0:00:11 > 0:00:14Let's take ourselves back to 1920.
0:00:14 > 0:00:19It's first light on a cold and misty morning in London's Dockland.
0:00:20 > 0:00:22A ship slips into its berth
0:00:22 > 0:00:26and 20-year-old Lam Fook steps onto British soil,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29a new life ahead of him.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34It was here, in Limehouse, that he met,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37and fell in love with, an English girl.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40They had a child, Connie, and she was born into a time
0:00:40 > 0:00:45and place where being mixed was to be thought of as mysterious,
0:00:45 > 0:00:48exotic, but also morally corrupt.
0:00:51 > 0:00:56But if that prejudice defined the lives of those early families,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59the whole history of mixed race Britain
0:00:59 > 0:01:01has seen a sea-change in attitudes.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06Britain, today, has one of the most ethnically diverse
0:01:06 > 0:01:08populations in Europe.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11And this is the story of a nation transformed.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20Connie, a gracious 87-years-old now,
0:01:20 > 0:01:26presides over a family that is as British as they come.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29- How are you? Good to see you again.- Yes.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32So we've got four generations here.
0:01:32 > 0:01:33- Yes, yes.- That's incredible.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37One, two, three, four.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42- You're the mixed race family, really, aren't you?- We are.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44- What happened to you?!- I know!
0:01:45 > 0:01:47We've come a long way.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50In the 1970s, mixed race people were, themselves,
0:01:50 > 0:01:53still struggling to define who they were and the country, too,
0:01:53 > 0:01:58was confused about how to deal with a rising mixed race population.
0:02:00 > 0:02:02His mother is an English girl
0:02:02 > 0:02:06and his father is African, and he really has got
0:02:06 > 0:02:10the nicest disposition, as so many of these little Negros boys has.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13We got some very unpleasant letters -
0:02:13 > 0:02:15I should be "horsewhipped down the street."
0:02:17 > 0:02:21And it wasn't just white society that was struggling to cope.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25- So what if she pregnant, so what if the father's black!- Black!
0:02:25 > 0:02:29If my sister had come home with a black guy,
0:02:29 > 0:02:32then I would have been against it.
0:02:34 > 0:02:36Connie's lifetime has seen mixed race people
0:02:36 > 0:02:38move into the mainstream.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren
0:02:40 > 0:02:44are testament to that, but for earlier generations,
0:02:44 > 0:02:47a search for an identity they could call their own
0:02:47 > 0:02:51was often a painful process, especially as it took place
0:02:51 > 0:02:54against a backdrop in which what colour you were,
0:02:54 > 0:02:56was a political issue.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15Whitechapel in London.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18In 1961, in the school holidays,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22a 14-year-old girl headed for the Wimpy Bar.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24Where else?
0:03:24 > 0:03:27She went up to the counter and waited to be served.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32I ordered food...
0:03:32 > 0:03:37He came up from behind and he served me
0:03:37 > 0:03:40and just... I caught his eye,
0:03:40 > 0:03:44just...his mop of black hair.
0:03:46 > 0:03:50From that time, I thought, "Yes."
0:03:50 > 0:03:53What, even the first time you met him, did you think,
0:03:53 > 0:03:58- "Oh, he's all right"?- Yeah. - Did you?- Yeah, I did!
0:03:58 > 0:04:01TRADITIONAL INDIAN MUSIC
0:04:08 > 0:04:13The first date was when we went to see an Indian movie called Sangam.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26That's quite unusual. There you are, a white girl
0:04:26 > 0:04:30and, presumably, had no idea of what you were listening to or watching.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32- Did you mind that? - No, I didn't mind at all.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34Because you were sitting next to him?
0:04:34 > 0:04:38Yes! Hm-mm.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44Shafique Uddin had arrived in the UK from Bangladesh in 1960,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47aged just 18.
0:04:47 > 0:04:48Like immigrants everywhere,
0:04:48 > 0:04:52this young, single man was looking for work.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57Shafique was part of one of the last big waves of immigration,
0:04:57 > 0:05:00before Britain began to close its doors
0:05:00 > 0:05:02to people from its former colonies.
0:05:02 > 0:05:08Between 1962 and 1971 there had been a succession of immigration acts.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10By that time, the number of South Asians
0:05:10 > 0:05:13stood at almost half a million.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20In the 1960s, more and more Bangladeshi families
0:05:20 > 0:05:23were settling here, around Brick Lane.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25Like generations of immigrants before them,
0:05:25 > 0:05:28they found the housing cheap and the jobs plentiful.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32They moved in alongside old East End families, like Pamela's,
0:05:32 > 0:05:34people who were rooted in the area.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39The arrival of these new settlers led to growing racial tension.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Brick Lane would eventually become a favoured
0:05:42 > 0:05:45hunting ground for the far right.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49They've opened the flood gates of our country to an invasion
0:05:49 > 0:05:56even more foreign than that which threatened us in 1914 or 1940.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08The far right's ugly politics, embodied by the National Front,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11was a growing feature of the 1970s.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16Support was particularly strong in East London
0:06:16 > 0:06:19and Shafique's Wimpy Bar was on the front line.
0:06:19 > 0:06:20POLICE SIRENS
0:06:37 > 0:06:42Sieg heil! Sieg heil! Sieg heil! Sieg heil!
0:06:53 > 0:06:57# When there is always something there to remind me. #
0:06:57 > 0:07:00When Pamela and Shafique began courting, racial prejudice
0:07:00 > 0:07:03was already bubbling beneath the surface.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05No wonder they met in secret.
0:07:05 > 0:07:10Naturally, we had a lot of problems, you know, like racist remarks
0:07:10 > 0:07:13and things like that, with my girlfriends and boyfriends
0:07:13 > 0:07:16in my estate, where I lived and everything.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38But eventually, they had to come out of the shadows.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44When you decided this is a man you loved,
0:07:44 > 0:07:46what was it like telling your parents about it?
0:07:48 > 0:07:51My mum did accept it straight away.
0:07:51 > 0:07:53I said, "I'll speak to Dad myself",
0:07:53 > 0:07:55and he just didn't want to hear about it.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58- He was angry, was he? - He was very, very angry,
0:07:58 > 0:08:01why I'm going out with an Asian person.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08Despite that reaction,
0:08:08 > 0:08:12Pamela and Shafique went ahead with their marriage in 1965.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14Her father refused to attend the wedding.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16They became one of the first
0:08:16 > 0:08:19mixed raced couples to get married in Brick Lane Mosque.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26Did you, Shafique, when you realised that Pamela's father
0:08:26 > 0:08:28was not going to bless your marriage,
0:08:28 > 0:08:31did you think, "Well, maybe this is the wrong thing to do?"
