Pearl's Secret: A Black Man's Search for His White Family

Rating:
Summary: Searching a Lost Branch of the Family
Review: Fascinating story. The author, who is black, allows us with full sincerity into his heart and soul. Being middle-class white myself, I believe I know how other middle-class white people think because of our shared experiences. But blacks have lived other experiences. This book gave me a peek into the middle-class black world. For that I thank the author.
Reading how the author spent frustrating hours researching and searching for his genealogical past in different towns and states, and in archival and governmental departments was tickling. He showed me step by step how he got ever closer and closer to his goal of finding this lost branch of the family. Throwing in as a monkey wrench the fact that the branch he spotlighted was white whose patriarch disowned his child (the author's ancestor) during the slave days because she was ½-black made for a very interesting read. I recommend this book for all, esp. whites.
It's written in a simple open style except when he goes off on his black-politics tangents. But even that helped illuminate his inner workings. I have black acquaintances who hold the same hypersensitive political beliefs. But nevertheless I found that these tangents took away from the unity of the book. It could be argued that there are two books here under one cover: one is a fascinating story on finding a lost branch of the family, a black man finding his white kin; and the other is on impersonal racial politics. I skipped thru the politics. But it's OK, the first half was well worth the price. Also, I found that at times the author spent too much time on some of his immediate family who really had little to do with the book. Perhaps if he had delved more into his own experience as a black man in a white world rather then relating his parents' experiences in the Jim Crow era. But thankfully the story always got back to the struggle within the black author himself , of his anger, and of his conflicting black and (largely unknown) white heritage.
When the author finally made first contact with his contemporary (white) distant cousins, who were indeed vaguely aware of a black half-aunt from a few generations back, and after so many intervening generations of lost contact, and after so many steps of unending research, well, it was very moving. It was very deeply moving. Even a Klansman or a Black Panther would've been moved by this story of reunion of black and white in the same family. I couldn't put the book down,. What an adventure in closing the circle that spanned over a century. I hope the story didn't just end where the book did.

Rating:
Summary: Searching a Lost Branch of the Family
Review: Fascinating story. The author, who is black, allows us with full sincerity into his heart and soul. Being middle-class white myself, I believe I know how other middle-class white people think because of our shared experiences. But blacks have lived other experiences. This book gave me a peek into the middle-class black world. For that I thank the author.
Reading how the author spent frustrating hours researching and searching for his genealogical past in different towns and states, and in archival and governmental departments was tickling. He showed me step by step how he got ever closer and closer to his goal of finding this lost branch of the family. Throwing in as a monkey wrench the fact that the branch he spotlighted was white whose patriarch disowned his child (the author's ancestor) during the slave days because she was ½-black made for a very interesting read. I recommend this book for all, esp. whites.
It's written in a simple open style except when he goes off on his black-politics tangents. But even that helped illuminate his inner workings. I have black acquaintances who hold the same hypersensitive political beliefs. But nevertheless I found that these tangents took away from the unity of the book. It could be argued that there are two books here under one cover: one is a fascinating story on finding a lost branch of the family, a black man finding his white kin; and the other is on impersonal racial politics. I skipped thru the politics. But it's OK, the first half was well worth the price. Also, I found that at times the author spent too much time on some of his immediate family who really had little to do with the book. Perhaps if he had delved more into his own experience as a black man in a white world rather then relating his parents' experiences in the Jim Crow era. But thankfully the story always got back to the struggle within the black author himself , of his anger, and of his conflicting black and (largely unknown) white heritage.
When the author finally made first contact with his contemporary (white) distant cousins, who were indeed vaguely aware of a black half-aunt from a few generations back, and after so many intervening generations of lost contact, and after so many steps of unending research, well, it was very moving. It was very deeply moving. Even a Klansman or a Black Panther would've been moved by this story of reunion of black and white in the same family. I couldn't put the book down,. What an adventure in closing the circle that spanned over a century. I hope the story didn't just end where the book did.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful journey
Review: Hardly able to put down this book! I enjoyed the vivid imagery and the honesty used as the author brought the reader along on his journey to find clues about his ancestry. Throughout the book, he successfully blends the present, his personal past experiences, and the actual details of his search. I enjoyed learning about his more immediate family and their struggles/success although his viewpoints on race relations/prejudice got tiresome. Necessary of course, but a bit much...for example, his white wife firing off a letter to the paper about witnessing a game being played by kids & its perceived racial undertones...do we need to know this? We believe the author and his family are strong in their position against racism from the many, many examples given! Seems the author is constantly trying to prove his "blackness", maybe directly related to his being of mixed race. Also, I agree with the previous reviewer about the unnecessary spotlight given to a crude uncle at the end. I was then left wondering about the brothers, aunt Vivian and sister Sharon ( the two women never mentioned). Overall a great read for those interested in history, geneology and the ties of family ...black or white.

