0:00:02 > 0:00:04The name Black Is The New Black really made me smile.
0:00:04 > 0:00:06I think we're on the edge of a revolution.
0:00:06 > 0:00:07Boom!
0:00:07 > 0:00:09We have our own thing.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11And it's really rich.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14We're the influencers, the tastemakers.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Remember when we invented jazz and you didn't know what it was?
0:00:18 > 0:00:20Well, now we're going to do something else.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24I've never really seen myself as an immigrant.
0:00:24 > 0:00:25I see myself as a person.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29I'm proud to be black.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31I've never cared to be any other way.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36Everybody wants to be us, but they only want the good parts of being us.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40They want our physicality, they want our musicality.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44Selling our culture, it's like one big hustle.
0:00:44 > 0:00:46They want our talent, they want our dancing skills,
0:00:46 > 0:00:47they want our singing skills.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49Music hasn't got no colour.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52The oppressed always find a way to celebrate, right?
0:00:53 > 0:00:55It's a great feeling.
0:00:55 > 0:01:00We are people of talent, people of vision, people of passion.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02SHE LAUGHS
0:01:02 > 0:01:05There's a great seam of British success.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10When it stands out, it is dazzling.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13And we should celebrate it.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16We should celebrate it.
0:01:17 > 0:01:25This programme contains very strong language.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07I am Gina Yashere. I'm a comedian.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10My mum and dad came from Nigeria.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12Both my parents are from Barbados.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14My mum's from Ghana, my dad's from Nigeria.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16My father was Antiguan.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19The wonderful island, the jewel of the Caribbean, as we say.
0:02:19 > 0:02:21'We have different opinions.'
0:02:21 > 0:02:23As you do.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25My parents are Nigerian.
0:02:25 > 0:02:26St Lucia.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30Jamaica. You go to St Ann, you turn right and you go into Bush.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32Turn left at the clock tower,
0:02:32 > 0:02:35two men playing dominoes on a box next to a goat.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Ask for Mrs Harris. The shop is there.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43Until I came to this country, I hadn't any Afro-Caribbean...
0:02:43 > 0:02:45Caribbean friends.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47HE LAUGHS
0:02:49 > 0:02:52There is a wonderful Uganda proverb.
0:02:52 > 0:02:53And it says,
0:02:53 > 0:02:56"The person who has never travelled
0:02:56 > 0:02:59"thinks that their mother is the best cook."
0:03:08 > 0:03:11I think I was four when the present
0:03:11 > 0:03:13Queen was enthroned,
0:03:13 > 0:03:16and we had a tiny little transistor radio, so we were able,
0:03:16 > 0:03:20through the World Service, to actually hear the entire service.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23When the national anthem came on,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26my dad used to make us all to stand.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33I was born in Trinidad, in the West Indies,
0:03:33 > 0:03:36which is right at the long end of
0:03:36 > 0:03:39a nice geographical chain which ends up
0:03:39 > 0:03:42almost on the South American continental shelf.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45My parents were not what I would call,
0:03:45 > 0:03:47sort of, formally educated people.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51My father was an engineer at the oil refinery.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53We were all pretty poor,
0:03:53 > 0:03:58and so there was a natural aspiration to get out of that kind of poverty.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02That was a very important part of West Indian life -
0:04:02 > 0:04:05you had to try to make something of yourself.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08Trinidad would not be your, kind of, ultimate destination.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11We were colonies of the British Empire.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17We learned a lot about the history
0:04:17 > 0:04:20of how the people in Britain are governed -
0:04:20 > 0:04:23far, far more than about my own country, Uganda.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25We knew the English laws, we knew their customs,
0:04:25 > 0:04:27we knew their history, we knew their tradition.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29Britain was better and more
0:04:29 > 0:04:31powerful, and when,
0:04:31 > 0:04:32you know, the "Great" was in
0:04:32 > 0:04:34Great Britain and all that.
0:04:34 > 0:04:35"Let's go to this place."
0:04:37 > 0:04:38'Wonderful.'
0:04:41 > 0:04:45My parents were pioneers, but it's not something they chose.