0:08:44 > 0:08:46# What good is love
0:08:51 > 0:08:55# Mmmm, that no-one shares? #
0:08:55 > 0:08:58The impending arrival of a baby,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01a grandchild for Pamela's disapproving father,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04brought matters to a head.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07Difficult as it was, she decided to confront him.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12I said, "I'm going to start a family
0:09:12 > 0:09:17"and I want everything to be fine between me and you.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19"We've got to get all this put behind us."
0:09:19 > 0:09:23He just got up, walked out, slammed the sitting room door,
0:09:23 > 0:09:28went in his own bedroom. I gave him an ultimatum,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31like, "It's either not having me as your daughter any more
0:09:31 > 0:09:35"or you're going to come around, you're going to speak to Shafique."
0:09:35 > 0:09:37- Really, you went that far?- Yeah.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40And after that, he come around slowly.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43It must have been a huge relief for you.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45It was. Really was.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52What do you get upset for?
0:09:59 > 0:10:01- Don't worry, Pamela. - You don't have to get emotional.
0:10:01 > 0:10:06It's OK. It is emotional. You're an incredibly brave woman.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17The baby was born in 1968, the first of six children.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20From those inauspicious beginnings, Pamela and Shafique
0:10:20 > 0:10:24have raised a family - and proved their critics wrong.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30I am very proud, very proud, of what I've achieved today,
0:10:30 > 0:10:34in the 45 years I've been married to Shafique.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42So Pamela and Shafique had to overcome the disapproval of family
0:10:42 > 0:10:44and, as if that weren't bad enough,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47they were falling in love at a time of growing racial tension.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51Identity, how you saw yourself, how others looked at you -
0:10:51 > 0:10:53that was becoming a major issue,
0:10:53 > 0:10:56and if you were mixed race, finding and describing
0:10:56 > 0:11:00your own unique identity was more complex and more difficult
0:11:00 > 0:11:03and nowhere was that played out more starkly
0:11:03 > 0:11:05than in the field of adoption.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16# All alone am I
0:11:16 > 0:11:20# Ever since your goodbye.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24# All alone with just a beat of my heart. #
0:11:24 > 0:11:29It's October 1959 and Paddington Station is busy.
0:11:29 > 0:11:34# People all around but I don't hear a sound
0:11:34 > 0:11:40# Just the lonely beating of my heart. #
0:11:40 > 0:11:43Scanning the departures board for her train,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46a nervous-looking woman hurries towards the platform.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48In one hand, she carries a suitcase
0:11:48 > 0:11:53and holding her other hand tightly, is a pretty two-year-old -
0:11:53 > 0:11:55a mixed race child.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59The girl's name was Rosemary Walter and the journey
0:11:59 > 0:12:02she was about to embark on would change her life forever.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04She couldn't have known it, of course,
0:12:04 > 0:12:09but she was being rejected, hidden. You see, Rosie's mother,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12a white woman married to a white man, had had a black lover
0:12:12 > 0:12:16and Rosie was living proof of a relationship
0:12:16 > 0:12:21that was not just illicit, but in those days, deemed utterly shameful.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29The year before, in 1958, a survey had showed that
0:12:29 > 0:12:3371% of British people disapproved of mixed relationships.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38In other words, they disapproved of women like Gladys, Rosie's mother.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42She had to leave the marital home. She never told her husband why,
0:12:42 > 0:12:44but she left the marital home
0:12:44 > 0:12:49and she lived in a small flat in Clapham. She got pneumonia
0:12:49 > 0:12:52and I think she needed a break. I think she was a sad person
0:12:52 > 0:12:55and had quite a sad life, as a result of what happened,
0:12:55 > 0:12:56in regards to me being born.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01Gladys, no longer in a relationship with her black lover,
0:13:01 > 0:13:03was living alone.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07She was depressed and finding it hard to cope with a baby.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10She'd often sort of refer to the fact that her life changed
0:13:10 > 0:13:12drastically for the worst once I was born.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16But she also maintained that she loved me dearly
0:13:16 > 0:13:20and it was very sad for her, having to let me go.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22And what about the wider family, your white family,
0:13:22 > 0:13:24your mother's family?
0:13:24 > 0:13:30She'd asked her sister if we could both go and stay
0:13:30 > 0:13:34and her sister said that I couldn't, as she didn't want the neighbours to see a black child.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38They didn't want it known that her sister had had a child with a black man.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45Spurned by her family and friends, desperate for help,
0:13:45 > 0:13:49Gladys made a decision which would mark Rosie's life forever.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57Rosie's mother went to the National Children's Home for help,
0:13:57 > 0:14:00but they told her there were no places available in London.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03Rosie would have to go to Swansea.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07So, on Saturday, 5th October, 1959,
0:14:07 > 0:14:12Rosie and her mother found themselves here on platform one.
0:14:12 > 0:14:17# All alone with just the beat of my heart. #
0:14:17 > 0:14:20The two-year-old child was handed over by her mother
0:14:20 > 0:14:22to a social worker.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29The train pulled away and Rosie Walters would spend
0:14:29 > 0:14:32the next 16 years living in care homes.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35She'd spend those years battling to fit in
0:14:35 > 0:14:40with black or white children, but found herself rejected by both.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50Rosemary's mother was by no means on her own.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53There were many other women with their own secrets to hide.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57and, like Rosie, they too ended up in care.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59Exactly how many, well, that's difficult to know.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03Nobody was actually collating that kind of information,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06but what is clear from social workers and other subsequent studies
0:15:06 > 0:15:12is that there were many more mixed race children in care than you'd expect.
0:15:12 > 0:15:13Hello, sunshine!
0:15:15 > 0:15:18That was because it was difficult to find adoptive homes
0:15:18 > 0:15:20for these children in the 1960s.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26There are so many of these little Negro boys waiting for families,
0:15:26 > 0:15:29at the moment, we just haven't any homes for them.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31Come on!
0:15:34 > 0:15:38There simply weren't many couples prepared to foster or adopt
0:15:38 > 0:15:41mixed race children.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45And a care network run largely by the well-meaning
0:15:45 > 0:15:48was ill-equipped to change attitudes.
0:15:50 > 0:15:56His mother is an English girl and his father is African.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00He's not a big baby, he's quite a compact little boy.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04He's sort of coffee-coloured, big brown eyes,
0:16:04 > 0:16:11nicely-shaped mouth and he really has got the nicest disposition
0:16:11 > 0:16:14as so many of these little Negro boys has.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20No wonder middle-class Britain, with its privet hedges
0:16:20 > 0:16:23and milk carts, remained resistant
0:16:23 > 0:16:25to the idea of mixed race relationships,
0:16:25 > 0:16:28let alone adopting the children that followed.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35But in the early 1960s, there was a challenge to this jaundiced view
0:16:35 > 0:16:37and it came from the most unlikely quarter -
0:16:37 > 0:16:39the heart of the British aristocracy.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41All set?
