Jackie Kay, BBC 1, BBC iPlayer, In My Own Words, Director Louise Lockwood

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0023998/in-my-own-words-series-1-jackie-kay

I was born around the same time as Jackie Kay. Like her, I wasn’t expected to live. I was brought home. She was given away by her white, birth, mother. Her father was Nigerian. She was put up for adoption. Her real mum and dad (Mr and Mrs Kay) already had a son. He too was adopted. She tells the story of how this happened.

Her Glaswegian parents were told by adoption agencies there were no kids. No babies to adopt. Almost as an afterthought, the social worker mentioned there was a ‘darkie child’. Of course, adoption agencies assumed that Mr. and Mrs. Kay wouldn’t want a child like that. Handicapped by skin colour. They grabbed her elder brother with both hands. Not because they were Communists fighting against imperialism and its twin progeny, racism, but because they were lovely human beings. Jackie Kay done good, because her parents were good. I’m sure she’d be the first to agree.

There’s a certain irony in watching Jackie Kay, an award-winning poet and Scottish makar (maker of poetry) opening the Scottish Parliament with a poem she’s written for the occasion. The Queen was there, mixing it up with her Communist minded mum and dad, who abhorred all that wealth and privilege ensconced in a wee woman, crown or no crown. I’m with the parents and not with the crown lovers. Well worth the watch.   

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