0:04:46 > 0:04:53My mother, from Zimbabwe, she was working in Zambia as a midwife,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56and my dad, Nick Newton from Cornwall,
0:04:56 > 0:05:01he had decided that he wanted to find the root of the blues,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04and he felt that it was Africa.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06They met and fell in love.
0:05:06 > 0:05:11Think about it - mid-'60s, you fall in love with an African woman,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14you want to marry that woman, bring her back to Cornwall,
0:05:14 > 0:05:18which is SO not African...
0:05:18 > 0:05:19SHE LAUGHS
0:05:22 > 0:05:24You are fucking cool, man.
0:05:24 > 0:05:25My dad is...
0:05:25 > 0:05:28I mean, he really broke the mould.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30I then think about my mother.
0:05:30 > 0:05:31You know.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33SHE SIGHS
0:05:33 > 0:05:36She's a warrior,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39because it wasn't like having stones thrown through the window,
0:05:39 > 0:05:43it was the mind-fucking, and it was the...
0:05:44 > 0:05:47The kind of feeling of needing to look over your shoulder,
0:05:47 > 0:05:52and she responded to that by just keeping things small.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05The name is Bill Morris. I'm a member of the House of Lords.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10The significance of the photograph -
0:06:10 > 0:06:12it was the day that I was declared General Secretary
0:06:12 > 0:06:15of the Transport and General Workers Union.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20My privilege was to lead that union for 12 years,
0:06:20 > 0:06:23and I'm grateful for that opportunity.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25I trust I've left something behind.
0:06:27 > 0:06:33When I came to England back in 1954 as a 16-year-old boy,
0:06:33 > 0:06:36it was a journey of experience.
0:06:36 > 0:06:37I'd wake up in the morning
0:06:37 > 0:06:40and there was smoke coming out of the chimneys.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42I'd never seen a chimney before.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46I thought the house was on fire, you know. These are the sort of things.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50It was at a point where housing was your first challenge,
0:06:50 > 0:06:52and it got to the point where
0:06:52 > 0:06:55renting a room, a whole room, was a luxury.
0:06:55 > 0:06:57You'd be renting a bed
0:06:57 > 0:06:59and you woke up at four o'clock in the morning
0:06:59 > 0:07:01and you've never seen the guy next-door to you.
0:07:03 > 0:07:08My mum, when she first arrived, she was ill-equipped.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10She didn't come with the right clothes.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12So she had on a light jacket,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15and arriving in November in '64,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19a light jacket was definitely not the right attire,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23so my mum spent a lot of the winter cold.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27I couldn't understand what the romance about snow was all about.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30I always hated the winters.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33This business of overcoats and so
0:07:33 > 0:07:35many pockets and so on, you can't...
0:07:35 > 0:07:37I can't get myself in and out of them.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39I'm still struggling with...
0:07:40 > 0:07:42..winters and how to dress in them.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49My name is Patricia Scotland.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53I'm the Secretary General of the Commonwealth,
0:07:53 > 0:07:58the 53 countries, which encapsulates 2.3 billion people.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02My mother was a real lady,
0:08:02 > 0:08:09and looking at Paddington in 1958 was a big shock to her.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11People didn't bathe every day.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13My mother was used to bathing
0:08:13 > 0:08:15sometimes three times a day, changing for lunch,
0:08:15 > 0:08:20changing for dinner, and my mother had help in the house,
0:08:20 > 0:08:21and she was amongst people
0:08:21 > 0:08:25who had behaviour that had her eyes out on stalks.
0:08:25 > 0:08:26I think she thought Daddy
0:08:26 > 0:08:28had brought her to Sodom and Gomorrah.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32You know, I remember my mother talking about her being shocked at
0:08:32 > 0:08:34British people who didn't know Shakespeare
0:08:34 > 0:08:36and didn't know about the Magna Carta,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39cos they'd been raised on all that stuff, you know.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43She hadn't seen a fleck of snow but she'd read The Winter's Tale.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47Britain had been sold as a kind of magical place - it was Oz.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52There was a notion that the streets of Britain were paved in gold,
0:08:52 > 0:08:56and I'm sure my parents were, you know, were bought on that illusion.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59INTERVIEWER: Yeah. What did they find?