0:16:41 > 0:16:44'Lady March gives her youngest daughter, Louisa,
0:16:44 > 0:16:47'a running commentary on the elements of horsemanship.'
0:16:47 > 0:16:50The Goodwood Estate in Sussex,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52home to the Duke and Duchess of Richmond.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59Susan Grenville-Grey had married the future Duke in 1951.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02The couple had three birth children of their own
0:17:02 > 0:17:06but they wanted more and decided to adopt.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09Adoption is a big thing, and on top of that you decide
0:17:09 > 0:17:12to go and adopt mixed race children.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14It must have been quite a tough decision, wasn't it?
0:17:14 > 0:17:19It was a tough decision to decide whether to adopt
0:17:19 > 0:17:23but it wasn't so tough to decide what child we thought we would adopt
0:17:23 > 0:17:25cos we particularly wanted to have children
0:17:25 > 0:17:27that wouldn't get much of a chance otherwise.
0:17:30 > 0:17:35By 1960, they had adopted one mixed race baby, Maria.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38But the duke and duchess didn't stop there.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43When Mum came and picked me up, I sat on her hip,
0:17:43 > 0:17:46held her thumb and that was the end of that, there was no way
0:17:46 > 0:17:49that she would put me down or that I wouldn't be going with her.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52'Nimmy March is a promising rider and whenever she's free
0:17:52 > 0:17:55'from her comprehensive school at Chichester...'
0:17:55 > 0:17:59Born to a white English mother and a black South African father
0:17:59 > 0:18:03in 1962, Nimmy March was adopted when she was six months old.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09The Duchess's father had been firmly against the idea
0:18:09 > 0:18:12but her arrival softened even the hardest of hearts.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17He changed his mind as soon as saw the kids?
0:18:17 > 0:18:21Well, yes, and my mother's a very fair person and she decided
0:18:21 > 0:18:23when they were there, she would treat them
0:18:23 > 0:18:27as her grandchildren...mostly, anyway, so it was all right.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31And then he was very wonderful, wasn't he, with both of my children?
0:18:31 > 0:18:32I adored him, absolutely.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41We were passionate about what we doing
0:18:41 > 0:18:45and we didn't probably realise what ructions there would be.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48- We got some very unpleasant letters.- Did you?- Yes.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50- What kind of letters? - What did they say?
0:18:50 > 0:18:54Oh, that I should be horsewhipped down the street, um...
0:18:54 > 0:18:57and that we should be, you know, drummed out of everywhere.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02But the Duke and Duchess had rather more pressing problems
0:19:02 > 0:19:04closer to home.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07We had quite a few hair issues, didn't we... Do you remember?
0:19:07 > 0:19:12- What was the hair issue? - Trying to detangle it!
0:19:12 > 0:19:18Using conventional kind of Caucasian hair brushes on my hair
0:19:18 > 0:19:20- just wasn't going to work.- Oh, OK.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24And so, you know, it was a while before we discovered the Afro comb
0:19:24 > 0:19:28and ways of not making my eyes water quite so much as Mum tried to
0:19:28 > 0:19:31drag an ordinary comb through this curly mess!
0:19:41 > 0:19:45And as the swinging '60s gave way to the 1970s,
0:19:45 > 0:19:49Britain gained a reputation for the avant-garde.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57# There must be some kinda way outta here... #
0:19:57 > 0:20:00By the '60s, Britain was cool and it was fashionable
0:20:00 > 0:20:04and, whether home-grown or from abroad, this was the hip place to be
0:20:04 > 0:20:08if you were a musician, an actor or an artist.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11And these people had one thing in common.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15They bucked the social conventions, including those narrow attitudes
0:20:15 > 0:20:18about what race your partner should be.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23Many of these starlit couples got married or, at least,
0:20:23 > 0:20:25had long-term relationships
0:20:25 > 0:20:28and you have to remember, these were iconic people,
0:20:28 > 0:20:32so how they lived their lives as mixed race couples...
0:20:32 > 0:20:34Well, that sent out a powerful signal.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36They were confident, they were carefree.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39Above all, they seemed happy.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42# How does it feel to be
0:20:42 > 0:20:46# One of the beautiful people? #
0:20:47 > 0:20:51But the relaxed, carefree attitudes of film stars and rock legends,
0:20:51 > 0:20:54protected in their own gilded world,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57still had little resonance in ordinary homes.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02I think there will be tensions in your children.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04They will neither be white nor black,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07I think this is going to be a big hazard in your life.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11- Well, I hope to prove you wrong. - Hope.- I hope, yes!
0:21:11 > 0:21:13I honestly hope so, yes.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18But I wonder what Martin will think when he sees his first son,
0:21:18 > 0:21:20if it should be dark in colour.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23Yes, but I mean, I hope Martin has got more intelligence
0:21:23 > 0:21:25to accept whatever colour this child is.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30# Mixed blessings It has to be... #
0:21:30 > 0:21:33After the aristocracy and showbiz, it was television's turn
0:21:33 > 0:21:36to chip away at prejudice.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39A 1970s TV series featured a black and white couple
0:21:39 > 0:21:42who'd just secretly got married.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45Congratulations, Mrs Simpson. I am very glad you're my wife.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48Thomas and Susan...are married.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51Oh, my God!
0:21:51 > 0:21:53Whatever you do, Edward, don't embarrass her.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55Thomas, what have you done?!
0:21:55 > 0:21:58Dad, you've got yourself a daughter-in-law.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02I suppose my wife Frances and I are the kind of couple
0:22:02 > 0:22:04the show was trying to portray.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08We met at university in the 1970s and I'm happy to say,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11both our immediate families were completely onside.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14In fact, more than that, they went out and batted for us.
0:22:14 > 0:22:15Well, they could be white.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18Or they could be black one side and white the other!
0:22:18 > 0:22:21It wasn't quite so easy for the TV couple.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24There was the thorny issue of children.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28They'll be black, and that puts them at a disadvantage in this society,
0:22:28 > 0:22:29as I'm sure Susan well knows.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34Yes, I do, but we're sort of hoping it won't be such a problem one day.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38'It all looks so dated now, doesn't it? Let's face it,'
0:22:38 > 0:22:41the characters are a cliche, perfect examples
0:22:41 > 0:22:44of the stereotype, but I don't really think that's the point.
0:22:44 > 0:22:46The fact that a show like Mixed Blessings
0:22:46 > 0:22:51was on prime time TV at all, well, that was an achievement in itself.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54It showed that mixed race relationships
0:22:54 > 0:22:57were becoming a reality in 1970s Britain.
