Patrick Butler is the editor of Society Guardian
Last week, in the pages of Society Guardian, Laura Smith wrote a deeply personal, heartfelt account of being mixed race. It was a superb piece, a great piece of writing, which deserved plaudits and serious discussion.
However, I did not anticipate the huge response the article received, from all over the world: London, Dubai, Angola, China. The most striking aspect of the responses (some of which we have reproduced in Society Guardian today) was their positive nature. For many respondents, Laura's piece was a revelation; they felt that for the first time they had read something serious about their lives (or that of their children's).
I was expecting some nasty comments from BNP types, but just one of 80 emails we have received (so far) was critical (and this from the Jewish mother of a mixed race child appalled by what she saw - wrongly I think - as the self-absorbed nature of the article). We sometimes think, in the liberal media, that we are on top of diversity issues, that issues of race and discrimination are these days obvious and clearly identifiable, if far from being resolved. We are wrong. The invisibility of mixed race people was to me a startling revelation. And if you don't believe me, try answering this simple question: How many of England's World Cup 2006 football squad were mixed race (the answer is in today's Society Guardian).
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