Today, we’re hearing how childhood betrayal can shape the way you see the world. And how it can motivate you to rewrite the story for your own kids.

I don't want the next generation to have to go through that. Because I know what will happen to them.

Meet Stewart Kyasimire. He’s a designer, film-maker, and dad of four.

I am 41 years old, and I live in Glasgow, Scotland. I am a BAFTA-nominated director, I recently directed Black and Scottish.

As a black director, I like to tell diverse stories, so for many years listening to black people speaking, you know, telling me their tales…You go through life and you experience certain things, and having that camera, you realise that you’ve got the opportunity to tell stories and you know, hopefully make a difference.

Stewart was born in Kenya and moved to the UK when he was two. The family lived on a quiet street in a suburb of Glasgow.

Always reminded me of Brookside, do you remember Brookside?

Brookside: that old Scouse soap from the 80s. Picture neat circles of boxy, new-build houses.

Stewart’s mum worked as a computer programmer. There were hardly any Black kids at Stewart’s school – and for a while that wasn’t an issue.

My life was a typical young kid, not young black kid, you know, typical young child: young child who… innocent, loved sports, absolutely loved sports, played basketball for many years and played football.

I was just a young happy kid loving, loving Michael Jackson, loving Michael Jordan and Tupac. But it was nice … it wasn't that it wasn't that bad. It wasn't until certain things happened that you snap out of it and you go oh, hold on a minute. Okay, I'm black then, right, that comment there: I'm black.

In the school holidays, when Stewart was about eight years old, he would go and stay with his cousins. They lived in Port Glasgow, a small industrial town about 20 miles outside of Glasgow.

It’s nowhere near the city, it’s somewhere where a young black person doesn't want to be. And I hated going over to stay there. I didn't like it. Because that was a time when I felt different. You know, I knew I was black a lot more in Port Glasgow.

But he made the best of it, and started to hang out with the other kids in the area.

So you start playing sports, and you meet, you meet some other kids from Port Glasgow, white, white kids, and you become friends through the love of sport.

From time to time, there would be racial comments – kids asking if they could touch Stewart’s hair. He pretended it didn’t bother him.

I would just laugh with them, you know, to join in. A lot of things that I did as a young young kid was to try and fit in.

One afternoon Stewart was playing football in a small park with his new friends.

And then these group of kids start coming over, roughly the same age. And instantly I knew that this isn't going to go well. I just knew by, you know, the mannerisms.

The boys asked if they could join the game…. and then almost immediately, they singled Stewart out, and started being abusive -- -- making ignorant, racist jokes and slurs.

The group of kids started laughing. And I was in a spot where I'm just sitting there looking like, what can I do, you know, you're with your group of friends. So you're hoping that your support, you're praying for it? You know, and isn't what I didn't want to do. And … I didn't have any support. And my friends are behind me. And I look around. And whilst those group of kids are laughing, I look around, and my so-called friends are laughing along with them. So the whole group of boys, let's say 10, kids are all laughing at me.

Maybe his so-called friends were racist themselves, or maybe they were just trying to fit in with the other boys … Stewart didn’t know, but he was sure of one thing.

I was really angry at the time, really angry. Not even at the kids that said it, more so at the friends that I thought I had, because they betrayed me, you know, so I was ridiculously angry. And then I started to feel really upset, really betrayed really… I just didn't know, I didn't know what was going on. Because at that age, you think, well, I thought they were my I thought that my friends, I don't understand is that is, that how I'm going to be treated because I'm black.

This time, he didn’t join in the laughter or shrug it off. Stewart turned away from the boys – and walked back up the hill to his cousin’s house.

I remember feeling, on the way up thinking, you know, I, I can’t trust those kids, but more so I can't trust white people. Because I thought these kids were my friends. And this is how I'm treated.

At that time, I would say that changed my perception on white people.

Primary school was tough for Stewart. He was subjected to more racial comments and ignorance.

You’re 11 years old, you have this accent, but as soon as you leave the house, you're in Scotland, since you enter the house, you know, it’s African culture that we eat, the food we eat, etc, everything the music we're listening to. I had the African upbringing in the UK. And I always felt that – I always felt that way. That was two different two different worlds.

Things took a turn for the better when Stewart moved to Kenya for high school. It was a fancy boarding school miles from everywhere. At first though – Stewart was petrified to leave everything and everyone he knew in Glasgow.

I was crying my heart out. I did not want to leave. Remember, at that time, you couldn't go on YouTube and see what Africa was like. And I remember the first time we went and landing in Africa, just everything was just a totally different experience. And you know, living in Nairobi, and then going to high school on this bus, for miles upon miles.

I remember when my mom left and we went to my dormitory, I remember just laying on the bed just crying my heart out. And just oh my god, where the hell am I? Where the hell am I? And then one kid came, who is now a very good friend of mine, just peeked his head and ‘oh one of the new boys is crying’. He ended up being my roommate for three years.

Stewart quickly fell in love with the school. All the teachers were white but the kids came from all over – Asia, America.

I felt like I could just breathe and go oh this is amazing. Like, I don't need to worry about anyone being racist to me. That’s the thing about boarding school is we were a family and not one bit of racism from any white person.

