Mixed race identity

This has been a momentous week in black history. Barak Obama's election victory has propelled the issue of race to the top of the news agenda Photograph: Richard Milnes/Richard Milnes

In the UK, mixed heritage is the fastest growing minority ethnic group ... Photograph: Richard Milnes/Richard Milnes

... predicted to be the largest minority group by 2020 Photograph: Richard Milnes/Richard Milnes

A new collection of portraits from the Manchester-based Multiple Heritage Project, mix-d:uk, explores the issue of mixed race identity Photograph: Richard Milnes/Richard Milnes

The project was founded by Bradley Lincoln, whose father is black Jamaican and mother is white British. While his father told Lincoln as a boy that he was not black, his mother encouraged him to tell others he was "black and proud" Photograph: Richard Milnes/Richard Milnes

"I came to realise that monoheritage perspecitves, black or white, were very different to the daily living of my own 'mix-d' identity," says Lincoln Photograph: Richard Milnes/Richard Milnes

His experiences led Lincoln to found the Multiple Heritage Project, a social enterprise offering support for young people of multiple heritage, and guidance to those who work with them Photograph: Richard Milnes/Richard Milnes

Lincoln adds: "With an older head on my shoulders, I am now able to see my confusion during childhood was not mine alone - but a condition that I had to unlearn." Photograph: Richard Milnes/Richard Milnes

The book collects together portraits by photographer Richard Milnes and quotes from people involved in the Multiple Heritage Project Photograph: Richard Milnes/Richard Milnes

Lincoln describes mix-d:uk as "a book of pictures, personal statements and minimal words" Photograph: Richard Milnes/Richard Milnes

Lincoln says his book shows that mixed race people do not constitute a homogenous group Photograph: Richard Milnes/Richard Milnes

The book was officially launched earlier this week at Manchester's Urbis Exhibition Centre Photograph: Richard Milnes/Richard Milnes

Copies of mix-d:uk are available from Manchester's Race Relations Archive Photograph: Richard Milnes/Richard Milnes