Same Family, Different Colors: Confronting Colorism in America's Diverse Families Contributor(s): Tharps, Lori L. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0807076783 ISBN-13: 9780807076781 Publisher: Beacon Press OUR PRICE: $23.36 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: October 2016 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Sociology - Marriage & Family - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - General - Social Science | Discrimination & Race Relations |
Dewey: 305.800 |
LCCN: 2015048421 |
Physical Information: 0.8" H x 6.2" W x 8.9" (0.95 lbs) 216 pages |
Themes: - Topical - Family - Ethnic Orientation - African American - Ethnic Orientation - Asian - Ethnic Orientation - Hispanic - Ethnic Orientation - Latino - Ethnic Orientation - Chicano - Ethnic Orientation - Multicultural |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Weaving together personal stories, history, and analysis, Same Family, Different Colors explores the myriad ways skin-color politics affect family dynamics in the United States. 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. |