0:22:57 > 0:23:02# Who is the man that would risk his neck for his brother man? #
0:23:02 > 0:23:05# Shaft Can you dig it? #
0:23:05 > 0:23:08But just as mixed race relationships were carving out a space
0:23:08 > 0:23:10in the public consciousness,
0:23:10 > 0:23:15there was a parallel rise in black militant politics.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18It was influenced by America's Black Power movement.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22From the '60s onwards, it produced icons like Angela Davis
0:23:22 > 0:23:26and the black American athletes who took their silent but potent protest
0:23:26 > 0:23:32against racial discrimination into the 1968 Mexico Olympics.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35"Be black, be proud" - that was the new mantra.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43And the black stars of the day symbolised that pride.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51But what if you were neither black nor white?
0:23:51 > 0:23:53People of mixed race found themselves
0:23:53 > 0:23:55in a sort of racial no-man's-land,
0:23:55 > 0:23:58caught in limbo between the new black consciousness
0:23:58 > 0:24:01and a white status quo.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04John Conteh, champion boxer and '70s celeb,
0:24:04 > 0:24:07was born to a father from Sierra Leone and an Anglo-Irish mother.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14Do you think of yourself as a black family
0:24:14 > 0:24:17rather than a white family or a mixed or a coloured family?
0:24:20 > 0:24:21Speaking for meself
0:24:21 > 0:24:23I just regard meself as meself,
0:24:23 > 0:24:27and as a person of the world and as a human being.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31Not black, white, blue, pink, anything, you know. Just me.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35There was a sort of invisibility of mixed race people in the '70s.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40Umm... On the one hand, they were there and they were recognised
0:24:40 > 0:24:42because the use of the term "half-caste"
0:24:42 > 0:24:44was very prevalent in the '70s.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47People who were from mixed white and black backgrounds
0:24:47 > 0:24:50tended more to be seen as black.
0:24:50 > 0:24:54There wasn't that sort of sophistication of understanding
0:24:54 > 0:24:56racial identities in the '70s that we have now,
0:24:56 > 0:25:01and so there was very much a sense of you're either white
0:25:01 > 0:25:02or you're not white.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11But if mixed race children had to be classified as black or white,
0:25:11 > 0:25:15where did that leave their prospects for adoption?
0:25:15 > 0:25:18It was a whole new battleground.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20In the '60s, there'd been little debate
0:25:20 > 0:25:24about what became known as "trans-racial adoption."
0:25:24 > 0:25:28Was it good or bad for mixed race children to have white parents?
0:25:28 > 0:25:30There was no official guideline,
0:25:30 > 0:25:34each family muddling its way through the fog of prejudice and ignorance.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38Are there any problems in fostering coloured children?
0:25:38 > 0:25:41Not really, but once, I was out shopping with Carol,
0:25:41 > 0:25:45and there was two little boys playing. They said,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48"I say, missus, is that your kid there?" And I said "Yes,
0:25:48 > 0:25:51"that's my daughter and I'm proud of her"
0:25:51 > 0:25:54and Carol just got hold of my hand, squeezed it and said,
0:25:54 > 0:25:56"You're not really my mother, are you?"
0:25:56 > 0:25:59I said "I am your mother within the heart because I do love you."
0:26:05 > 0:26:09It was only in 1970 that the Home Office gave a formal view
0:26:09 > 0:26:11on the subject, saying that children of mixed race
0:26:11 > 0:26:14should be considered for adoption
0:26:14 > 0:26:16by both black couples and white couples.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24But it very quickly sparked off a lively
0:26:24 > 0:26:28and sometimes angry debate about culture and heritage.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31Mixed race children brought up by white families
0:26:31 > 0:26:34were accused of being like coconuts -
0:26:34 > 0:26:37brown on the outside but white inside.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41Racial identity was about to take centre stage.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51In 1975, Judith Logan was born to a mixed Caribbean father
0:26:51 > 0:26:54and a white mother. She was adopted as a baby.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57Yes, I would describe myself
0:26:57 > 0:27:00as a happy child growing up because I had a loving family.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03They kept me safe
0:27:03 > 0:27:05and sheltered me from a lot I wasn't aware of.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08Her new parents were white
0:27:08 > 0:27:11and lived in Inverness, the Scottish Highlands.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15It was a very small town. It wasn't big.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19I mean we had like one set of traffic lights,
0:27:19 > 0:27:20that's how small it was,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24so there wasn't a great diversity of colour. It was quite white.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30Where you lived has always had an impact
0:27:30 > 0:27:33on the experience of people of mixed race
0:27:33 > 0:27:37and for Judith her isolation soon caused problems.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40I mean, my secondary school, it was a living hell.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44I hated every single moment of it.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47From basically day one until I left.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50I was visibly on my own, you know. There was the usual name-calling.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53I got called "nigger", I got called "monkey".
0:27:53 > 0:27:55I got told that I should go back to where I belong,
0:27:55 > 0:27:57got told I smelt bad.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Judith says she got little help from her teachers
0:28:01 > 0:28:03and, try as they might, she feels her white parents
0:28:03 > 0:28:07simply couldn't understand what it was like to be black.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10My mother would try and support me but it wasn't
0:28:10 > 0:28:13the same as going to somebody who's black and going
0:28:13 > 0:28:17"Look, you've probably been in the same situation as me, you're black."
0:28:17 > 0:28:20White people...they don't tend to get called "niggers",
0:28:20 > 0:28:23that I'm aware of, and, um...
0:28:23 > 0:28:25So it was, you know, it was... it was difficult.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30Judith's case, along with some others,
0:28:30 > 0:28:34set alarm bells ringing for black social workers.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36Even more than the bullying, what worried them
0:28:36 > 0:28:39was that these children, brought up within white families,
0:28:39 > 0:28:42were losing out on their racial heritage.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46Across the Atlantic, in America, black social workers there
0:28:46 > 0:28:50were already involved in a campaign against trans-racial adoption.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53They called it "cultural genocide".
0:28:55 > 0:28:58The American experience was soon mirrored here in Britain.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03By the early 1980s, there was a hot debate about trans-racial adoption.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07In 1983, a report by the British Association for Adoption
0:29:07 > 0:29:10and Fostering argued that most trans-racial adoptions
0:29:10 > 0:29:12had been successful.
0:29:12 > 0:29:17White families provided stable homes and children were happy.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20But one of the findings in the report proved hugely contentious.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24It said that mixed race children adopted by white families,
0:29:24 > 0:29:26and I'm quoting here,
0:29:26 > 0:29:30"saw themselves as white in all but skin colour and had little knowledge
0:29:30 > 0:29:34"or experience of their counterparts growing up in the black community".
