Explaining to people why I choose to stay in Northern Ireland has never been easy.

This backwater that makes headlines for all the wrong reasons is my home. I’m more Ards than I am African and proudly so.

Well, I was, until recently.

You get used to standing out in Northern Ireland and while at times you come up against ignorant comments and racist slurs – the good usually outweighs the bad.

But now rather than trying to explain to the uninitiated the ongoing sectarianism and why things are still the way they are despite the ‘peace process’, I’m now actually nervous.

Nervous and maybe even a little bit fearful that being mixed race is reason enough for violence.

Anna Lo’s heartbreaking interview on the BBC today resonated with many and highlighted the fear that some of us feel today because of the increasing rise in racist attacks.

Someone suggested to me that it isn’t racist in most cases – it’s xenophobic…forgive me for getting the nuance wrong – but whatever the technical term for it, I know one thing – it is frightening.

Standing out from the crowd now doesn’t seem such a good idea.

And while I know, or at least hope, that the majority of people in Northern Ireland don’t judge me because of the colour of my skin, I really don’t know whether to laugh, cry or pack up and leave a place that seems to be regressing further into the dark ages every day.