Rating:
Summary: Heart warming
Review: I enjoyed this book very much. Mr. Henry had a Pearl, my Mother was named Pearl. Mr. Henry had a Rita, my sister was named Rita. My Granddaughter has ancestors that were slaves and she also has ancestors that owned slaves. I am gathering "her" history for her. Junie

Rating:
Summary: From An Old Seattle Friend
Review: I was shocked when Neil jumped up and angrily walked away from me saying that I was a racist. It was 1970 and Neil Henry and I were sitting with a group of friends in Franklin High School's library before the start of school. We often were together whether we were in math. class, playing chess, or basketball. Neil Henry is an old friend of mine who I haven't seen since high school, and reading his book brought back many memories. This one memory of him depicts the struggles that he must have felt about his own identity. "Pearl's Secret" tells an incredible and spiritually uplifting story of his victory to gain a hidden truth of his family that was his own identity. His life tells of a extremely capable young man who wanders through the world in search of something he isn't completely aware of himself. It is a story that many of us spend our lives dealing with in our own ways. Neil's strength and courage is his reward. That morning over thirty years ago when I felt I had hurt a good friend is now brought to light for me. I'm sorry Neil, and thank you.

Rating:
Summary: From An Old Seattle Friend
Review: I was shocked when Neil jumped up and angrily walked away from me saying that I was a racist. It was 1970 and Neil Henry and I were sitting with a group of friends in Franklin High School's library before the start of school. We often were together whether we were in math. class, playing chess, or basketball. Neil Henry is an old friend of mine who I haven't seen since high school, and reading his book brought back many memories. This one memory of him depicts the struggles that he must have felt about his own identity. "Pearl's Secret" tells an incredible and spiritually uplifting story of his victory to gain a hidden truth of his family that was his own identity. His life tells of a extremely capable young man who wanders through the world in search of something he isn't completely aware of himself. It is a story that many of us spend our lives dealing with in our own ways. Neil's strength and courage is his reward. That morning over thirty years ago when I felt I had hurt a good friend is now brought to light for me. I'm sorry Neil, and thank you.

Rating:
Summary: Pearl was a mixed white, not a "black"
Review: Ironically, Pearl's Secret leads one to question most of the "mulatto elite" or "pass for black" values the author holds dear. Neil Henry claims that his quadroon great-grandmother, Pearl was "proud" to be "black." However, her life story tells of a woman who "walked" the color line, even in Jim Crow St. Louis. Pearl took "white" lovers and did not behave the way a "respectable" light-skinned credit to the "Negro race" was supposed to behave. Pearl's "secret" was that she kept in touch with her "pure" white family in Louisiana after moving to St. Louis. She was afraid to tell her "Negro" family about it because she feared ridicule. As every good, black-identified "mulatto elite" person knows, "white" genes are to be cherished as a source of beauty, intelligence and "good" hair, but "white" people are to be rejected as "the enemy." That is why imposing a "black" identity on people who do not look "black" is racist and pathological.
Neil Henry tells of a trip he took to Greece in which Greeks started speaking to him in their native tongue because he "looked Greek" to them. Neil relates this tale with typical "mulatto elite" astonishment at being assigned a "superior" identity. He can't get over it. Henry's family is nearly all "mulatto elite" or mixed to varying degrees, with typical "mulatto elite" values. Young Neil must be the best student in school in order to prove to "whites" that "blacks" aren't inferior. He must be "proud" of his [black] "race," while cherishing light skin and "good" hair. He must consider himself indisputably "black" even though he seems to have nothing in common with the "real" black kids. His culture is too "white" for them. He denies the contradictions of his "black" public identity and his mixed-race reality.
Finally, it must be noted that Neil Henry (professor of journalism at the Univeristy of California, Berkeley), is a gatekeeper of official knowledge on "race." He must KNOW that, legally, the "one drop rule" has no status or power. He must KNOW that the obvious "black" ancestry of his Latino, North African and Arab students and colleagues proves that. His book is designed to perpetuate the "one drop" lie and frighten people into a "black" identity they don't want and which doesn't suit them in the least.