0:29:38 > 0:29:42That comment caused outrage among some black social workers.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46They fired off a document to the House of Commons denouncing
0:29:46 > 0:29:48the evils of trans-racial adoption,
0:29:48 > 0:29:51describing it as "internal colonialism" and a new form
0:29:51 > 0:29:56of slave trade, but this time, they said, only black children are used.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00The difference between a white and black family
0:30:00 > 0:30:03in terms of parenting is essentially one
0:30:03 > 0:30:07revolving around the black parent, in a black family,
0:30:07 > 0:30:09having the crucial function
0:30:09 > 0:30:14of teaching its children to cope with a fundamentally racist society.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18- INTERVIEWER:- You're talking about educating children for racism.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21Isn't that a self-fulfilling prophecy?
0:30:21 > 0:30:26It's an absolute prerequisite of any conscious black family life.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28We are trying to teach our children to survive.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32THEY CHANT
0:30:32 > 0:30:34I wanted to fit in.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37You know, I think it's hard to fit in
0:30:37 > 0:30:41when your entire family is one colour...and you're not.
0:30:41 > 0:30:46All the time I used to always want to be brought up in a black family,
0:30:46 > 0:30:49I wanted to... at least have one black parent.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53Doesn't have to be all black - but I wanted to be brought up
0:30:53 > 0:30:56in a mixed race family, so there was a black parent.
0:30:56 > 0:31:01Imagine the anguish, not only in the classroom but even at home.
0:31:01 > 0:31:07For Judith, the racism she experienced during her childhood led to low self-esteem.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11She spent many years questioning who she really was.
0:31:11 > 0:31:15It is important for me to have that mixed race identity.
0:31:15 > 0:31:17It's who I am, I wouldn't be me without it.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26But the acute challenges of being mixed race
0:31:26 > 0:31:29were not restricted only to those children who'd been adopted.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33'On our side of the street we had a black family,
0:31:33 > 0:31:38'and then the rest of the street was predominantly white. There were no Asians.'
0:31:38 > 0:31:41And when there was ever confrontations
0:31:41 > 0:31:44between the black family and the white kids,
0:31:44 > 0:31:48I was always, like, "Which side should I take?"
0:31:59 > 0:32:02Clement Cooper grew up in Moss Side, Manchester.
0:32:03 > 0:32:08Clement's father was black Jamaican, his mother white,
0:32:08 > 0:32:11but he'd begun to consider himself black.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18In the early '80s, Clement started a career as a professional photographer.
0:32:19 > 0:32:22By 1988, he had enough work
0:32:22 > 0:32:25for an exhibition at the Cornerhouse gallery in Manchester.
0:32:27 > 0:32:29He called it "Presence".
0:32:31 > 0:32:34It was a series of intimate and telling portraits of people
0:32:34 > 0:32:37from his neighbourhood, most of whom were black.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43But, within a week of the exhibition opening, there was trouble.
0:32:46 > 0:32:48I got a telephone call to say,
0:32:48 > 0:32:52a group of black youths had marched into the gallery with screwdrivers,
0:32:52 > 0:32:56bypassed the security system, and had removed from the walls
0:32:56 > 0:33:01a set of the photographs of the black young men from the youth club.
0:33:02 > 0:33:07Clement wanted his pictures back, and so he approached the youths of the club.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09Their reply shocked him.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15Their line of attack was one of my race,
0:33:15 > 0:33:18and they started to abuse me along racial lines.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23And attacking me for me being mixed race.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26And they used expressions of "You half-caste" and "You half-breed".
0:33:26 > 0:33:30And I eventually got assaulted, the pictures never got returned,
0:33:30 > 0:33:32I got death threats...
0:33:32 > 0:33:36My family had to be very mindful where they went to,
0:33:36 > 0:33:37my father in particular...
0:33:41 > 0:33:45How can you defend against that kind of torrent of anger and aggression,
0:33:45 > 0:33:49when it's directed at the very thing what your being's about, your identity?
0:33:54 > 0:33:59The attack pushed Clement into a period of soul-searching.
0:33:59 > 0:34:00He set off to the land of his father.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08Only to be told he wasn't really one of them either.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13I went to Jamaica thinking, "If I'm rejected here,
0:34:13 > 0:34:16"I could be accepted in a Jamaican environment."
0:34:16 > 0:34:20Only to be told by my aunt, at a time of giving
0:34:20 > 0:34:25a blood transfusion to a boy from the community who was dying,
0:34:25 > 0:34:28that "Clement" - in front of the whole crowd from the community -
0:34:28 > 0:34:31"can't give blood, cos he's got white blood in him.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35"And white blood cannot be transfused or taken and put into a black person -
0:34:35 > 0:34:36"especially a black child."
0:34:39 > 0:34:42So Clement Cooper returned to Britain.
0:34:42 > 0:34:47He'd gone halfway around the world and still didn't know where he fitted in.
0:34:47 > 0:34:49As it happened, the answer was just a few miles
0:34:49 > 0:34:53down the M62 from Manchester to Liverpool -
0:34:53 > 0:34:57a port city that had always been home to one of the largest mixed race communities.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02I went to this club called the Ebo club,
0:35:02 > 0:35:04at the bottom of Parliament Street.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07And I went in there for the very first time one evening,
0:35:07 > 0:35:08and I opened this door,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11and for the first time in my whole life, at the age of 29,
0:35:11 > 0:35:17there was this roomful of people who looked very similar to me.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22It was a revelation. Finally, he felt he knew who he was.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25He didn't have to try to be white OR black.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30Not just in terms of the complexion, but the whole structure
0:35:30 > 0:35:34and the way...just the way they looked and acted, and it was
0:35:34 > 0:35:41a complete shock, to see so many people like myself in one space.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49Clement's journey marks one little victory for all mixed race people.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56One more step in their fight to carve out
0:35:56 > 0:35:58an identity for themselves.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05But there was still one major battle.
0:36:05 > 0:36:10It pitted black activists against those in charge of social policy.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14Should mixed race children be defined by their colour,
0:36:14 > 0:36:16or by their need?
0:36:25 > 0:36:31In 1989, those black activists and social workers got what they'd campaigned for.
0:36:31 > 0:36:36The new Children's Act effectively reversed the previous guidance of 1970,
0:36:36 > 0:36:39saying race SHOULD be given due consideration.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42Councils should try whenever appropriate
0:36:42 > 0:36:44to match black children to black couples,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48and mixed race children to black OR mixed race couples.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53However well-meaning that instruction to consider race was,
0:36:53 > 0:36:56it effectively meant that many mixed race children
0:36:56 > 0:36:59ended up in care rather than with a family.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03There simply weren't enough mixed race couples who wanted to take them in.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10One mixed race couple bucked that trend.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14On the 10th of February 1988, Mike and Julie DeSouza
0:37:14 > 0:37:19were sitting outside a room awaiting a decision on adoption.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23They came back and... just sat down with us, I think.