0:08:59 > 0:09:00Racism.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11In those days, when my parents arrived,
0:09:11 > 0:09:13there were still signs saying...
0:09:13 > 0:09:15"No dogs...
0:09:15 > 0:09:17"No Irish...
0:09:17 > 0:09:21"And no blacks." I think they used to say "no coloureds" in those days.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30One of the things I'd say is I really don't like remembering
0:09:30 > 0:09:36some of those times, but I was subject to racist attack.
0:09:36 > 0:09:41I was literally attacked, beaten up and bloodied.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44You would be silly to go out on your own.
0:09:44 > 0:09:49We used to go in groups and, in many instances, we didn't go at all.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56Both my parents found that with kind words, kind actions,
0:09:56 > 0:10:00eventually the frost thawed,
0:10:00 > 0:10:05and I think it was the early '70s where the wheat crop had failed
0:10:05 > 0:10:07and people were on strike and people were unhappy.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10West Indians, of course, had their own bread, hard-dough bread,
0:10:10 > 0:10:12so they just carried on as normal.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16And the interest of English people going, "Oh, what's that?
0:10:16 > 0:10:18"Is that your bread? Oh, can I try a bit?"
0:10:18 > 0:10:20Food - always the way -
0:10:20 > 0:10:24opened the door slowly to interactions
0:10:24 > 0:10:28between the West Indian community and the English community
0:10:28 > 0:10:31in Wolverhampton, yeah.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36- Holding it up in front of you and you're looking into the main camera.- OK.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48That's when I was a little less black.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51HE LAUGHS
0:10:51 > 0:10:54That's early days. I'm about 17, 18 in that picture.
0:10:56 > 0:10:58That was the uniform, the Nike tracksuit.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05Family life was loud, chaotic, cos there was five of us.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07My oldest sister's eight years older than me,
0:11:07 > 0:11:09so she felt like a second mother figure
0:11:09 > 0:11:11while my mum was out working.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14I was one of them kids that'd be in and out of everyone's houses.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Everyone was my brother or my cousin or... You know what I mean?
0:11:17 > 0:11:20We played and we fought and I shared a room with my older sister,
0:11:20 > 0:11:23which was horrible because I wasn't allowed to touch any of her stuff,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26so I'd try and sneak and play all of her Rick James records,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29and then she'd come back and it was like a scene out of Misery.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33She'd know that I'd moved something a millimetre and then beat the hell
0:11:33 > 0:11:35out of me, so it was not fun sharing with my older sister.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37It was always about food.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39"What are you eating? How much you ate?"
0:11:39 > 0:11:40We were a very popular family.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44People were always in our house, in the West Indian front room,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47playing music and having fun.
0:11:47 > 0:11:48You'd come home from school
0:11:48 > 0:11:50and there'd be no furniture in your living room
0:11:50 > 0:11:55or in your front room, and suddenly a man with two massive speakers,
0:11:55 > 0:11:57two turntables and a microphone would show up,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00put it in the corner, and there'd be a dance in your house.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04Really loud music that would go on till six o'clock in the morning.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06Your mum would cook curried goat and rice,
0:12:06 > 0:12:10and there'd be a bar that people would have to pay money to...
0:12:10 > 0:12:12And there'd be like a club in your house.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14And they were chatting over a mic.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16"Go on, sister, move your backside."
0:12:23 > 0:12:27I was always the joker, always the clown.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29Always playing sport.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31What did stand out for me, I remember, back in the day,
0:12:31 > 0:12:34was the West Indian cricket team.
0:12:34 > 0:12:35Me and my dad, we'd sit there for hours
0:12:35 > 0:12:39and I'd come home from school and Greenwich would still be batting
0:12:39 > 0:12:42and you'd watch Viv Richards just clart people round the pitch,
0:12:42 > 0:12:48and that was the first real image of successful, dominating, black...
0:12:48 > 0:12:50This was the West Indies.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54Cricket was the only other time I saw black people just enjoying
0:12:54 > 0:12:57themselves, being them, outwardly.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00You know, the drums were playing and people were blowing whistles and
0:13:00 > 0:13:03people were dancing. It was really joyous.
