Racial Illiteracies and Whiteness: Exploring Black Mixed-Race Narrations of Race in the Family

Drawing upon fifty-five interviews with Black mixed-race people located in Britain’s second-largest city, Birmingham, and a nearby satellite town, Bromsgrove, this article critically explores how race, identity, whiteness, are negotiated families. Whilst existing studies tend to centre the experiences of white parents raising their children, article, we foreground perspectives familial practices. Whiteness can often function as an ever-present non-presence explorations mixed identities. We utilise concepts such fragility, complicity gaze make whiteness visible address racial illiteracies manifest within everyday family settings. In doing so, suggest that members can, on occasion, participate processes domination even smallest acts conversations deny, avoid, dismiss and, some cases, perpetuate racism. By identifying these moments lives, complicate document literacies explore mistakes made. encounters create disjuncture settings characterised by complex layer love, intimacy difference. bringing issues fore, emotional labour it take part sense resist whilst simultaneously maintaining closeness relationships.