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Amazon.co.uk Review
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown's previous book to Mixed Feelings, Who Do We Think We Are dealt with the history of race-relations, immigration policy, education, liberal politics and feminism. The guiding focus was upon the creation of a historically aware sense of citizenship. In After Multiculturalism Brown exposed the worn-out rhetoric of multiculturalism and argued that we need new ways of thinking and talking in order to capture the political, economic and social realities of the 21st century. Brown's latest book, Mixed Feelings: The Complex Lives of Mixed-Race Britons is, as its title suggests, about mixed-race Britons and interracial relationships and, like After Multiculturalism, it questions the ways in which these topics and issues have been discussed and framed in this country. It is effective in this because the breadth of experience revealed in her interviews across a wide spectrum of class, gender, age and history shows up the absurdity of any generalisation in the field of human relationships.
The book divides into six chapters--History up to 1900, History after 1900, The Current Landscape, Identity, Family and Relationships and Social Policy--and, apart from the rather hurried first chapter it makes for a fascinating and highly informative read. Among the more interesting assumptions and questions the book sets out to test through the innumerable interviews are: Is it really possible to overcome indefatigable historical prejudices through a defiant/romantic act? Or is this simply dismissed as an "exception" by those bonded to their ideas of racial separation? Is the increase in mixed relationships in fact deepening prejudice as people see their imagined "pollution" of the pure races becoming a reality? Do age-old fears, taboos and fantasies still weave themselves around the private lives of those interracial relationships? And how through this forest of experiences can better social policies be devised which can take account of difference as well as commonality? What makes Brown important is an across-the-board expertise, a knack for sweeping away old theoretical rubbish and, most importantly, the fact that she is a cosmopolitan, pragmatic and humanistic thinker with a sense of vision and a overarching regard for workable social policies. --Larry Brown
Product Description
Britain has the highest levels of mixed race relationships in the developed world. Nearly half of all Carribean children in this country have one white parent. In many areas there are more mixed race children in care than any other group. Issues of race lie at the heart of "New Britain" and in this title the author gives an analysis of mixed race issues, supplying a history before going on to analyze dilemmas such as guilt, and the absence of social policy. Her book aims to reflect the complex lives of this growing and increasingly visable population.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book took some time to become available in the United States. It covers the subject matter more profoundly and gracefully than most American works on the subject.
The author is interracially married with a mixed race child, and deals with the issues discussed in an easy, personal manner avoiding maudlin or patronizing characterizations that are all too common in books of this type.
We learn that Britain's mixed race community is really not a community at all. It is just as dichotomous and contrary as mixed race people in America. These individuals are often pressured to become overtly political and "claimed" by various groups and government entities.
Britain finds itself in an incongruous and somewhat awkward position. Leading the western world in interracial marriages and resultant children, it is being forced to recognize the increasing visibility of this group of people and to admit that they have needs and issues unique to their position.
I must however take issue with some of Alibhai-Brown's statements and conclusions relating to racism. Her remark that there is "massive racism" in British society is pure hyperbole. I know whereof I speak; I have lived in an interracial relationship in England and in the USA.
The obviously left-leaning author takes a few pot shots at past Conservative governments too, implying a responsibility for Britain's racial problems that is exaggerated beyond what is reasonable.
On the contrary, it is apparent in her book that it is the paternalistic, Nanny State ideologies of the ultra-left leaning social services community that have held sway over the fates of mixed race children. It has been from this bloc that the One-Drop-Rule (a doctrine from America's slave-owning past that concluded that any black ancestry made one black) has been most vigorously defended.
One white social worker interviewed for the book states this position thus: "I will not have you using terms like "mixed-race" In this department, the children are black if they are not white. That is all there is to say about their identity. If a white child says he is not white, would you correct him? So if a half-African child says he is not black, I just correct him."
The effects of this upon mixed race children and young adults appear far more pernicious and debilitating than the crass xenophobia expressed by Britain's "Cricket Test" Conservative old guard.
While racism will pose a very real and challenging obstacle to mixed race people, it is their ability to resist and claw out of the racial pigeonholes foisted upon them by social workers, state policy makers and others who wish to speak on their behalf which will hopefully allow them to own their personal identities.
The author is interracially married with a mixed race child, and deals with the issues discussed in an easy, personal manner avoiding maudlin or patronizing characterizations that are all too common in books of this type.
We learn that Britain's mixed race community is really not a community at all. It is just as dichotomous and contrary as mixed race people in America. These individuals are often pressured to become overtly political and "claimed" by various groups and government entities.
Britain finds itself in an incongruous and somewhat awkward position. Leading the western world in interracial marriages and resultant children, it is being forced to recognize the increasing visibility of this group of people and to admit that they have needs and issues unique to their position.
I must however take issue with some of Alibhai-Brown's statements and conclusions relating to racism. Her remark that there is "massive racism" in British society is pure hyperbole. I know whereof I speak; I have lived in an interracial relationship in England and in the USA.
The obviously left-leaning author takes a few pot shots at past Conservative governments too, implying a responsibility for Britain's racial problems that is exaggerated beyond what is reasonable.
On the contrary, it is apparent in her book that it is the paternalistic, Nanny State ideologies of the ultra-left leaning social services community that have held sway over the fates of mixed race children. It has been from this bloc that the One-Drop-Rule (a doctrine from America's slave-owning past that concluded that any black ancestry made one black) has been most vigorously defended.
One white social worker interviewed for the book states this position thus: "I will not have you using terms like "mixed-race" In this department, the children are black if they are not white. That is all there is to say about their identity. If a white child says he is not white, would you correct him? So if a half-African child says he is not black, I just correct him."
The effects of this upon mixed race children and young adults appear far more pernicious and debilitating than the crass xenophobia expressed by Britain's "Cricket Test" Conservative old guard.
While racism will pose a very real and challenging obstacle to mixed race people, it is their ability to resist and claw out of the racial pigeonholes foisted upon them by social workers, state policy makers and others who wish to speak on their behalf which will hopefully allow them to own their personal identities.
Format:Paperback
I had been keen to read this book for some time, so I read it avidly. It was an interesting read and kept me turning pages until the end. I liked the mix of personal experience with research evidence. However, I found it a depressing read, and did not inspire me with much hope for the future of my mixed race sons! Yasmin refers to the many problems and seemingly insurmountable difficulties of mixed race relationships. She quotes relationship after relationship that has ended, children with identity issues and pervasive experiences of racism and discrimination. Whilst I do not doubt the accuracy of Yasmin's recounts, I had hoped for something more encouraging for myself and my family. There are many positive aspects to mixed race relationships and to being mixed race that I feel could have been emphasised. I know the title is 'mixed feelings' but there was a much stronger focus on the negative that does not really help people in mixed relationships. Perhaps it was not Yasmin's intention to write an affirmative book but that is what I would have preferred to read.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A very interesting book from Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (a writer i have distinctly mixed feelings about) in which she investigates the lives and identities of mixed race Britons. I admire the tenacity with which she stands up to the pressure to oversimplify ethnicity into 'black' and 'white' but feel that she oversimplifies herself when it comes down to the issue of community and tradition.
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