0:13:03 > 0:13:04It was the first time I ever saw my
0:13:04 > 0:13:07dad screaming and shouting and acting like a kid.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09I'm looking at this man screaming at Geoffrey Boycott...
0:13:11 > 0:13:14I'm like, "That's not my dad."
0:13:14 > 0:13:16Just dancing and being so happy.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19I would always like to see the West Indies win.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23It was kind of a celebration of who we were.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27It sort of felt great to be getting one over and winning.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29Cos you never really saw that.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31I never really saw success.
0:13:32 > 0:13:33And I'll tell you...
0:13:35 > 0:13:37..I used to support Leeds United.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42Cos they were brilliant. I was about eight, nine,
0:13:42 > 0:13:45and Leeds were playing Birmingham,
0:13:45 > 0:13:49and I thought, "I'm going to go and support Leeds United."
0:13:51 > 0:13:55I remember I walked into St Andrew's...
0:13:57 > 0:14:00..and I walked into the Leeds end, through the gate...
0:14:02 > 0:14:05and I heard the first... "Oo-oo-oo, nigger, nigger..."
0:14:05 > 0:14:09And I kind of stopped and I thought, "Did I just hear that?"
0:14:09 > 0:14:10And I thought, "I'll carry on."
0:14:10 > 0:14:13- INTERVIEWER: Who were you with? - I was on my own.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17And then I heard another one.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20And I remember my mum saying...
0:14:21 > 0:14:23.."Stand up to bullies and racists," and...
0:14:25 > 0:14:27..I said to myself, "Go and take your seat.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29"Go and take your seat."
0:14:29 > 0:14:33So I remember walking towards an empty seat that I saw,
0:14:33 > 0:14:36and it got louder and louder,
0:14:36 > 0:14:41and the monkey noises and the monkey chants and the "nigger, go home"
0:14:41 > 0:14:43and the "coon", "wog",
0:14:43 > 0:14:46"black...cunt".
0:14:46 > 0:14:48It was...
0:14:48 > 0:14:49There must have been about...
0:14:49 > 0:14:53It sounded like 10,000 people calling me a nigger.
0:14:56 > 0:14:57I was eight.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02And it shocked me to my core.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05And I stopped...
0:15:08 > 0:15:09..turned around...
0:15:10 > 0:15:12..and left.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15And I have never been to a football match on my own since.
0:15:15 > 0:15:16Never.
0:15:17 > 0:15:18Never.
0:15:32 > 0:15:33Thank you.
0:15:44 > 0:15:48For me, this picture is what my footballing career was all about.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53To go home on a weekend, having scored the winning goal,
0:15:53 > 0:15:55and seeing all these people here,
0:15:55 > 0:15:59cos every man is standing up and cheering cos I scored a goal.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08For me, there was no better feeling than that.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12I had to prove a point to these people.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14Forget my colour - I'm able to do a job.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19And so this picture here just symbolises, for me,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21being the best I could be.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28- Take a seat and we shall begin. - Cool.
0:16:33 > 0:16:34Yes, man!
0:16:34 > 0:16:36LAUGHTER
0:16:36 > 0:16:38This is sick. This is wicked.
0:16:42 > 0:16:47So this is my brother and I, first day of term, uniform pressed.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51I'm just looking at this picture, thinking, "Mum, what a star."
0:16:56 > 0:16:59Whenever I look at this picture, I smile because, you know,
0:16:59 > 0:17:01it is just everything.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03My big sister was, like, my best mate,
0:17:03 > 0:17:05and my mum was the evil overlord,
0:17:05 > 0:17:07the best friend,
0:17:07 > 0:17:08the cook, the...
0:17:08 > 0:17:10She was everything to us.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19My dad died when I was a baby, so I was raised by my mum.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23I felt like I was poorer than a lot of people.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27As I've grown up, I've realised that people that I was around
0:17:27 > 0:17:30might have really got into the drugs game.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33What made me different is that I never saw none of that at home.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36My mum made so many sacrifices. My mum wouldn't claim benefit,
0:17:36 > 0:17:38my mum did three or four cleaning jobs
0:17:38 > 0:17:42as well as... Sold clothes, was the Avon lady.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45But then my mum bought me my first set of turntables. Like,
0:17:45 > 0:17:49I know we didn't have a lot of money but she made sure it happened.
