International Journal of Epidemiology 2003;32:886
© International Epidemiological Association 2003
Book Review |
Raiding the Gene Pool. The Social Construction of Mixed Race.
Jill Olumide. London: Pluto Press, 2002, pp. 224, £15.99 (PB) ISBN: 0-7453-1764-2; £45.00 (HB) ISBN: 0-7453-1765-0.
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Given that for the first time in the UK 2001 Census, people were able to describe themselves as of mixed ethnicity, the publication of Jill Olumide’s book providing an in-depth exploration of the meaning of, as she calls it ‘the mixed race condition’ is very timely. According to the UK National Statistics website, 660 000 people in England and Wales described themselves as being mixed race in Census 2001. It would, therefore, seem inevitable that before long mixed race will make up another category of the explanatory variable ‘ethnicity’ to be associated with various health (and other) outcomes. The insights available through reading this book should make the innocent (or naïve) researcher more cautious when attempting such analysis.
This well-written book takes us on a chapter by chapter journey through the author’s doctoral thesis. It explores the concepts and terms required to work with the idea of mixed race, attempts to conceptualize mixed race in the context of other social divisions, critiques the existing literature on the ‘study’ of mixed race, and outlines a brief history of mixed race. This substantial section of the text provides a necessary prelude to the presentation of material concerning the mixed race experience, based largely on interviews with people in various mixed race situations—including people viewed to be mixed race or to be in a mixed race relationship. Over two chapters, for me the most interesting, the author explores many issues facing people in mixed race positions. There is a particular focus on issues surrounding mixed race adoption and fostering. It is these two chapters which really bring to life the complexity of the topic at hand. The book concludes with some sociological theorizing about mixed race with the author offering some tentative conclusions in the form of ‘five features of a mixed race ideology’, which do provide valuable insights. In writing this review I did attempt to outline a summary of these five features, however, their complexity and their inability to be easily extrapolated from the author’s analysis makes this extremely difficult. As a result, readers seeking a ‘bullet point’-style insight into the topic would be left disappointed, yet it would be inappropriate to see this as a criticism of a book dealing with such an historically and contextually embedded area.
The book interweaves a critical assessment of the literature, documentary evidence, and interview data to explore the meaning of mixed race. With such material the book would have benefited from a more reflexive and critical assessment of the research. This was notable by its absence. I was left with many questions regarding both the methodology and methods used in the collection and analysis of qualitative data which the author could have made more transparent.
I looked forward to reviewing Raiding the Gene Pool, as an opportunity to read something from my (increasingly lengthy) would like to, but realistically will never get round to, reading list. It would be a shame if this book were largely relegated to this position, in particular, amongst those working in the area of ethnicity and health. However, I fear that to an epidemiological audience it might, as the text is written very much from a sociological perspective and the author does not shy away from drawing on sociological theory. Whilst I am sure the author would make no apology for this, to those not familiar with this style of writing, some chapters (in particular, chapters 2 and 7) may be a challenging read.
I am yet to come across any other material which considers in such an in-depth manner the issue of mixed race, and so, for this alone, the text makes a valuable contribution.
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