Check All That Apply
I had mixed feelings (pardon the pun) about this book. I was excited to read it because it is a fairly recently written book on the subject of Mixed identity, and its written by a mixed race person, BUT i was concerned that I might be put off by the focus on faith and discussions of faith and race. I personally do not follow a particular faith nor have I ever, which is what made it difficult for me to relate to this book. There for I know this is not the most in-depth review.
I heard Sundee Tucker Frazier on NPR once as a guest on a show whose focus was on the mixed race experience. I really liked the way she spoke and what she had to say. In this book she pulls primarily from her own life to talk about the mixed experience. Sundee is black and white and talks about that experience. She does do a fairly good job of trying to bring in other mixes when she talks about other mixed race people that she has worked with or worshipped with. However when doing so however she does not really addressed the differences in experience that their various mixes may have contributed to their experiences. What she did do was talk about how through their relationships with their faith they were able to overcome some of the hurts they had experienced and embrace their multiraciality, or become more whole people.
This book placed a great emphasis on reflection and action which was meant to help the reader explore his or her own feelings about being of a mixed heritage family. Some of these reflection exercises had to do with secular subjects, like thinking about how you see yourself, how you have or have not experienced racism, how has your family history influenced how you see yourself and other such questions. She also offers questions for reflection that have the reader thinking about their relationship with their faith, their faith communities and so on.
This book has prompted the creation of a new category on the site that I will call Faith and Race, and will contain resources that will hopefully speak to the experiences of mixed heritage folks within the context of faith or religion and how race and faith interact with respect to being mixed race.
The reason I put this in the Students and Families category and the Counseling category is that I could see a couple things happening. One might be that a family whose faith is very important to them, as it is to Sundee, may find that this is the exact conversation they needed to be having. Or the ideas may just resonate with them. In a counseling situation this might be a good book to refer someone to who is struggling with issues of faith and racial acceptance, or perhaps for ministers or people of the church looking to integrate mixed issues into the conversations they have with their ministry (if that’s the right term).
I would be very interested to hear what other people thought about this book. If you are a person who is not very religious or of a different faith than Sundee how did you relate to this book?
What parts did you find useful to the greater mixed race conversation?
Posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 in the following categories: Book, Race and Faith, Sundee Ticker Frazier
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