"THESE experiences may seem to some people fairly minor, and when we hear stories of what's happening in American and how violent it is, how systemic it is, we forget there are also experiences in the UK."

These are the words of Furaha Mussanzi, the second generation of a family who fled the Democratic Rebublic of Congo's warzone, which claimed the lives of six million people, for Bradford in 2002.

Now a manager at the Millside Centre and helping other refugees, she sat down with her parents to talk about their experiences of racism in Bradford and what we can all do to fight discrimination, no matter how big or small.

Furaha's father, Ben, moved to the city first and was joined a year later by his wife, Kongosi, and their children.

Meanwhile her mother enrolled in English lessons and took on a masters degree in Peace Studies to feel like she could integrate.

Furaha recalls how she could not bring herself to speak at school for a number of years as she feared being judged on discriminatory stereotypes in mainstream media, where refugees were portrayed as people who wanted to 'steal' jobs and had 'no skills' of their own.

Furaha's earliest memory of being discriminated against took place walking home from school with a friend, who had moved from Iraq.

Two boys followed them home calling them names and commenting on the colour of her skin.

Furaha said: "I remember running home and telling my Dad about this and my Dad told me 'This isn't the first time you have been discriminated against but he also called it out and said it was wrong. I remember going to school and actually challenging that and speaking to my teachers.

"I remember feeling 'This is how I'm going to be perceived'. I didn't want people to laugh at my accent.

"I wanted to hide. I wanted to be invisible. I didn't want to tick any boxes of whatever stereotype people already had in the community or in society."

Her parents also shared their own experiences - one taking place just before lockdown was introduced.

Ben was walking down the street when he heard a group of teenage boys shouting the word 'Midnight' at him.

One time Kongosi recalls waiting in a queue for the bus home when a woman screamed 'N*gger' at her - except no one in the queue said a word.

Furaha hopes that by sharing their experiences of racism in daily life will inspire people of all backgrounds to call it out the moment they witness it.

She said: "In many cases where racist behaviour's happen, most of the times the victims don't have the opportunity to challenge those who have spoken against them.

"A lot of people have reached out to me, especially my white friends, and say 'How can we start to address this thing? We're seeing a lot of protests happening, we're seeing people raising their voices on social media, but what can we practically do to address racism in our society?'."

Furaha says the best thing is education - striving for a balance in how history is taught in schools as well as reading books and watching documentaries. She also wants institutions like churches to use their platform. If you see it happening, she says: "Film it - report it and help the victim who may be traumatised from the incident."