Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk About Race and Identity
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5.0 • 11 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
In this updated 20th anniversary edition of the landmark book, "Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk About Race and Identity" (Morrow, Quill), award-winning journalist Lise Funderburg explores the lives of adult children of black/white unions. Chapter-opening essays give historical, political, and social context to first-person narratives on such topics as Family, Prejudice, Love and Romance, Work, Religion, Identity Politics, Citizenship, and Community. These voices of unflinching honesty, whipsmart humor, extraordinary insight and deep feeling comprise a stunning — and enduring — portrait of race in America. Anniversary ebook edition includes enhanced photos, a new foreword by novelist Mat Johnson (Pym, Hunting in Harlem, Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery), and links to updated (2013) commentary from the book's original participants, in which they reflect on the passage of two decades, what has changed in their experiences of race...and what has stayed the same.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a sensitive exploration of the pressures and prejudices confronting biracial individuals, Funderburg, a New York-based freelance journalist, presents in-depth interviews with 46 American adults who have one black and one white parent. Her respondents report feeling tremendous pressure to choose one racial identity over the other as they were growing up, yet many finally embraced both racial heritages. The interviewees--among them teachers, executives, law students, a psychiatrist, a screenwriter, a newspaper reporter--talk about their developing sense of a biracial identity and how they confront expectations or stereotypes based on their physical appearance. In her insightful probe Funderburg, herself biracial, organizes the testimonies thematically around such topics as love, friendship, parenting, the workplace, religion and politics. Photos.
Customer Reviews
This should be required reading for Americans of all colors!
Funderburg does a super job of breaking down the assumptions and stereotypes surrounding multi-racial Americans, and the stories reminds us that we can continue to challenge the forced construction of race. The updates to the original are a great addition!
Black, White, Other
Excellent oral history on being multi-racial in America. I read everything she writes.