#blacklivesmatter racism is a human problem

This story reminds me of a situation I found myself in. I was fostered in 1975 by a white working class family with two boys. I was in the middle age wise. Older was 15, younger was 5, me aged 7. Our mum was on speed dial with short term fostering. One day a beautiful baby girl, I think she was about 18 months turns up called Mdupi. She was only with us for a couple of months. But me and little bruv feed, played, changed nappies and paraded Mdupi everywhere.. she was such a bundle of joy. When Mdupi’s birth mum collected her (after serious operation then convalescence) was so impressed with how our mum took care of her precious little girl.. I hope Mdupi is living her best life, she probably doesn’t remember us, but we never forgot her.

/csb

Great long read, thanks for the link. Some resonance even for those of us with much less traumatic upbringing arrangements. The Last Tree has been on my watch list for ages, reminder to see it.

Interesting read. My gran fostered over 30 children including some African children short term when I was around 2 years old. I hadn't understood the background as generally she was working with the Church of England. She also adopted 4 girls who became my Aunts, 2 of them are black and didn't have contact with their birth parents although they were based in the UK.

I have a lot of contradictory thoughts and feelings about the whole situation, the effect it had on my adopted Aunts, my Mum, me and my family but there's no way I could hope to unpick it. My Gran started adoption initially to be able to keep a roof over the heads of her own family after her husband died in WWII. She fostered children with different needs and backgrounds over time.

I have been very lucky by comparison with their lives.