0:17:49 > 0:17:50So...big up, Mum, innit?
0:17:54 > 0:17:57My mother was an African woman.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00She came from a well-connected family in Nigeria
0:18:00 > 0:18:04and at home, my mother was a super-strict disciplinarian and
0:18:04 > 0:18:06super into education, so I wasn't...
0:18:06 > 0:18:07I had no freedoms.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09I wasn't allowed to go to parties,
0:18:09 > 0:18:11I wasn't even allowed to go on school trips.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13My mum was over the top. Like,
0:18:13 > 0:18:14my mum used to actually keep a scrapbook
0:18:14 > 0:18:16of bus and train crashes and say,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19"Look, these are children who died because they went on school trips."
0:18:19 > 0:18:21I'm not even making this up.
0:18:21 > 0:18:22It's 100% true.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24She'd keep newspaper clippings and go,
0:18:24 > 0:18:29"Look, these people are dead because they got on a coach." You know?
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Some of my friends who were able to do what they wanted to do -
0:18:35 > 0:18:37that's cos their dad was down the bookie's.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39But the other extreme is...
0:18:39 > 0:18:41"What kind of grade is that?"
0:18:42 > 0:18:44The stereotypes of Jamaicans being
0:18:44 > 0:18:49laid-back and rum-drinking and, you know... No.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52My dad bought his own house when he was a bus conductor.
0:18:52 > 0:18:53My dad knew exactly how much money
0:18:53 > 0:18:56he had in his pocket whenever you asked.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59"Dad, how much money you got in your pocket?" "£2.32."
0:18:59 > 0:19:00He'd be able to tell you.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03I was more scared of my dad than anybody in the world.
0:19:03 > 0:19:05Scared of disappointing him,
0:19:05 > 0:19:07scared of him ever raising his hand on...
0:19:07 > 0:19:10You know. In those days, that's what happened.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12My mum was my mum and my dad.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14She had to discipline me, so it weren't a talking-to -
0:19:14 > 0:19:17she'd beat me, innit? So I had to hold licks.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23My white friends had different relationships with their parents.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25My friend Greg would say something cheeky to his dad, like,
0:19:25 > 0:19:27"Leave me alone," or something, and they'd...
0:19:27 > 0:19:29"Ha-ha-ha!" His parents would laugh
0:19:29 > 0:19:33and I'd go, "Oh, great, I'm going to go home and try that."
0:19:33 > 0:19:35HE LAUGHS
0:19:36 > 0:19:37"What did you say to me?"
0:19:37 > 0:19:40Running round the house...
0:19:40 > 0:19:43TEARFULLY: "I...wish...you...were... dead."
0:19:43 > 0:19:44Nah, man, licks is love, man.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47Don't get me wrong, there's abuse.
0:19:47 > 0:19:48But when you're acting up in school
0:19:48 > 0:19:50because you're just being a little shit,
0:19:50 > 0:19:52because you need some attention or whatever it is,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55and now your mum's had to take the rest of the day off work
0:19:55 > 0:19:58for the 50th time to hear that you're acting up...
0:19:58 > 0:20:00she's going to have to work even harder to make it up,
0:20:00 > 0:20:03then you're going to get some licks when you get home, innit?
0:20:03 > 0:20:06But I think white people beat their kids too, man.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09I think pretty much everyone has a go.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14I'm glad my dad could've given me licks if I was out of order.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16And they wouldn't throw him in prison.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18Cos I know I needed that barrier.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20My dad never had to hit me.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23Only once when I nearly set the house on fire, and I understood that.
0:20:25 > 0:20:30I was being beat and it went on for quite a long time.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33I just thought, "I wonder if she's angry at me or at something else."
0:20:33 > 0:20:35Cos I think that
0:20:35 > 0:20:37a lot of it wasn't about you.
0:20:38 > 0:20:43You know, every day, going to work. Every day, being disrespected.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45Every day, the burden of...
0:20:46 > 0:20:47..being a visible "other".
