{"id":8871,"date":"2022-05-24T08:43:39","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T08:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=8871"},"modified":"2022-05-24T08:43:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T08:43:41","slug":"the-space-between-black-and-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=8871","title":{"rendered":"The Space Between Black and White"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Esuantsiwa Jane Goldsmith, Jacaranda Books 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When I did a stint on the Feminist Library stand at the Women of the World festival at the South Bank in March, I couldn\u2019t help noticing a colourful figure cruising the market place with a large starburst-style sticker on her jacket that read \u2018Meet the Author\u2019. This successful advertising campaign meant that most of the time she was surrounded by punters eager to buy her book and get it signed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in a fallow patch she approached our stall and from that point on it was inevitable that I would buy a copy, because Esuantsiwa Jane Goldsmith promised a story that was too good to miss, and looking at her standing there in what she called her \u2018Safrogette\u2019 trouser suit (of green and purple waxed cotton) I was inclined to believe her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born to a white working-class mother \u2013 and a Ghanaian father conspicuous by his absence \u2013 in Clapham in the 1950s, Jane was always going to get noticed. The racial abuse started early, at primary school: she is called names and asked why she has been rolling in dog\u2019s muck. The trouble is no one will tell her why she is Brown, and why there seem to be no other children like her around. The glimpse of an Asian family with a little girl one murky November afternoon on Clapham Common comes as a revelation to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if you can\u2019t hope to blend in, why not make the most of standing out? Jane seems to have adopted this policy quite spontaneously, acting on impulse to address issues of importance, starting with the remarkable play she wrote, directed and starred in at primary school, coercing her classmates to take part. The account of the first and only performance of Why Am I Brown?<\/em> made me laugh out loud, especially Jane’s regrets about her casting: \u2018I wish I had a stand-up speaking part like the others. I don\u2019t appear in the first bit at all, because I haven\u2019t been born yet, and I have to spend the next few scenes on Elizabeth\u2019s lap making small baby noises.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Esuantsiwa Jane Goldsmith\/damesnet<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The play is a huge success and nothing will stop Jane now. Emboldened, she leads a sit-in at secondary school and embraces student activism at Leicester University, becoming the first Black female president of the students\u2019 union there. Her successful protest gets the library opening hours reinstated, and then it\u2019s off to London for a grants (remember them?) demo, where she coins the immortal chant of \u2018No ifs, no buts\/We are gonna fight the cuts!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The search for identity portrayed in Why Am I Brown?<\/em> is the ongoing backdrop to Jane\u2019s adult life. Too Brown to be White, yet not Black enough to be Black, where does she belong? This is thrown into sharp relief when she signs up to Voluntary Service Overseas \u2013 and turns out to be their first-ever non-white volunteer. Out \u2018in the field\u2019 no one seems quite certain about her status or what to do with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter \u2013 Esua (and if you think there is a clue to the end of the book in her change of name, you are right) does her own thing, despite the toll it sometimes takes on her mental health. Part intriguing quest, part memoir, part social testimony, part manifesto for inclusivity, The Space Between Black and White<\/em> is never less than entertaining. Along the way Esua pays loving tribute to her mother, determined to keep her Mixed-Race daughter at any cost, and her grandfather, a committed socialist who inspired and supported Esua\u2019s lifelong activism. And her new-found family turn out to be just as remarkable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I treasure my copy of this unique book, with its inscription of \u2018To Verity, In sisterhood, International Women\u2019s Day 2022, Esua xxx\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She is asked why she has been rolling in dog’s muck<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[333,68,343,324,309,58,55,65,307,59],"tags":[460,459,338],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8871"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8890,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8871\/revisions\/8890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}