Lowri Turner talks about mixed Indian/White babies (well, hers actually) in todays Guardian, what do you all think?

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Full article here

She says things like

But we dont live in an ideal world and the way we all look matters. My daughters appearance is an issue to others as well as myself. A (white) friend visited yesterday and having examined the baby, she announced: Shes getting quite dark, isnt she? And I am ashamed to admit that in a reversal of what happens on holiday when you study your skin in the mirror every day hoping for a deepening tan, I too now find myself examining my daughter for signs that her skin is becoming a deeper shade of brown and being perturbed if I find them.

I am at this. My ds is half Indian.

And:

While I genuinely dont think that my not being Indian was a factor that counted against me with my husband or his family, I did underestimate the difference between our cultural backgrounds when we were first together. Our daughter will have to cope with being the product of two very different cultures. She will have to negotiate her own cultural identity, and I know too little to really help her.

I am intending to leave the Indian side of my daughters upbringing to my in-laws. This may seem a cop out, but, frankly, Im too knackered to do otherwise. If I had adopted her, social services would probably whip her away. However, working and bringing up three children, I havent the energy to learn Hindi or make my own lassi

BTW Ive taken apostrophes and quotation marks out as they come out strangely in preview but you get the gist.

mumemma, pardon me

I actually emailed Liz Jones once to ask her why she stayed with her husband when he was such a twat according to her diary. I didn't get a proper answer - she told me to keep reading 'as it will get worse!'.

Suckered in .

Marina - tis true, although Liz's other half had just been signed up to Grazia to write about being single! His column there has now come to an abrupt end happily - I'm not sure I could stomach his arrogance and details of latest shags on a weekly basis.

She sounds a bit hormonal and depressed to me. Not surprising if she's got a new baby and she's already split up with the father.
Some shocking choices of vocabulary though. Feeling 'grief for her daughter?

read whole article and that woman does not deserve that little girl
she writes TRIPE

guardian should be slammed for that offensive shite

ltes hope her daughter is a lezzer

lets hope her daughter is a lezzer

My son's father is Indian. I was 19 when I had him, but the thoughts and comments she has made would never have crossed my mind then or 13 years later! What a strange and confused woman.

What a strange article and she must know some rather odd people - are pg women often on the receiving end of remarks such as "Ooh another little blonde one, then?"?? I don't think anyone has ever said anything like that to me "Ooh another little red-head then?" Gender is the issue that preoccupies most people, ime.

Maybe LT has PND and this is how it's manifesting. But she can't possibly be a Mumsnetter; her baby is bottle-fed and she leaves her dc in the car while she pays for petrol!

I have always liked LT. Thought she seemed very sensible and down to earth
Think she may have gone a bit off the boil recently though

She sounds a bit naive. If she was worried in advance she should have looked into it before they had children but it's good people get a chance to write their feelings like that rather than feel they have to cover them up.

I wonder if she's given the baby her own surname and that of her older two children?

"my skin and that of my sons is white and slightly motley"

Eh ?

does she mean 'mottled' ?

May be white with brown spots like me i.e. freckles.

I used to be appalled by my daughter's indian friends at school who tried so hard to keep their skins pale and had mothers exhorting them not to go out into the sun. Very racist really.

'is my baby black'

errrrrrrrr not if one parent is white and the other Indian, no.

So her 2nd marriage went the way of the pear even sooner than her first ?

Is she projecting some kind of anger/frustration at the split with her Indian husband onto her DD ?

Any way Op did you expect to find a decent article in the Guardian?!

DoubleBluff: Bad Science. End of.

Ohh, just what I needed after a rubbish saturday at work a bit of Lowri bashing to cheer me up...... I've read every single post, thanks ladies feeling much better now

She really doesn't think before she types does she?

I hope she feels really ashamed of this article retrospectively. It is really shocking I think.

Incidentally, far from 'not writing about her dh' I found an article here - not exactly discreet!!!

I actually thought it was an interesting and well argued piece. Being a mother of two mixed-race children, me being white and my DH being mixed-race himself (Asian and Afro-caribbean) it discusses taboos we as a liberal, well-educated family may not have discussed. Both my children are different skin-tones and I love them both the same, but to dismiss the colour of someone's skin is naive in this day and age. Unfortunately we still live in a society whereby more people judge someone by their colour than not and no matter how many people think otherwise (and I include this and my family) the over-riding majority of the great british public have a low-level of racism within. I am always being questionned about my children's heritage and have had days whereby I too wonder about my children's future and the implications of this. Any of you readers who think she is being naive are indeed naive yourselves or must live in some microcosm of society because where I'm living (north east London suburbia) anyone who isn't blond and blue-eyed is different. I'm a huge fan of multiculturalism and have worked professionally with a lot of eastern europeans. For them, coming from countries where the only 'other' are often Roma Gypsies, the shock of seeing Asians and Blacks is often disconcerting, new and they have prejudices which need tackling. So as you can see racism is a changing face and one which will never disappear. So, in short, I feel Lowri has only scratched the surface and I enjoyed the piece.
nb - My reference to Eastern Europeans was only one example and is not made to be offensive but as they are the largest migratory group at present I feel it a useful one. Rant over.......

She seems to have trouble seeing beyond so-called racial characteristics, just like the people she would accuse of racism.

Horrible article, but interesting too.

Message withdrawn

Pruners - the Ben Goldacre Appreciation Society: it's you, me and MrsBadger. (I believe that MrsB is actually a scientist of some sort, so she'd better be Chair.)

Is she a professional journalist? Celeb? Never heard of her before.