0:37:23 > 0:37:28Just said, "I'm really sorry, we need to talk to you."
0:37:29 > 0:37:32Yeah, just delivered the news that we had actually been...
0:37:32 > 0:37:34we hadn't been approved.
0:37:34 > 0:37:40It was a personal rejection of who I was, and I just felt like...
0:37:41 > 0:37:48..that I wasn't good enough to be the father of a mixed race child.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51MUSIC: "No Ordinary Love" by Sade
0:37:55 > 0:37:59Mike and Julie had got married in 1989.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05Born in London, Mike was himself the child of a mother
0:38:05 > 0:38:09from the Caribbean, and a Chinese-Portuguese father.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14After getting married, they'd had two children of their own,
0:38:14 > 0:38:16but wanted to have a larger family.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22So, in 1996, they'd approached Barnardo's, believing they would be
0:38:22 > 0:38:25the perfect candidates to adopt a mixed race child.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29How wrong they'd been.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32As the meeting unfolded, it became apparent
0:38:32 > 0:38:35that the social workers didn't think they were ready.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39The family needed some extra training.
0:38:40 > 0:38:45I thought it was a bit of a joke, to be honest. I thought, this is...
0:38:45 > 0:38:47Joke? I think I would have been pretty angry.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51- I don't want to put words into YOUR mouth.- The anger came later.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54It was after the second panel. Because we figured, OK,
0:38:54 > 0:38:56it's just one more hoop to jump through -
0:38:56 > 0:39:00once we get through this, it'll be fine, we'll have our son.
0:39:03 > 0:39:08The extra training for Mike and Julie was a year-long racial awareness course.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11By now, they'd begun to select a child to take home,
0:39:11 > 0:39:16so, in February 1988, they attended a final adoption panel.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23There were 13 people in the room - 12 of them were white English,
0:39:23 > 0:39:25there was an Asian woman,
0:39:25 > 0:39:29and I was the only black male in the room. And they were saying that
0:39:29 > 0:39:33their concern was I wouldn't be able to equip a black boy
0:39:33 > 0:39:36to deal with racism as he grew up.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40They would rather revoke our approval
0:39:40 > 0:39:42and allow a child to grow up in the care system,
0:39:42 > 0:39:47than to be placed in a home with parents who would love and care
0:39:47 > 0:39:50and want to nurture that child. I just felt that was so wrong.
0:39:50 > 0:39:55Sue was told she couldn't adopt because she was too tall.
0:39:55 > 0:40:00Mike was told he wasn't black ENOUGH to adopt.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02This is The Vanessa Show.
0:40:02 > 0:40:07The story of the DeSouza adoption process soon broke nationally,
0:40:07 > 0:40:09causing outrage in the media.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14Barnardo's at that time
0:40:14 > 0:40:18said they HAD involved a black social worker at an earlier stage in the process.
0:40:21 > 0:40:23A new dawn has broken, has it not?
0:40:23 > 0:40:25CHEERING
0:40:25 > 0:40:28The row had coincided with a change at national level,
0:40:28 > 0:40:32with the election in 1997 of a new Labour government,
0:40:32 > 0:40:37and with it came Britain's first mixed race MPs.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45I was a child of mixed heritage - my mother was white,
0:40:45 > 0:40:47my father was black -
0:40:47 > 0:40:51and I was brought up as a young black African male.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54That's how I saw myself.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57Because frankly, when the National Front or the British Movement
0:40:57 > 0:40:59are kicking your head in, George Alagiah,
0:40:59 > 0:41:02they don't ask whether you are of Indian origin,
0:41:02 > 0:41:05or whether you are mixed race, or black... You're a nigger.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08You're black, you're a wog. And they kick your head in.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12Now, if you are bringing up a child into such a world,
0:41:12 > 0:41:15then that's a very heavy responsibility.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19And you have to be equipped to give them that sense of self-worth
0:41:19 > 0:41:23and strength of identity that sees them through that.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27But there are white parents that can do that, there are black parents who can do that,
0:41:27 > 0:41:32there are white parents who fail in that, and black parents and mixed race parents who fail in that,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36because parenting in such a situation is a very difficult job.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43By 1998, Paul Boateng was a junior minister.
0:41:43 > 0:41:45He drew on his own experience
0:41:45 > 0:41:48when he decided to change once again the guidance on adoptions.
0:41:51 > 0:41:56He said it was unacceptable for a child to be denied loving adoptive parents
0:41:56 > 0:41:58solely on the grounds that the child
0:41:58 > 0:42:03and adopters did not share the same racial or cultural background.
0:42:04 > 0:42:07'It's a decision he continues to stand by.'
0:42:08 > 0:42:14Is it preferable in any event, to have two loving white parents -
0:42:14 > 0:42:17who are making an effort to bring the child up
0:42:17 > 0:42:21with a good sense of self-worth and identity -
0:42:21 > 0:42:25is it better that they should be brought up by such a couple,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28than languish in a children's home,
0:42:28 > 0:42:31or languish in a situation where they're fostered
0:42:31 > 0:42:33from one foster home to another?
0:42:33 > 0:42:36Yes - because all the evidence is
0:42:36 > 0:42:39that the state is a pretty bad parent. And that's the reality.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43The DeSouzas didn't give up.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46A year later they applied to be adoptive parents again -
0:42:46 > 0:42:50this time with Hackney Council.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53After a year we were unconditionally approved,
0:42:53 > 0:42:55and then four months later we got our son.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59- Whose name is...?- Caleb.
0:42:59 > 0:43:03- How old is he now?- He's ten. We got him at eight months.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07His birth mother was half Nigerian and half Welsh, I believe,
0:43:07 > 0:43:10and his biological father was white English.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14So he's quarter Nigerian, in fact.
0:43:14 > 0:43:18But he's fantastic, he's such a great little kid.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21So you're kind of a regular United Nations!
0:43:21 > 0:43:23We really are. That's right.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27A happy ending for the DeSouzas. But even today,
0:43:27 > 0:43:32mixed race children still account for more than 8% of those in care,
0:43:32 > 0:43:35when they only make up 3% of our population.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43There are signs of change -
0:43:43 > 0:43:46the new coalition government issued more guidance,
0:43:46 > 0:43:50making race just one of many factors that need to be considered,
0:43:50 > 0:43:54and it's no longer the most important one. Here's what it says.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58"As long as a family can meet all the emotional needs of a child
0:43:58 > 0:43:59"seeking a permanent home,
0:43:59 > 0:44:03"their ethnic origin should not be a factor."