Sadly, that wasn’t the case when Stewart, as a young adult, returned to the UK. And again it happened in the places you wouldn’t expect – from people who were supposed to care about him.

Stewart started out his career as an artist.

Working my way up, you know, photography, graphic design, music, creating CDs and album covers for people.

He loved design, and became a digital designer – working for agencies in both Belfast and Glasgow. Then – he bagged a big opportunity, heading up a team of designers.

Day one, I start as a lead designer, and I walk into my team and introduce myself.

Most people smiled, they were welcoming. But not everyone. A few of the designers – these were big, burly guys – had a different expression on their faces.

Those faces were like, smiling so that everyone around them could see that yep they're happy to see the designer Stewart Kyasimire. Smiling but at the same time looking at you as if.. who you are and we don't know who you are and what are you doing here? Judging me. And it's the little look-backs, you know, it's the nonverbal communication that's really important to look out for. You start to understand these, their mannerisms.

Stewart asked everyone about their jobs -- to understand their roles.

And then you get to these guys, and they're like, yep, no, yes, no answers. Short, sharp answers.

Just enough to appear civil in front of the whole team, but not friendly.

As time went on, the relationship between these men and Stewart, their new boss, deteriorated. They undermined Stewart….. dismissed him……deliberately went against his instructions.

There was even one time where Stewart was putting together an important presentation for a client. Everything was running smoothly………

But for some reason you can’t find your files, some reason this file’s missing, some reason something happened with the server.

Couldn't find the file, couldn't find… only part of it and I come to the presentation clearly sweating

Stewart had to admit to his boss and the client that his presentation was lost. Across the office, he could see the guys – the burly ones – grinning and flashing him looks.

And I know that it was them that got rid of the files or whatever they did. But what then happened was it made me look bad. We had to cancel the client meeting. From then on the trust wasn't there anymore. And they loved it. They absolutely loved that, ‘oh don’t trust Stewart to put together a presentation again.’

As a boss, you're just trying to deliver, you want to impress, but you can't, because some people in your team don't want to listen to you.

What was disrespectful and rude at work turned into full-on racial remarks outside the office, like work events at the pub.

For Stewart, this insidious behavior was actually worse than explicit racism.

Because outwardly racist, you can see it you know, someone beside you can see it. You know, it's the little subtle things that people say, it's the little smiles, it's the little looks. That’s not me being paranoid: when you're used to something for so many years… you get used to it.

And even though this happened in a trendy office full of designers, Stewart felt exactly the same as he did back on that football pitch as a child.

I'm seeing a pattern here. And the pattern is me sitting there amongst a group of people and feeling like the black guy, you know, feeling like the only one. I did feel like the 8 year old boy again. Because that eight year old boy is sitting there thinking, looking, smiling and acting like everything's fine. But inside you're going, racing thoughts, I wonder what they’re thinking, they're saying things about me? Do they not like me? Is it because I'm black? That's probably one of the main questions we all ask ourselves, because you just don't know. But come to find out that yes, it was. Of course it was.

These days, Stewart channels his experiences into making documentaries through his production company, Create Anything.

I've interviewed many black people over the last couple of years, and armed with this knowledge and armed with that experience. So when I’m speaking to them, it's made me feel like I don't want the next generation to have to go through that. I have four kids. And I don't want them to go through that because I know what will happen to them and what's going to happen to them. So if there's anything that I can do to make white people see us differently. If black people can portray themselves and how they want to be seen, then hopefully white people will look at it and just see them differently. And also get black people to share their stories so it can inspire others.

Stewart’s documentary Black and Scottish, which scored him a BAFTA nomination for director, was inspired by one very special member of the next generation.

Yasmin's my 11 year old. She was the main nucleus because she said that she wanted to be white, as a young kid, when she was around five or six. And that was a trigger for me to make Black and Scottish because like right, enough!

Then there’s Yasmin’s younger sister, Niamh………..

Niamh, years on, who’s now five, is the total opposite to the way Yasmin was. She's like Daddy, I just love to be black and Scottish. I love it.

So, few years later, you've got my five year old girl so proud to be black whereas the other one didn’t want to be. So it means the younger one Kaia, who's three she'll just follow suit. So I've already start– I've already done it. I've already yeah, I've already done it in a sense where, Niamh isn't going to be saying things like I wish I was white, I wish my hair was straight. She wants her hair out in an afro. She’s like: Daddy, I'm really proud to be black and Scottish.

I would love to be a role model for young people out there just to let them know that you can actually achieve your goals through hard work and just never stop, and let your experiences in life guide you.

Stewart’s contrasting experiences of being a black person growing up around white people help to establish the complex picture of racism. Racial identity isn’t something that young children are consciously aware of. This means that, as a child from a racial minority grows up, they will have to go through the challenge of coming to terms with being different. This realisation will often be imposed upon them through discrimination and abuse. Naturally, this only makes the experience harder. Stewart has gone through the challenges of trying to navigate these difficulties. He has also used his children as an inspiration to make that journey less traumatic for younger generations. His BAFTA nominated work is helping to shine a light on people of colour in order to promote acceptance and understanding. Bearing this in mind “I’m going to leave you with the trailer for Stewart's new documentary, Black and Northern Irish.”