Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth about Where I Belong by Georgina Lawton is a absorbing memoir that is a perfect fit for readers who are interested in exploring themes of identity, mixed-race experiences, and antiracism, and who are looking for a deeply personal and emotional journey of self-discovery and growth.

Book rating: 3.5 stars
Georgina’s experience growing up was she was white, period, with her darker skin color and hair was explained by ancestry somehow. This denial of her true parentage was always troublesome, making her believe maybe she was switched at birth in the hospital or something else that her mother would never admit. Her father was a generous loving man, and always accepted Georgina. After he passed away a DNA test proved he wasn’t her real father, and painfully her mother admitted to an affair one night in a pub, but without any other info.

This memoir explores this painful realization of understanding herself and her biological past, while also diving into generalizations of race. In trying to deal with the revelations and anger at her mother for never talking and denying Georgina the truth about herself, gaslighting her childhood, Georgina travels briefly, while writing freelance articles about race. Once back in London she tries again to deal with the emotional fall out with her mother.

While the book is well written, there are points where the focus seems to wander, although in somewhat related area, such as the long sections on hair. It is easy to image as more people take DNA tests, they will discover family secrets such as Georgina’s. There are a couple of similar situations also discussed in the book, but not thoroughly.

A deeply moving portrayal of what it means to be raceless in a world that only sees your race. I loved the way that the author used her own personal experiences of growing up without race, despite all evidence to the contrary, shaped her experiences growing up and how it pushed her into discovery of her identity.

Raceless is an exceptional memoir full of research as well as deep self awareness that can only have come from the very hard work the author writes about in her journey. With a premise that, at first, seems so shocking - a mixed-race daughter raised in a white family and told she was white up through her 20s (despite years of race-based questions and experiences from the world around her) discovers her father is not her biological father and that she is, in fact, half Black - the reader learns that this kind of family secret is more common than we think.

Georgina Lawton battles both grief and an identity crisis after DNA test results reveal she is mixed-race, half white, half Black. I can only imagine the kind of unraveling such a denial of one's own identity and lived experience would feel like for over 20 years, but Lawton has certainly shared her vulnerability, her hard won lessons, and her pursuit to undo her own implicit biases and begin to construct and reshape an identity that is of her full self. In her pursuit of this, she includes a wealth of research about racially driven social structures, microaggressions, genealogy for the African diaspora, pros and cons of DNA testing, and numerous other stories of people who've lived similar experiences.

There is much to be appreciated and learned in Lawton's book, but what really captured me as an American reader (Lawton lives in England) was the concept of 'sankofa,' a West African term that roughly translates to "we must go back to our roots in order to move forward.' It is an African concept that understands claiming your past in a way that Western culture hasn't yet achieved and Lawton uses it like a call for white folks, like her own mother and other families where such secrets were kept, to reconcile their history, their privilege and bias in order not to carry it forward time and time again where people of color are the ones suffering mentally and physically because of it. It is a kind of atonement.

Such an incredible book. I thank the author for writing it. And thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

OK. Definitely a UK focus, but interesting perspective on race. This memoir focuses on a family secret that has a very heavy impact on the protagonist and how she comes to terms with it.

Thank you to Harper Perennial for a gifted copy of this book!

Raceless is a memoir about Georgina and her life growing up in a white family with dark skin and an insufficient explanation. She knows she is different but her family constantly leads her to believe she is also white.

We travel with her on a journey of confusion, standing out, feeling gaslighted, facing stigma, yet working towards finding out where she fits amongst it all and making amends with her loved ones.

The way the memoir is written is wonderful. It is a quick read sprinkled with interactions with so many other people who grew up in a similar situation. It is her story, but also her journey finding similar stories. She also has research mentioned throughout, but without making it feel like you’re reading a research paper.

I learned a lot from this book. Georgina travels the world so we get a look at the hair trade system in Vietnam, a movement in the Dominican Republic to embrace natural hair, ‘passing’ as a native in various cities/countries, and more than I had ever expected.

Really enjoyed this.

Raceless
In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth About Where I Belong
by Georgina Lawton
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Harper Perennial and Paperbacks
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Harper Perennial
Biographies & Memoirs | Nonfiction (Adult) | OwnVoices
Pub Date 23 Feb 2021 | Archive Date 20 Apr 2021

Read this if you are interested in a biography/memoir of a young author who grew up with a lot of secrets in her life. I believe this book was emotionally written and I didn't agree with many of her conclusions, but it was an interesting story. Thanks to Harper Perennial and NetGalley for the ARC.
3 star

An introspective tale of self-discovery and coming to terms with an identity that is entirely different from the one she was led to believe was hers, this was an eye-opening investigation of the ways that race and its erasure can effect families and ourselves. While interesting, I did find this work particularly disorganized in a way that detracted from the overall message. I also didn't necessarily agree with some of the author's conclusions based as they seemed to be more on emotion than an real evidence.

Read if you: Want an extraordinary and memorable memoir by a young author with an extraordinary story of growing up Black in a Caucasian British family.

Librarians/booksellers: Your memoir readers will be fascinated by Lawton's unique story; a must read.

Many thanks to Harper Perennial and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

thanks @netgalley @harperperennial for my review copy. this book caught my attention because of the title and the cover but once I read the synopsis, I started immediately. This book examines how racial identity is constructed through Lawton’s own family secrets and stereotypes. In lament terms, her parents were white and she looked Black (and it later turns out, she is, indeed, Black), making her question her identity her entire young life. It does a phenomenal job of the consequences and harm a color blind society creates. Once Lawton discovered her true racial identity after the death of her father, she spent time traveling to Black communities across the globe to try and make sense of what time she lost while grieving the most important man in her life she had no blood relation to but was her father all the same. This book is a perfect blend of memoir and sociological/psychological analysis. I am in awe of the though-provoking narrative Lawton has created and I will think about this book for a long time.