0:44:10 > 0:44:12That reinforcement of the Labour guidelines
0:44:12 > 0:44:15is not a hard and fast rule.
0:44:15 > 0:44:20It's still down to adoption agencies and local councils.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30In the '90s, despite previous attempts to limit non-European
0:44:30 > 0:44:35immigration, Britain continued to attract new arrivals.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39Wars and conflicts produced a stream of refugees
0:44:39 > 0:44:43from every corner of the world, and they made their new homes here.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54Vietnamese boat people built a community in Nottingham,
0:44:54 > 0:44:56Bosnians congregated in London,
0:44:56 > 0:44:58and the Congolese headed for Sheffield.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11So refugee by refugee, migrant by migrant,
0:45:11 > 0:45:16Britain was becoming one of the most ethnically diverse places on earth.
0:45:16 > 0:45:18It meant that an Arab from Morocco
0:45:18 > 0:45:21could fall in love with a Cambodian
0:45:21 > 0:45:24or that an Iranian could marry a Burmese girl -
0:45:24 > 0:45:28and their children would be mixed-race and British.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36And attitudes towards mixed-race couples were changing too.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41While in the '50s, the majority of British people
0:45:41 > 0:45:44had disapproved of mixed marriages,
0:45:44 > 0:45:46one survey showed that by the mid-'90s,
0:45:46 > 0:45:49only 10% would admit to being against them.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53From the '50s to the '90s, obviously a lot changed.
0:45:53 > 0:45:58One, people living side by side with each other, but on top of that,
0:45:58 > 0:46:03at an official level, we have race legislation being brought in.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06And so this changing idea that it's normal
0:46:06 > 0:46:09to have different races living side by side,
0:46:09 > 0:46:13but also that racism isn't normal,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16that racism is wrong.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22But Britain itself was changing.
0:46:22 > 0:46:27By the early 1990s, the mixed-race population in Britain
0:46:27 > 0:46:29was estimated to be over 300,000.
0:46:29 > 0:46:30It was by no means huge,
0:46:30 > 0:46:34but a considerable part of the population nonetheless.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39Proof of that could be found on most estates,
0:46:39 > 0:46:40in virtually every suburb
0:46:40 > 0:46:45and in the homes of the rich, the famous and the titled.
0:46:49 > 0:46:54In 1992, rock legend David Bowie married the Somalian model Iman.
0:47:03 > 0:47:07And in 1995, cricketing royalty Imran Khan
0:47:07 > 0:47:11married English gentry Jemima Goldsmith.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16Then two years later Diana, Princess of Wales -
0:47:16 > 0:47:19then considered the most famous woman in the world -
0:47:19 > 0:47:24was photographed with her new Egyptian boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed.
0:47:28 > 0:47:35What happens when you began to see famous mixed-race relationships,
0:47:35 > 0:47:38and I'm thinking of people like Jemima Goldsmith
0:47:38 > 0:47:39and Imran Khan, the cricketer,
0:47:39 > 0:47:44Princess Diana and Dodi, what was the effect of that?
0:47:44 > 0:47:50I think it brought the idea of mixed-race relationships
0:47:50 > 0:47:55into a different public realm,
0:47:55 > 0:47:58and it questioned, slightly,
0:47:58 > 0:48:02some of the assumptions and stereotypes that were out there
0:48:02 > 0:48:05about mixed-race relationships and, you know, the idea
0:48:05 > 0:48:10that these are primarily working class, and so to see these
0:48:10 > 0:48:14high-profile celebrities in these mixed relationships -
0:48:14 > 0:48:17in particular, people like Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed,
0:48:17 > 0:48:22made people think, "Oh, that's interesting,
0:48:22 > 0:48:25"I didn't think it was those sort of people that mixed race."
0:48:28 > 0:48:31The irony was that while white Britain -
0:48:31 > 0:48:34whether it was the mother to a future king or someone down the road -
0:48:34 > 0:48:38seemed to be more relaxed about mixed-race relationships,
0:48:38 > 0:48:41some immigrants were still locked into the old ways.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44The Asian community still remains one of those
0:48:44 > 0:48:47with the lowest rates of marrying out.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50So what if she's pregnant? So what if the father's black?
0:48:50 > 0:48:53- Black?- This is the 20th century, you know?
0:48:53 > 0:48:57- SHE SPEAKS HER OWN LANGUAGE - That will kill your family, you know?
0:48:57 > 0:49:00Let's just calm down, sisters, all right?
0:49:00 > 0:49:05The film Bhaji On The Beach was greeted with outrage by many Asians,
0:49:05 > 0:49:09especially the sight of an Indian girl kissing a black man.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13It showed how hard it was for them to break with the past.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17If my sister had come home with a black guy,
0:49:17 > 0:49:22then I would have been against it, if I'm telling the truth,
0:49:22 > 0:49:23because culturally
0:49:23 > 0:49:26I would have not been able to accept that,
0:49:26 > 0:49:30and I can't say why, but that's just the way I think I'm programmed
0:49:30 > 0:49:32as an Indian.
0:49:34 > 0:49:36But love, they say, conquers all.
0:49:36 > 0:49:38As we've seen in this story,
0:49:38 > 0:49:42it can break down even the firmest of cultural barriers.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46I assumed my whole life that I was going to actually just marry
0:49:46 > 0:49:50an Indian girl, as that was what was expected from me,
0:49:50 > 0:49:52from my family and relatives.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56That's the way I was brought up, so I had to marry someone
0:49:56 > 0:50:01that was going to be the perfect daughter-in-law for my family
0:50:01 > 0:50:02and me as a husband.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07I never thought it was going to turn into a serious relationship
0:50:07 > 0:50:10cos he mentioned that when he would get married,
0:50:10 > 0:50:12it would be to an Indian girl.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16But Jaspreet Panglea didn't get married to an Indian girl.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22He married Primrose Jackson in Hounslow in 2009.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27The bride wore a white wedding dress during the day,
0:50:27 > 0:50:30and in the evening, Asian dress.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35To them, the day was a blending of their different cultures -
0:50:35 > 0:50:37Zimbabwean and Sikh.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41It all went smoothly on the day,
0:50:41 > 0:50:45but the road to the wedding was anything but.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48I was thinking, she's a nice girl, but I thought to myself
0:50:48 > 0:50:51there's no way I could ever get serious with this girl
0:50:51 > 0:50:53because this is not going to go anywhere
0:50:53 > 0:50:56and I could lose everyone in my life if I do this,
0:50:56 > 0:51:00like, went with a girl... a black girl, basically.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08Jaspreet's parents are from India
0:51:08 > 0:51:12and he's been brought up in a very traditional Punjabi Sikh household.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19I told my parents. That was hard, very hard.
