Britain S Brown Babies

This book recounts a little-known history of an estimated 2,000 children born to black GIs and white British women in World War II. Stories from over 50 of these children, alongside many photographs, reveal the racism and stigma of growing up in what was then a very white country.

This book recounts a little-known history of an estimated 2,000 children born to black GIs and white British women in World War II. Stories from over 50 of these children, alongside many photographs, reveal the racism and stigma of growing up in what was then a very white country.

This book explores the overlooked history of racial mixing in Britain during the course of the twentieth century, a period in which there was considerable and influential public debate on the meanings and implications of intimately crossing racial boundaries. Based on research that formed the foundations of the British television series Mixed Britannia, the authors draw on a range of firsthand accounts and archival material to compare ‘official’ accounts of racial mixing and mixedness with those told by mixed race people, couples and families themselves. Mixed Race Britain in The Twentieth Century shows that alongside the more familiarly recognised experiences of social bigotry and racial prejudice there can also be glimpsed constant threads of tolerance, acceptance, inclusion and ‘ordinariness’. It presents a more complex and multifaceted history of mixed race Britain than is typically assumed, one that adds to the growing picture of the longstanding diversity and difference that is, and always has been, an ordinary and everyday feature of British life.

'Brown Baby is a beautifully intimate and soul-searching memoir. It speaks to the heart and the mind and bears witness to our turbulent times.' - Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other How do you find hope and even joy in a world that is prejudiced, sexist and facing climate crisis? How do you prepare your children for it, but also fill them with all the boundlessness and eccentricity that they deserve and that life has to offer? In Brown Baby, Nikesh Shukla, author of the bestselling The Good Immigrant, explores themes of sexism, feminism, parenting and our shifting ideas of home. This memoir, by turns heartwrenching, hilariously funny and intensely relatable, is dedicated to the author’s two young daughters, and serves as an act of remembrance to the grandmother they never had a chance to meet. Through love, grief, food and fatherhood, Shukla shows how it’s possible to believe in hope.

A Bustle Most Anticipated Debut of the Year From The Guardian’s Georgina Lawton, a moving examination of how racial identity is constructed—through the author’s own journey grappling with secrets and stereotypes, having been raised by white parents with no explanation as to why she looked black. Raised in sleepy English suburbia, Georgina Lawton was no stranger to homogeneity. Her parents were white; her friends were white; there was no reason for her to think she was any different. But over time her brown skin and dark, kinky hair frequently made her a target of prejudice. In Georgina’s insistently color-blind household, with no acknowledgement of her difference or access to black culture, she lacked the coordinates to make sense of who she was. It was only after her father’s death that Georgina began to unravel the truth about her parentage—and the racial identity that she had been denied. She fled from England and the turmoil of her home-life to live in black communities around the globe—the US, the UK, Nicaragua, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, and Morocco—and to explore her identity and what it meant to live in and navigate the world as a black woman. She spoke with psychologists, sociologists, experts in genetic testing, and other individuals whose experiences of racial identity have been fraught or questioned in the hopes of understanding how, exactly, we identify ourselves. Raceless is an exploration of a fundamental question: what constitutes our sense of self? Drawing on her personal experiences and the stories of others, Lawton grapples with difficult questions about love, shame, grief, and prejudice, and reveals the nuanced and emotional journey of forming one’s identity.

"At 11.47 on July 25, 1978, Louise Brown was the first person ever to be born through science rather than as the result of two people having sex. The birth was hailed as a "miracle" by the world's media, making her instantly famous. Her birth created shockwaves for the church, politicians and the medical profession. Louise grew up at the centre of the debate about the morality of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) while also being a beacon of hope to millions of childless couples throughout the world. For the first time Louise tells the story of her world changing birth and its impact on her life"--Jacket.

This book is the essential guide to understanding the historical influences that have shaped our ideas about infancy and infant care today. It introduces the key theories, themes, and concepts that have shaped the history of infant care and invites readers to explore how events, approaches, traditions, studies and stories have shaped modern day practice. From foundlings to wetnurses, community care and edu-carers, it introduces topics about family life, professional roles, and educational settings. The book includes short vignettes, imagery, and case studies as well as extended reflective questions. Each chapter introduces a different topic including pregnancy, parental relationships, developmental studies, the role of the professional and community services available to infants.

In the Netherlands, a small group of biracial citizens has entered its eighth decade of lives that have been often puzzling and difficult, but which offer a unique insight into the history of race relations in America. Though their African American fathers had brought liberation from Nazi tyranny at the end of World War II, they were in a segregated American military derived from a racially divided American society. Decades later, some of their children could finally know of a father's identity and the life he had led after the war. Just one would be able to find an embrace in his arms, and just one would arrive at her father's American grave after 73 years. But they could now understand their own Dutch lives in the context of their fathers' lives in America.