Anthony Ekundayo Lennon has been at the centre of a recent controversy after it emerged that he had taken a place on a scheme for ethnic minority theatre professionals, despite having white Irish parents. Here, he argues that his situation is more complex than has been reported, and part of an evolving conversation about identity.
Last week I found myself at the centre of a storm, accused of appropriating my own identity. This surreal situation came about after I was awarded a traineeship on an Arts Council England-backed scheme to develop black and minority-ethnic leaders in the British theatre. I have never made any secret of the fact that I was born to Irish parents, and that my parents and grandparents are white. But my identity is different. It’s there for all to see in Chilling Out, a documentary I took part in back in 1990. As I said then: “When I’m alone in my bedroom looking in the mirror, thinking about stuff I’ve written down, thinking about my past … I think I’m a black man.”
I am the eldest of three brothers, but during early childhood, when there were only two of us, to neighbours on our west London estate, we looked as if we weren’t our parents’ children. There was an old saying: “Mother’s baby, father’s maybe” – only the mother knows. When I was born, my dad wasn’t sure if I was his son, and this was heartbreaking for my mum, to say the least. Two years later another little boy came along with the same physical characteristics, which must have been another bombshell... Keep reading on The Guardian