0:51:19 > 0:51:21The hardest thing I ever did in my life.
0:51:21 > 0:51:27My dad was very supportive and he was ready to get us married straight away.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30But there were people obviously that said, "We're not happy
0:51:30 > 0:51:33"and we're not going come to the wedding if he's going to do this."
0:51:33 > 0:51:36So those people didn't come.
0:51:36 > 0:51:40I got over it and I wake up every morning the happiest man on the planet
0:51:40 > 0:51:43so for me, that's all that matters.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51The couple both accept that it will take time for some people
0:51:51 > 0:51:54to accept their relationship fully.
0:51:54 > 0:51:59But they're rather hoping their latest news will make it easier.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03When we have children. Yes, we are actually expecting a kid now.
0:52:04 > 0:52:09- There's a little baby in there. - We're ecstatic.
0:52:09 > 0:52:11It's really good. Can't wait to be a dad.
0:52:11 > 0:52:13I'm really looking forward to that.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16This will be an infusion of both of us.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19I wish the nine months would go quicker. Yeah.
0:52:19 > 0:52:21Quite proud of myself, actually.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33Remember that little girl on the platform at Paddington station?
0:52:37 > 0:52:41Rosie Walters was put into care when she was just two years old
0:52:41 > 0:52:46because her white mother couldn't cope with having a mixed-race child.
0:52:46 > 0:52:47Ten years later,
0:52:47 > 0:52:50she was moved from the mainly white area of Swansea
0:52:50 > 0:52:53to the mixed area of Stockwell, in London,
0:52:53 > 0:52:55where she grew up and still lives.
0:52:56 > 0:53:01The changes in her life mirror and reflect the changes in our country.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07I was about 31 years old when I was able to stand up
0:53:07 > 0:53:09and say, "I am a black woman of mixed parentage."
0:53:09 > 0:53:12I started to feel more comfortable with who I was.
0:53:12 > 0:53:17I started to recognise my own worth in society.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20I think when I started to branch out and meet different people
0:53:20 > 0:53:23from different backgrounds, I started to realise
0:53:23 > 0:53:25it's actually all right to be yourself, you know, Rose.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32She's found herself and her country has found her.
0:53:34 > 0:53:3920 years ago, when she first started filling out the National Census form,
0:53:39 > 0:53:41she only had the box marked "other".
0:53:41 > 0:53:42Now it is different.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49This is 2011 and, of course, it's census year.
0:53:49 > 0:53:51In a way, Britain's going to give you the opportunity
0:53:51 > 0:53:54to tick something and say you're mixed-race.
0:53:54 > 0:53:55How does that feel?
0:53:55 > 0:53:57I think it's a big step forward, isn't it, really?
0:53:57 > 0:54:00And it does show that there's some recognition.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03So what are you going to put? White Afro-Caribbean?
0:54:03 > 0:54:07White Afro-Caribbean, yeah. That's what I am. That's who I am.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13Done. You're official.
0:54:13 > 0:54:14At last. At last.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17Been a long time coming, hasn't it? But you know, yeah.
0:54:17 > 0:54:23# This is the world that we live in
0:54:23 > 0:54:26# I feel myself get tired
0:54:26 > 0:54:31# This is the world that we live in... #
0:54:33 > 0:54:36The census may not reveal the mixed-race population
0:54:36 > 0:54:40in all its complexity, but it has shattered one stereotype -
0:54:40 > 0:54:44that it's largely a working class phenomenon.
0:54:50 > 0:54:52There is a very middle class dimension
0:54:52 > 0:54:56to mixed-race families in Britain.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59They tend to have higher levels of home ownership,
0:54:59 > 0:55:04er, higher levels of the educational profiles,
0:55:04 > 0:55:08which again challenges this idea that it's a working class
0:55:08 > 0:55:11or even an underclass phenomenon,
0:55:11 > 0:55:15something that you only find in council estates, in inner cities.
0:55:15 > 0:55:19In fact, the picture of mixing in Britain is something
0:55:19 > 0:55:24which is more middle class and spread throughout the country,
0:55:24 > 0:55:28not just in pockets of cities.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33There are places in Britain where colour, mixed-race or otherwise,
0:55:33 > 0:55:36is still a rarity - perhaps exotic -
0:55:36 > 0:55:38but here in Newham in East London,
0:55:38 > 0:55:4275%, three-quarters of all newborn babies,
0:55:42 > 0:55:46will have mothers who were themselves born outside the UK.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49So imagine you're a teenager
0:55:49 > 0:55:51and you're out looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend
0:55:51 > 0:55:54and you want to stick to your own kind.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57You may find the choice is rather limited.
0:56:02 > 0:56:07I've come back to where our story began, Limehouse docks.
0:56:07 > 0:56:12Waves of new arrivals since then have swelled our ethnic population
0:56:12 > 0:56:15and resulted in Britain's mixed-race people
0:56:15 > 0:56:20becoming one of the fastest-growing and youngest ethnic groups in the country.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22In the 2001 census,
0:56:22 > 0:56:26there were well over half a million mixed-race people in the UK.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29That figure is now thought to have grown to one million.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38I asked some of those I'd met on my journey to join me
0:56:38 > 0:56:41to come together and celebrate their differences -
0:56:41 > 0:56:43but also what they shared in common.
0:56:45 > 0:56:49There was Connie, who'd endured the humiliation
0:56:49 > 0:56:51of having her head measured by race scientists
0:56:51 > 0:56:55to see if mixed-race children were as intelligent as others.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00Mary and Jake, who once faced intolerance and abuse
0:57:00 > 0:57:02for simply dancing together.
0:57:07 > 0:57:12And Dauod, the son of Olive and Ali Salaman from Tiger Bay,
0:57:12 > 0:57:17home of one of our first and proudest mixed-race communities.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23Take a look at them. They're British, every one of them.
0:57:33 > 0:57:37When I set out, I wanted to explore the lives of mixed-race people
0:57:37 > 0:57:40but week by week, interview by interview,
0:57:40 > 0:57:45I've realised that their story is also the story of modern Britain.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49We've seen how this country has been exposed to the same poisonous mix
0:57:49 > 0:57:54of racist theory and prejudice as the rest of Europe and America.
0:57:54 > 0:57:57Through it all, we have cut a rather unique path.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00Trade and Empire had a part to play,
0:58:00 > 0:58:03personal courage was matched by a sort of communal pragmatism.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06And then, of course, there was love and lust.
0:58:06 > 0:58:08Whatever the reasons,
0:58:08 > 0:58:12Britain has emerged as one of the most mixed nations on earth
0:58:12 > 0:58:15and I, for one, am proud of that.
0:58:43 > 0:58:45Subtitles by Red Bee Media
0:58:45 > 0:58:48E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk