The Mixed-Race Experience is a great point of entry into many of the questions concerning growing up and existing as a mixed-race person in the UK and in the Western world in general. It tackles themes from adoption and parenthood to hair and growing up in small towns, through interviews, personal anecdotes and research.
The authors, of Jamaican and white British parents, manage to create a safe and nuanced space for mixed people and their loved ones to explore these issues and to open up conversations led with both love and honesty.
The book is very accessible and the transcripts of conversations with relatives and other mixed people living in the UK flow easily. Beyond the number of subjects broached, I appreciated the diversity of people they talked with, including people who had been adopted, interracial couples and people of different origins.
Beyond an introduction to and exploration of those questions, the book also offers practical tips both for understanding your own mixed identity better and to communicate with the people around you when their attitudes and words are not okay. It also includes a bibliography for readers who would wish to dig deeper into one specific topic.
I had never seen a book solely by and for mixed people before and was surprised by how emotional and thought-provoking the experience of reading it was for me, especially since I had already done my own research and introspection before getting to it. I am definitely going to recommend it to family and friends seeking answers and a sense of belonging.
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