Blood by Lawrence Hill

I finally got around to reading Blood: The Stuff of Life by Lawrence Hill (author of The Book of Negroes among other books). An incredible read, both in terms of the science and history of the science of blood (and as someone with blood cancer, I thought I knew this stuff!), and how blood plays into our language, culture and identity. Fascinating just how much a drop of blood could determine whether you were deemed white or black (and the range of terms used to describe mixed parentage (e.g., quadroon, octoroon). But the most powerful is his discussion on identity, as per this wonderful excerpt:

If we were not so wedded to the arcane notions of blood, we would be freer to celebrate our various, complex and divergent identities relating to family and notions of talent and ability, citizenship and race. We would be more whole, self-accepting people, and less judgmental of others. In this day and age, who among us is not all mixed up?

…. Let’s drop the idea of what you are not allowed to be, or to do, because of who you are, but encourage each other to look for the good in our blood, and in our ancestry. We should let hatred and divisiveness spill from us as if it were bad blood, and search for more genuine and caring ways to imagine human identity and human relations.

Lawrence Hill on the power of blood – Life – Macleans.ca.