Name: Raceless
ISBN: 9780751579376

GEORGINA. LAWTON

In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth about Where I Belong

Raceless

Georgina Lawton

From The Guardian's Georgina Lawton, a moving examination of how racial identity is constructed--through the author's own journey grappling with secrets and stereotypes, having been raised by white parents with no explanation as to why she looked black. Raised in sleepy English suburbia, Georgina Lawton was no stranger to homogeneity. Her parents were white; her friends were white; there was no reason for her to think she was any different. But over time her brown skin and dark, kinky hair frequently made her a target of prejudice. In Georgina's insistently color-blind household, with no acknowledgement of her difference or access to black culture, she lacked the coordinates to make sense of who she was. It was only after her father's death that Georgina began to unravel the truth about her parentage--and the racial identity that she had been denied. She fled from England and the turmoil of her home-life to live in black communities around the globe--the US, the UK, Nicaragua, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, South Africa, and Morocco--and to explore her identity and what it meant to live in and navigate the world as a black woman. She spoke with psychologists, sociologists, experts in genetic testing, and other individuals whose experiences of racial identity have been fraught or questioned in the hopes of understanding how, exactly, we identify ourselves. Raceless is an exploration of a fundamental question: what constitutes our sense of self? Drawing on her personal experiences and the stories of others, Lawton grapples with difficult questions about love, shame, grief, and prejudice, and reveals the nuanced and emotional journey of forming one's identity.

Ali Angco

3.75 - Lawton's storytelling is beautiful. And she disclosed an experience that is uniquely hers. I just found that there were points where it got a bit repetitive.

'A poignant and eye opening memoir...a nuanced and crucial dissection of race as a construct.' Yomi Adegoke, co-author of Slay in Your Lane 'a masterpiece...an invaluable read for any person with an interest in race issues in the UK.' Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Editor-in-Chief at gal-dem magazine 'A beautifully written account of an extraordinary story, Raceless is as eye-opening as it is profound.' Otegha Uwagba A Guardian, Sunday Times, Evening Standard and Cosmopolitan book of the year for 2021 'Ideas from our parents form the backbone to our identities, the bedrock to personal truths that we recite and remember like prayers from Church or poems from school. But they condition us in more powerful ways than lessons from any book or religion ever could. Now the tale had been destroyed. So what did that mean about who I thought I was?' In Georgina Lawton's childhood home, her Blackness was never acknowledged; the obvious fact of her brown skin, ignored by her white parents. Over time, secrets and a complex family story became accepted as truth and Georgina found herself complicit in the erasure of her racial identity. It was only when her beloved father died that the truth began to emerge. Fleeing the shattered pieces of her family life and the comfortable, suburban home she grew up in, at age 22 Georgina went in search of answers - embarking on a journey that took her around the world, to the DNA testing industry, and to countless others, whose identities have been questioned, denied or erased. What do you do when your heritage or parentage has been obscured in a complex web of deceit? How can you discuss race with your family, when you each see the world differently? When a personal identity has been wrongly constructed, how do you start again? Raceless is both the compelling personal account of a young woman seeking her own story amid devastating family secrets, and a fascinating, challenging and essential examination of modern racial identity.

In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth About Where I Belong

Vivian

Raceless is a very interesting memoir by Georgina, a mixed-race woman who were raised by white parents in suburban England. Despite having dark skin and curly hair, her non-white race was never addressed nor acknowledged by her parents and relatives. It was only until she took a DNA test as an adult that she found out her dad was not her biological father. Yikes.

From first glance of course her parents' actions seemed bizarre and unbelievable, but through Georgina's discovery & reconcillation journey, at the end I could also sympathize with her mother's position and why she did what she did. 

I really liked the chapter on Georgina's traveling in central America through black communities. It was interesting to learn which role race plays in Cuba, Dominica Republic, etc., where the aftermath of colonization is still rippling (such as deeply ingrained Eurocentric beauty standard). The chapter on black hair is also very enlightening.

I enjoyed this story very much and at the end Georgina seems to reach a place of peace, reconciliation and self-certainty. Happy for her.

Raceless In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth about Where I Belong

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