how we answer it, and what we allow it to make of us. David has a story worth hearing. Sit with this one. 🎙️ OUR GUEST David Reed — youth worker, and a voice on race, education and community in south London. 🍵 ECHOES OF OUR COMMUNITY We listen to real stories, because somebody out there needs to know they're not alone. Subscribe: https://bit.ly/369k8bU Facebook: https://bit.ly/3c8Woso Instagram: https://bit.ly/3iPqKRR Website: www.distinctfamilyservices.com Enquiries and consultation: mtaribo@distinctfamilyservices.com If this reached you, please like and share it. Let somebody else hear the story. #BlackBritishHistory #WindrushGeneration #Resilience #Peckham #Racism #OvercomingAdversity #LifeStories #PersonalGrowth #Inspiration #EchoesOfOurCommunity