Multiethnic Teens and Cultural Identity: A Hot Issue (Hot Issues)

Rating:
Summary: a good book for its intended audience
Review: This book discusses the life experiences, history, and current debates among/about multiracial people. It is part of a book series called "Hot Issues" which prints texts that deal with subjects that teenagers may want to understand like drug abuse, depression, and stalking. This is a VERY slender book. I read it within one sitting. It has nice photographs and charts; it also has a nice font that is easy on the eyes.

The author is great at reciting history (mentioning Pocahontas' marriage to John Rolfe, the Loving v. Virginia decision, the fact that Plessy was only one-eighth Black, etc.); she helps multiracial youth understand that they are not some new trend or phenomena. She emphasizes how immigration has helped to increase the amount of race-mixing in this country. She is great at explaining how many famous Blacks have both white and Native American ancestors.

Still, I have some criticisms of this book. First, this book is still black-white dominant. It has graphs comparing whites' and blacks' views on race that say nothing about Natives, Asians, or Latinos. It focuses on black-white mixed people even though numerically there are more Eurasian and Anglo-Latino mixed folk. Even though the author has a Spanish name and works at a university in a highly Latino area, the book says extremely little about Anglo-Latins and Latinos generally. She misquotes Tiger Woods: she said he identifies as "Cablinasian"; in actuality, he USED TO identify that way.

Despite the fact that I found this book at a university, it is clearly intended for a teenage or adolescent audience. So I like Maria PP Root's books and the autobiographies of Rebecca Walker and Kevin Johnson more than this, but that's because I am not the intended audience for this book. Again, I think multiracial teens will love this text, but most adults, especially those who have read multiracial books for adults, may be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: a good book for its intended audience
Review: This book discusses the life experiences, history, and current debates among/about multiracial people. It is part of a book series called "Hot Issues" which prints texts that deal with subjects that teenagers may want to understand like drug abuse, depression, and stalking. This is a VERY slender book. I read it within one sitting. It has nice photographs and charts; it also has a nice font that is easy on the eyes.

The author is great at reciting history (mentioning Pocahontas' marriage to John Rolfe, the Loving v. Virginia decision, the fact that Plessy was only one-eighth Black, etc.); she helps multiracial youth understand that they are not some new trend or phenomena. She emphasizes how immigration has helped to increase the amount of race-mixing in this country. She is great at explaining how many famous Blacks have both white and Native American ancestors.

Still, I have some criticisms of this book. First, this book is still black-white dominant. It has graphs comparing whites' and blacks' views on race that say nothing about Natives, Asians, or Latinos. It focuses on black-white mixed people even though numerically there are more Eurasian and Anglo-Latino mixed folk. Even though the author has a Spanish name and works at a university in a highly Latino area, the book says extremely little about Anglo-Latins and Latinos generally. She misquotes Tiger Woods: she said he identifies as "Cablinasian"; in actuality, he USED TO identify that way.

Despite the fact that I found this book at a university, it is clearly intended for a teenage or adolescent audience. So I like Maria PP Root's books and the autobiographies of Rebecca Walker and Kevin Johnson more than this, but that's because I am not the intended audience for this book. Again, I think multiracial teens will love this text, but most adults, especially those who have read multiracial books for adults, may be disappointed.