Now through the end of February Birmingham's Black British arts and culture center the Drum is hosting an exhibition called Guess Who is Coming to Dinner. Focusing on some of that city's first mixed-race families, the show was put together by Birmingham native Tracey O'Loughlin, herself the child of a black father and a white mother. Chris Arnot spoke to her about her memories of growing up mixed-race:
She says of her father, who died 14 years ago: "He was 6ft 4ins and 18
stone, so we didn't get too many comments when he was around." There
were plenty of hostile stares, however. As her mother, Sheila, records:
"We were considered trash. And you were treated like that, so you felt
like that."
The show could not be more timely here at the beginning of the new age of Obama and also at a moment when mixed-race is the fastest growing ethnic group in the UK. You can see some pictures from the exhibit, mostly taken in the '50s and '60s, in the online gallery here.