Testimony: Young African-Americans on Self-Discovery and Black Identity

Rating:
Summary: This is a great book!!!
Review: When I first picked up this book many, many years ago, I did not expect to connect with much of the material, because I did not feel that I identified with American Black culture, even though I am African American myself. I had been struggling with my "mixed-race" identity, feeling slightly out of place in both the White and Black worlds. I was drawn in by the collection of poems and essays in varying voices and perspectives. To my surprise, I found that there were pieces of me in story after story. As well, I began to understand ways of life that had seemed completely foreign to me before. The margins of my book are full of commentary, with certain passages highlighted and triple starred to show just how much they resonated with me. In the years since then, I have recommended this book for use in my alma mater graduate social work program, I have used this book in lectures and presentations about racial identity, and I have recommended it to my Black or "mixed-race" clients who are struggling with who they are and how they fit into the world. I have never read a book that more intimately shows the complexities of being African American, and demonstrates that there is no one definition of Black culture. Whether we are into hip hop or Mozart, from the inner city or the rural Midwest, we all fit in somehow or another through our own self-acceptance.