Mixed race people are the fastest growing ethnic minority group in the UK. One in every 10 children today, lives in a mixed race family. Inspite of their growing numbers, mixed race population are not represented in the national curriculum. Not so long ago, people from this community would have been called ‘mulatto’, ‘half caste’ or ‘half breed’. From social acceptance to cultural opulence, they have come a long way fom the bad old days. But how are they coping today?
This website attempts to gauge the social, biological and emotional implications of being mixed race.
Mulatto Girl
See the mulatto girl walking
down country lanes and fields, her
head held high, her skin the colour
of caramel boiling on the stove. See her smile
in the knowledge she is not the first
to walk this green and pleasant
countryside, she has history stirring within her limbs.
she has Africa's heat and England's cold rain
pumping through her blood, her
DNA a beautiful mix of gene pools
scattered across continents, she is strong.
She shows Africa in a way the English hide.
She shows an eighteenth century master's love for slaves.
She shows a slave's contempt.
She shows twentieth century people brave enough
to cross a line made of different tones of skin,
to love in spite of hate.
See the mulatto girl walking
down country lanes and fields, her head
held high, her quadroon baby girls
held on her hips, her hair thick and frizzed, lips
half full, there are no
white men dressing her in robes and jewels,
but see her smile, see her sway, her head
held high as she walks.
- Louisa Adjoa Parker
