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For much of her life O’ria Hollins would go shopping and feel something wasn’t quite right.
“I could feel someone’s concern about me being in the store rather than wanting to help me,” she says. “The higher-end the store the worse it can get.”
Louisiana-born O’ria is a proud African-American but she has always sensed racial division in her home country – sometimes explicit, sometimes more insidious. Since her recent move to Cardiff as a student, though, the 30-year-old has felt accepted in a way she is not used to.
Read next: I’m black and I’m Welsh and I don’t have to choose between them
O’ria says she was “shocked” at how welcoming people were when she arrived in the city. It must help that she smiles and strikes up conversations so readily. When I meet O’ria in the WalesOnline lobby ahead of our interview she has only been waiting a few minutes but the security guard Dean is telling her about his research into Canadian soldiers buried in Wales. It’s not a subject I’ve heard him mention before.
It seems something about O’ria makes people open up. When she stops shoppers in Cardiff to ask a question she notices an initial confusion which quickly gives way to warmth.
“People seem shocked when I have a question and I smile at them. Then they’re like: ‘Oh okay, she wants to talk.’ Their whole mood changes and they start engaging. Everyone here has been friendly. I’ve not had one negative experience.”
O’ria grew up in Baton Rouge before moving to California in her early 20s. After falling out of love with her job as an event producer in San Francisco she told her bosses she was planning to hand in her notice. Then the pandemic hit and the decision was made for her as her role disappeared.
Pondering what she wanted out of life O’ria was curious to see if she could combine her love of travelling with her resourcefulness. In the end it was as simple as googling a few search terms along those lines, which saw her stumble across the Cardiff University master’s course in international PR and global communications.
She enrolled on the course and arrived in Cardiff in September. It did not take long for the city to charm her.
“When I first got here I used to like to go to Queen Street and just people-watch,” she says. “I’ve seen the busker Delboy and thought: ‘Okay, I have to make my way to talking to him.’ There are a lot of characters out there.
“I met this young man on Queen Street yesterday who was telling me all the things he loves about Cardiff. It was raining and he said: ‘Oh I love the rain.’ I was like: ‘Okay, I should probably stop complaining about it around the locals.’
“Every store I’ve been in the first thing the staff say when I walk in is: ‘Are you all right?’ At first I was thinking: ‘Do I not look all right?’ Then I realised it’s just part of the culture. Another thing I really love is when people say ‘lovely’ after everything. They’re like: ‘Are you all right lovely?’
“It makes me feel so happy to hear that. I’m so used to the opposite back home. You just get kind of looked at when you go in the store and, depending on where you are, you might get followed around.”
O’ria believes her treatment in American stores stems from racial prejudice, particularly in pricier businesses. As an experiment she decided to test how she was treated in one of the higher-end shops in Cardiff. She picked John Lewis and found the staff just as welcoming as everywhere else in Wales’ capital.
“I am proud to say I am a Louisianan and an American,” she adds. “I love where I’m from but there is division. Where I grew up in Louisiana the segregation was known and the racial tension was there. I grew up with it – knowing where I could go and where I would not be welcome.
“When you move to California you think no-one’s going to call you certain names and you won’t have certain experiences because it’s California and it’s not like that. On the outside I would say it is a very liberal place. You can do whatever you want to do and be who you want to be. It’s true – you can walk down the street and nobody will bother you no matter what you look like.
“But the racism is there. There is a lot but it’s done in a different way. In Louisiana it’s in your face and in California it’s like there’s a veil over it.”
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The suspicion O’ria faced while shopping was the kind of experience which led to her developing what she calls “an unfortunate back and forth in my head”.
“I feel like I have to dig a little deeper to understand what people’s motives are and their intentions in talking to me,” she explains. “Unfortunately in this lifetime I’m not going to be able to escape racism but how I respond is more important. I can’t change someone’s mind. I can just be the best I can be – not as a black person but as a whole person.”
O’ria’s course has 150 students from backgrounds as wide-ranging as India, China, Nigeria, and Wales. The diversity she has experienced in Cardiff feels new to her.
“In California there is a lot of diversity and people go there from all parts of the world but it’s segregated,” she says. “In certain areas, like Oakland, there is a lot of mingling of different cultures and interracial relationships but for the most part the other cities are kind of segregated. You know where certain people will live.
“I have not seen all of Cardiff but it does not seem segregated at all. I walk outside my flat in Talybont Court and see multiple races everywhere.”
O’ria’s dreadlocks have drawn some people’s interest in Cardiff but always in a complimentary way. “I had an elderly woman tell me my hair was nice. One guy was in his car driving and he rolled down the window to shout: ‘I really like your hair.'”
O’ria adds: “For the most part people in California have a very individualistic mindset. Even if they come from different parts of the world they take on this energy of: ‘I have my plan’.
“But there is so much collective energy in Cardiff. When students go out they’re always in pairs. You hardly ever see people walking the street alone. I was like: ‘Wow, this is different.'”
O’ria is still “in awe” at the beauty of Cardiff’s green spaces and particularly Bute Park, which she calls “a mini-forest”. She finds sitting at Blackweir Bridge “the most calming thing ever”.
Mostly vegan, O’ria does not quite have the food options she did in California but has enjoyed the “amazing” burgers at Anna Loka in Albany Road as well as the pastries at the Naked Vegan in Cardiff Market.
Is she considering a permanent move to Cardiff? O’ria says she plans to stay as long as she is welcome and can sustain herself. She tells me: “It feels like home.”
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