Abstract
As the 1980s unfolded, a ‘new wave’ of ‘insider-led studies’ began to emerge in scholarly fields that sought to redress the ‘deficit’ based literature that had been so prevalent in earlier decades and normalise interraciality. While debates in the social work profession around transracial adoption continued to place emphasis on the black heritage of mixed race children, these discourses, too, were gradually subsumed by those that prioritised the right to self-identification in ethnic/racial terms. Similarly, representation in the arts and the media not only increasingly reflected the minority ethnic presence generally but began once more to portray interraciality and separate mixedness out as a distinct identity and experience.
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Notes
- 1.
The journalist Matthew Parris who was working as the clerk handling Margaret Thatcher’s general correspondence in 1978 recalled that after the speech, the average 500–700 letters a week received in the office increased to 5000, almost all supportive. ‘We were swamped indeed: swamped by racist bilge.’ The Times, 29 October 2014.
- 2.
Daily Mail, 15 October 1984.
- 3.
A sympathetic article exploring the complexities of TRA and the reasons behind the stance of black social workers appeared in the Guardian, 26 January 1983.
- 4.
See for example, Daily Mail, 15 February 1984 and 16 October 1984; The Times, 24 August 1989; Guardian, 24 August 1989.
- 5.
See for example, The Times, 18 May 1983 and 7 July 1986; Daily Mail, 15 and 28 February and 16 October 1984; Daily Express, 25 August 1989. A number of letters from adult black adoptees discussing their more complex feelings and experiences of TRA can be found in the Guardian, 28 and 31 August 1989.
- 6.
- 7.
Daily Express, 9 January 1982.
- 8.
- 9.
Daily Express, 10 September 1982; Daily Mail, 10 September 1982.
- 10.
The Stage, 13 April 1986.
- 11.
New York Times, 15 February 1983.
- 12.
Acknowledgement of Mo’s racial background was included in the show: mention was made of how Mo was conceived due to her mother having had a fling with a black man.
- 13.
Discussing the circumstances behind the song, Thompson recalled that ‘It was just not accepted in those days. [My sister] was shunned by a few people in the family.’ ‘My father tried to talk her into getting it terminated,’ says Lee. ‘My sister dug her heels in and I was caught in the middle, wanting everyone to be happy.’ However, in line with the research findings of Collins and others, Thompson later stated that when his sister’s child Hayley was born, the antipathy of his family disappeared (Duffy 2005).
- 14.
See the Daily Express, 6 March 1991; 24 November 1993 as well as French’s autobiography Dear Fatty (2008) and The Telegraph, 17 September 2017, where French speaks of the couple hiring security as a safeguard from the racist attacks. It should also be noted that in a separate interview with the Express (29 September 1993), Henry remarked that the attacks on their property were one-off incidents rather than the constant stream of abuse or campaign that the press had made it out to be.
- 15.
Born to a Swedish mother and a Sierra Leonean father, Cherry spent her early years in Stockholm before moving to the USA and then London as a teenager.
- 16.
It is reported that, prior to her relationship with Fayed, Diana had been in a secret two-year relationship with Haznat Khan, a Pakistani heart surgeon resident in London. See, The Telegraph, 13 January 2008; Vanity Fair, September 2013.
- 17.
Daily Express, 29 September 1993.
- 18.
The Story of ‘M’ was added to the A-levels English Literature list offered by EdExcel Examination Board in 2017.
- 19.
Despite its critical plaudits by the mainstream press, the film’s depiction of TRA and mixed race birth families has regularly been interrogated in other quarters for its ‘lack of vision’, as well as the ‘authenticity’ of the actress Marianne-Jean Baptiste’s phenotypical appearance as a woman of mixed race. See for example, McLeod (2015) and Alexander (1999).
- 20.
Smith (2015).
- 21.
The Independent, 1 January 1994.
- 22.
Guardian, 9 July 1999.
- 23.
Broadcast, 1 May 1996.
- 24.
See for example The Times, 9 July 1993 and 19 February 1997; Daily Express, 10 July 1993 and 25 August 1998.
- 25.
Daily Express, 24 August 1998.
- 26.
See Daily Express, 20 January 1997; Guardian, 25 March 2000.
- 27.
Express, 21 January 1997.
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Caballero, C., Aspinall, P.J. (2018). The Emergence of the ‘New Wave’: Insider-Led Studies and Multifaceted Perceptions. In: Mixed Race Britain in The Twentieth Century. Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-33928-7_12
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