'Men tell me they don't want to date me just because I'm black... it's embarrassing'

Sitting across from a man at a singles event, Sienna Reid was mortified. As he sat down, the first words that came out of his mouth were 'I don't date black women.'

Dating as a black, Muslim woman has always been hard for Sienna, but this latest setback made her feel particularly unwanted.

The 33-year-old has been looking to find a partner to marry for seven years. After reverting back to Islam, Sienna has had to contend with a lack of representation and ignorance to her Caribbean roots.

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"As a Jamaican person the question I would get is ‘how are you Muslim?' Sienna said. "I was met with a lot of misunderstanding and stereotypes in the community."

From Jamaica, Sienna became a Muslim at the age of eight-years-old when her mother reverted to the religion. But her mother soon left the religion after finding 'a lack of diversity' in the community.

Growing up and living in Leeds, she found it hard to find representation within the community - with very few black Muslims around her.

Sienna finds herself in a unique position being black, Muslim and Caribbean. Back in 2018, a study by sociologist Val Bernard showed that 65% of black Caribbean women were single, 59% had never married and 59% of black Caribbean British families were headed by a single parent, often female.

In 2021, Muslim dating app, Muzmatch, surveyed over 400 of its users users and found that 74% of its black members felt that race affected the matches they got.

Fetishization, discrimination and colourism were the issues outlined, and some black users