Rating:
Summary: Very Touching and Powerful
Review: Ironically, Pearl's Secret leads one to question most of the "mulatto elite" or "pass for black" values the author holds dear. Neil Henry claims that his quadroon great-grandmother, Pearl was "proud" to be "black." However, her life story tells of a woman who "walked" the color line, even in Jim Crow St. Louis. Pearl took "white" lovers and did not behave the way a "respectable" light-skinned credit to the "Negro race" was supposed to behave. Pearl's "secret" was that she kept in touch with her "pure" white family in Louisiana after moving to St. Louis. She was afraid to tell her "Negro" family about it because she feared ridicule. As every good, black-identified "mulatto elite" person knows, "white" genes are to be cherished as a source of beauty, intelligence and "good" hair, but "white" people are to be rejected as "the enemy." That is why imposing a "black" identity on people who do not look "black" is racist and pathological.
Neil Henry tells of a trip he took to Greece in which Greeks started speaking to him in their native tongue because he "looked Greek" to them. Neil relates this tale with typical "mulatto elite" astonishment at being assigned a "superior" identity. He can't get over it. Henry's family is nearly all "mulatto elite" or mixed to varying degrees, with typical "mulatto elite" values. Young Neil must be the best student in school in order to prove to "whites" that "blacks" aren't inferior. He must be "proud" of his [black] "race," while cherishing light skin and "good" hair. He must consider himself indisputably "black" even though he seems to have nothing in common with the "real" black kids. His culture is too "white" for them. He denies the contradictions of his "black" public identity and his mixed-race reality.
Finally, it must be noted that Neil Henry (professor of journalism at the Univeristy of California, Berkeley), is a gatekeeper of official knowledge on "race." He must KNOW that, legally, the "one drop rule" has no status or power. He must KNOW that the obvious "black" ancestry of his Latino, North African and Arab students and colleagues proves that. His book is designed to perpetuate the "one drop" lie and frighten people into a "black" identity they don't want and which doesn't suit them in the least.

Rating:
Summary: Pearl was a mixed white, not a "black"
Review: Ironically, Pearl's Secret leads one to question most of the "mulatto elite" or "pass for black" values the author holds dear. Neil Henry claims that his quadroon great-grandmother, Pearl was "proud" to be "black." However, her life story tells of a woman who "walked" the color line, even in Jim Crow St. Louis. Pearl took "white" lovers and did not behave the way a "respectable" light-skinned credit to the "Negro race" was supposed to behave. Pearl's "secret" was that she kept in touch with her "pure" white family in Louisiana after moving to St. Louis. She was afraid to tell her "Negro" family about it because she feared ridicule. As every good, black-identified "mulatto elite" person knows, "white" genes are to be cherished as a source of beauty, intelligence and "good" hair, but "white" people are to be rejected as "the enemy." That is why imposing a "black" identity on people who do not look "black" is racist and pathological.
Neil Henry tells of a trip he took to Greece in which Greeks started speaking to him in their native tongue because he "looked Greek" to them. Neil relates this tale with typical "mulatto elite" astonishment at being assigned a "superior" identity. He can't get over it. Henry's family is nearly all "mulatto elite" or mixed to varying degrees, with typical "mulatto elite" values. Young Neil must be the best student in school in order to prove to "whites" that "blacks" aren't inferior. He must be "proud" of his [black] "race," while cherishing light skin and "good" hair. He must consider himself indisputably "black" even though he seems to have nothing in common with the "real" black kids. His culture is too "white" for them. He denies the contradictions of his "black" public identity and his mixed-race reality.
Finally, it must be noted that Neil Henry (professor of journalism at the Univeristy of California, Berkeley), is a gatekeeper of official knowledge on "race." He must KNOW that, legally, the "one drop rule" has no status or power. He must KNOW that the obvious "black" ancestry of his Latino, North African and Arab students and colleagues proves that. His book is designed to perpetuate the "one drop" lie and frighten people into a "black" identity they don't want and which doesn't suit them in the least.

Rating:
Summary: A 'Secret' Worth Revealing
Review: Neil Henry took this journey for himself and his family. That he chose to share it through 'Pearl's Secret' is a gift to us all. This work is an excellent addition to the body of literature about race relations in America. This book chronicles Henry's often exasperating research into the history of his white ancestors and their descendents. Through years of diligent, tedious searching, Henry managed to find his present-day white kin and visited with them in the hope of having his burning questions answered and sharing collective lore and memories. His writing style and candor in describing his curiosity, anger and dissapointments made for more engaging reading than I had anticiapted from a book which I had mistakenly believed was only about genealogy.
The conculsion that Henry's 20th century black family raised in Seattle was far better off than his distant white relations living in the south is a testament to the home enviornment in which he was raised by loving parents who truly understood the importance of instilling pride, self worth and confidence in their children--no matter the odds stacked against them.
Overall, I found the book to be uplifting and positive. I would recommend it highly.