White Side of Black Britain

France Winddance Twine is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Racism in a Racial Democracy: The Maintenance of White Supremacy in Brazil.

“By building her argument through images, as well as statistics and anecdotes, Twine opposes nearly a century of prejudice against visual evidence within sociology. . . . A White Side of Black Britain . . . seems destined to become a landmark in the field. . .” - Charles Donelan, Santa Barbara Independent “Twine is also an expert storyteller, and it is through the book’s richly detailed stories that she demonstrates the importance of researching transracial intimacy to gain a better understanding of race, class, and gender, along with nationalism and ethnic tensions. . . . The research strategies and microsociological dynamics that Twine has identified in this book will undoubtedly prove essential for any scholar undertaking such difficult and valuable projects.” - Erik Love, Jadaliyya “France Windance Twine’s A White Side of Black Britain is a lovely andimportant book. It is lovely because it is carefully researched, finelycrafted, and illustrated with compelling photographs that add dimensionto the study and its methodology. It is important because its ethnographicfocus on white women’s participation in British multiracial families givesit an extraordinary vantage point from which to explore the everydayconstitution and contestation of racial borders, boundaries, and identitiesalong the double axis of class and gender.” - Elizabeth Long, American Journal of Sociology “A White Side of Black Britain raises important questions such as how white women are raising children as members of black–white interracial families, what meanings are attributed to their whiteness and how class inequality, gender regimes and prescriptions for respectable femininity mediate the ways that white women are evaluated in transracial families. The way in which Twine features and captures the conversations in the book throughlanguage and illustrations make the book appealing to a range of audiences.” - Victoria Showunmi, European Journal of Women’s Studies “A White Side of Black Britain is likely to become a landmark text in the fields of ‘mixed race’ and whiteness studies. France Winddance Twine offers a sympathetic and generous treatment of a complex and fraught subject, and she combines compelling, intimate vignettes and photos with nuanced analysis and thought-provoking links to contemporary debates.”-Claire Alexander, author of The Art of Being Black “What happens to the racial consciousness of white women who marry black men and have black children? France Winddance Twine reveals through a deep and extensive ethnography with more than forty white women in such relationships how their consciousness changes, allowing them to become sensitive and adept at recognizing and dealing with racism. This is truly original research that deserves a wide readership.”-Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, author of Racism without Racists “A White Side of Black Britain raises important questions such as how white women are raising children as members of black–white interracial families, what meanings are attributed to their whiteness and how class inequality, gender regimes and prescriptions for respectable femininity mediate the ways that white women are evaluated in transracial families. The way in which Twine features and captures the conversations in the book through language and illustrations make the book appealing to a range of audiences.” - Victoria Showunmi (European Journal of Women's Studies) “By building her argument through images, as well as statistics and anecdotes, Twine opposes nearly a century of prejudice against visual evidence within sociology. . . . A White Side of Black Britain . . . seems destined to become a landmark in the field. . .” - Charles Donelan (Santa Barbara Independent) “France Windance Twine’s A White Side of Black Britain is a lovely and important book. It is lovely because it is carefully researched, finely crafted, and illustrated with compelling photographs that add dimension to the study and its methodology. It is important because its ethnographic focus on white women’s participation in British multiracial families gives it an extraordinary vantage point from which to explore the everyday constitution and contestation of racial borders, boundaries, and identities along the double axis of class and gender.” - Elizabeth Long (American Journal of Sociology)

• Illustrations ixAcknowledgments xiiiIntroduction: Territories of Whiteness in Black Britain 11. A Class Analysis of Interracial Intimacy 312. Disciplining Racial Dissidents: Transgressive Women, Transracial Mothers 603. The Concept of Racial Literacy 894. Racial Literacy in Practice 1165. Written on the Body: Ethnic Capital and Black Cultural Production 1466. Archives of Interracial Intimacies: Race, Respectability, and Family Photographs 1717. White Like Who? Status, Stigma, and the Social Meanings of Whiteness 1958. Gender Gaps in the Experience of Interracial Intimacy 223Conclusion: Constricted Eyes and Racial Visions 257Notes 267References 279Index 297