0:20:49 > 0:20:51I wonder if it wasn't some of that.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12My dad is Nigerian, came over to England when he was young,
0:21:12 > 0:21:15went to boarding school in Scotland, moved to London,
0:21:15 > 0:21:18and my mum is English.
0:21:18 > 0:21:20My dad's always been there,
0:21:20 > 0:21:22and I suppose that that is a stereotype, isn't it?
0:21:22 > 0:21:27That black men are not always there to provide for their children,
0:21:27 > 0:21:31which is just not the case with my dad at all.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35It's the polar opposite, you know, like, he would give everything,
0:21:35 > 0:21:37do anything for us.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40What was interesting is that I went to a small private school in Essex,
0:21:40 > 0:21:47because I was born in east London and my dad sent me to a school that,
0:21:47 > 0:21:49after day two of me being there,
0:21:49 > 0:21:53one of my teachers being beaten up, took me out and said,
0:21:53 > 0:21:54"I'm not doing this."
0:21:54 > 0:21:58Moved out to Essex and they basically spent all of
0:21:58 > 0:22:01their money, every single penny they had,
0:22:01 > 0:22:06sending me to a school that I couldn't afford to go to
0:22:06 > 0:22:09because he was determined that I got a good education.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11So, yeah,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14we used to pull up round the corner in a car with the door falling off,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17and I used to go to this school, and that was my life by day,
0:22:17 > 0:22:21and then my life by night was back in east London, at the dance studio,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24working, teaching, learning, just trying to make ends meet.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34My name is Maggie Aderin-Pocock
0:22:34 > 0:22:36and I'm a space scientist and a science communicator.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40So this is a picture,
0:22:40 > 0:22:41and I'm looking incredibly happy
0:22:41 > 0:22:45because I am actually at Nasa Headquarters.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47Firstly, it's the International Space Station,
0:22:47 > 0:22:50and, of course, one of my dreams is, still, I want to get into space,
0:22:50 > 0:22:52even at my age. It's more of a retirement plan now,
0:22:52 > 0:22:54but I still want to get into the real thing one day.
0:22:56 > 0:23:00My fascination with space... It happened at a very early age.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02I used to watch a cartoon called the Clangers,
0:23:02 > 0:23:04and so when I was a three-year-old,
0:23:04 > 0:23:05I believed the Clangers were out there
0:23:05 > 0:23:07and I wanted to go and visit them.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09But also I think my dad...
0:23:09 > 0:23:11I don't know, he was just so...
0:23:11 > 0:23:14To me, growing up, he was just wonderful.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17He just taught us things, and he was always interested in science.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22He had a dream of studying medicine,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24but I think having four kids and sort of
0:23:24 > 0:23:26being in a different country,
0:23:26 > 0:23:30that dream went by the by, and I think he did regret that.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33But he didn't just teach us things - he got us to think.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36I think that is the best gift you can give anyone,
0:23:36 > 0:23:37the ability to think.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40Just watching a television programme and he'd say, "OK,
0:23:40 > 0:23:42"so why is that guy doing that?
0:23:42 > 0:23:43"Do you think it's right or wrong?"
0:23:43 > 0:23:48So he sort of set my moral compass and made me think about things,
0:23:48 > 0:23:51and I think that makes me, probably, a better human being,
0:23:51 > 0:23:53so I always thank him for that.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03Listen, mate, there was...
0:24:03 > 0:24:07There are a few things I grew up hearing over and over again.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10A lot about education, but the one about
0:24:10 > 0:24:15"you have to try twice as hard to achieve" was in stone.
0:24:15 > 0:24:16It might as well have been on the wall.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20It's like, "Well, why do I have to try twice as hard?"
0:24:20 > 0:24:21"You just do."
0:24:25 > 0:24:29"If you want to succeed in this country, you have to be twice as good as anybody else
0:24:29 > 0:24:31"to be accepted as an equal."
0:24:31 > 0:24:33Well, that's... How are you going to win that?
0:24:37 > 0:24:39I could get eight out of ten
0:24:39 > 0:24:41in an exam and my dad would go,
0:24:41 > 0:24:42you know,
0:24:42 > 0:24:45"That's OK, but why did you not get ten?"
