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Same Family, Different Colors
Confronting Colorism in America's Diverse Families
1 of 1 copy available
Colorism and color bias—the preference for or presumed superiority of people based on the color of their skin—is a pervasive and damaging but rarely openly discussed phenomenon. In this unprecedented book, Lori L. Tharps explores the issue in African American, Latino, Asian American, and mixed-race families and communities by weaving together personal stories, history, and analysis. The result is a compelling portrait of the myriad ways skin-color politics affect family dynamics in the United States.
Tharps, the mother of three mixed-race children with three distinct skin colors, uses her own family as a starting point to investigate how skin-color difference is dealt with. Her journey takes her across the country and into the lives of dozens of diverse individuals, all of whom have grappled with skin-color politics and speak candidly about experiences that sometimes scarred them. From a Latina woman who was told she couldn’t be in her best friend’s wedding photos because her dark skin would “spoil” the pictures, to a light-skinned African American man who spent his entire childhood “trying to be Black,” Tharps illuminates the complex and multifaceted ways that colorism affects our self-esteem and shapes our lives and relationships. Along with intimate and revealing stories, Tharps adds a historical overview and a contemporary cultural critique to contextualize how various communities and individuals navigate skin-color politics.
Groundbreaking and urgent, Same Family, Different Colors is a solution-seeking journey to the heart of identity politics, so that this more subtle “cousin to racism,” in the author’s words, will be exposed and confronted.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 4, 2016 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780807076798
- File size: 765 KB
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780807076798
- File size: 765 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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July 1, 2016
How family dynamics can reflect racial prejudices in society as a whole."Outside the house, siblings who are light and dark may be treated differently, and of course they bring those lived experiences back into the home," writes Tharps (Journalism/Temple Univ.; Substitute Me, 2010, etc.). This is particularly true within interracial families. The author has "medium-brown" skin, and her husband is "a Spaniard with a milky-white complexion." They have three children: one boy is dark-skinned with kinky hair who otherwise resembles his father, and the other resembles the author in everything but his fair complexion. Oddly, her daughter looks Asian at first glance. When Tharps is with her two fair-complexioned children, some people assume that she is their nanny. Conversely, her dark-skinned son has been asked whether he was adopted. It is not merely overt racism that is problematic, she explains, but also the differences in their educational and employment opportunities. More subtly, a light-skinned member of a "black" family who identifies with black culture may not necessarily be accepted by black peers. Throughout, the author augments her personal experience with eye-opening interviews. White-skin preference and the interplay between physical appearance (skin color and hair quality) and culture create stresses and estrangement within the family as well as the broader community. Tharps adopts the term "colorism," first coined by author and civil rights activist Alice Walker, to illustrate the subtle difference between white-skin privilege and outright racism. She reports instances of colorism from a wide variety of people--not just blacks, but also Latinos and Asians--that show the inherent significance of physical appearance in defining the intimate relationships within a family and society. Interestingly, as the author notes, the caste system in Asia--before European conquest--also exhibited color preference, likely attributable to a prejudice against laborers with sun-darkened complexions. A nuanced, forthright, emotionally compelling take on a painful subject.COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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