0:24:45 > 0:24:50And that was a constant in my life, my brother's life, my sister's life.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53You know, perfection is what you're aspiring to
0:24:53 > 0:24:56and anything less than that was you slacking, basically.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01I wasn't raised to do something 50-50.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04I worked in Topshop, I was the best sales assistant there was.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08Whatever I commit myself to doing, I'm going to do it with 110%.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11Poor Steve McQueen.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13He makes Shame and his mum's there, going,
0:25:13 > 0:25:15"You have to do better than that, you know.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17"Where that book about the slave? "Make that one."
0:25:18 > 0:25:20That's good.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25You know, I was brought up by Ghanaian parents
0:25:25 > 0:25:26and everyone who's brought up by
0:25:26 > 0:25:30African parents pretty much lives through the same thing,
0:25:30 > 0:25:31which is that you're told very early on
0:25:31 > 0:25:34that it's important that you get a good career,
0:25:34 > 0:25:37it's important that you become a professional.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40She'd already picked out our jobs when we were kids -
0:25:40 > 0:25:42like, I was meant to be the doctor of the family.
0:25:42 > 0:25:44One of my brothers was meant to be a lawyer,
0:25:44 > 0:25:45one was meant to be the engineer.
0:25:45 > 0:25:46"A stockbroker."
0:25:46 > 0:25:48"You have to be a solicitor."
0:25:48 > 0:25:49"Be a doctor..."
0:25:49 > 0:25:51"Think about becoming an accountant..."
0:25:51 > 0:25:54If you couldn't be Garfield Sobers or Frank Worrell or somebody.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00All of these things weigh slightly heavily on you as a child
0:26:00 > 0:26:03but, actually, the whole dialogue around "you need a profession"
0:26:03 > 0:26:06and so on is really another way of saying,
0:26:06 > 0:26:11"How can you live in a country where black people are routinely
0:26:11 > 0:26:14"stereotyped as 'other' and different
0:26:14 > 0:26:17"and physically threatening and..."
0:26:17 > 0:26:20So their answer to that, at that time, was to say, "OK, look,
0:26:20 > 0:26:22"you need a proper job, you need a proper profession,
0:26:22 > 0:26:24"and that way you'll be safe."
0:26:27 > 0:26:29My dad feared for us.
0:26:29 > 0:26:30I-I knew it.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33He was always telling us, because he was saying that, you know,
0:26:33 > 0:26:39he has four daughters, and he wanted us to be independent and educated
0:26:39 > 0:26:41so we could look after ourselves.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44I don't think any of us understand the importance
0:26:44 > 0:26:47of why our parents were so strict with us
0:26:47 > 0:26:50until we're almost parents ourselves.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55Because everything was a need to get to a point of paying the bill.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57"Make sure you turn the lights off, make sure you..."
0:26:57 > 0:26:58There was constant struggle.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02In fact, as a tribute to my dad, the first time I got a job,
0:27:02 > 0:27:04he made me put £10 away in an account.
0:27:04 > 0:27:09I still do that, that same account, out of respect for him.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13All of my sisters went through the university system
0:27:13 > 0:27:16and have been totally self-sufficient.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18And I think that was his dream -
0:27:18 > 0:27:21that we would have better opportunities than he did -
0:27:21 > 0:27:23and I think he succeeded in that dream,
0:27:23 > 0:27:25so he didn't fulfil all his own dreams,
0:27:25 > 0:27:27but I think he succeeded in his dreams for us.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36That's my icons, man.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39These great British people came here and really...
0:27:39 > 0:27:41They fought for us, man.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49Close your laptop for a second, have a moment with your family,
0:27:49 > 0:27:51cos everything else is exterior.
0:27:54 > 0:27:55It's a rather nice picture.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03That's my grandmother.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05And my dad and my mum.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09My family are my heroes, I guess.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13Cos they transcended whatever it was that afflicted them...
0:28:14 > 0:28:18..that stood in their way when they came here, and they raised a family.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22Anybody who's gone through that and
0:28:22 > 0:28:24put food on the table
0:28:24 > 0:28:28and looked after their family, those are the real heroes, really.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31There's nothing stronger than that, nothing more powerful.