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Books About Race for Adults
Americanos
by Edward James Olmos, Carlos Fuentes and Lea Ybarra
$25.00
Olmos writes, asserting, "The face of America should include us." This spirited bilingual book depicts a montage of Latino life. Photographs compiled from the work of 32 Latino photographers and l8 writers captures the beauty and grace of the people and cultures they represent.
Pact says: This book is a great read and a beautiful coffee table book that celebrates the diversity of the Latino experience in America and as a bonus the essays are presented in both English and Spanish.
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Asian American Dreams
by Helen Zia
$15.00
Award-winning journalist Zia traces the changing politics and cultures of Asian Americans by examining the incidents that helped galvanize them. This well-written book is an important addition to the growing field of Asian American studies. The result is a vivid personal and national history, in which Zia guides us through a range of recent flash points that have galvanized the Asian-American community.
Pact says: This is the best book we have found to give an overview of the Asian American experience.
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Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness
by Jane Lazarre
$19.95
A mother's recognition of white economic, social, and moral complicity in the power structure of racism. From the book jacket: "'I am Black,' Jane Lazarre's son tells her. 'I have a Jewish mother but I am not "biracial." The term is meaningless to me.' This book is her memoir about learning to look at race in a way that passionately informs the connections between herself and her family."
Pact says: This book is fabulous; clear-eyed, thoughtful and moving. It is not about adoption but is about the experience of a white parent of Black children. Jane Lazarre is a terrific writer and her story delineates a path for the self-discovery of assumptions about racial identity. Essential reading. A Pact bestseller.
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Can We Talk About Race: And Other Coversations in an Era of School
By Beverly Daniel Tatum
$22.95
Tatum starts with a warning call about increasing but underreported
resegregation of America. A self-described "integration baby"--she was born
in 1954--Tatum sees our growing isolation from each other as deeply
problematic, and she believes that schools can be key institutions for
forging connections across the racial divide. In this ambitious, accessible
book, Tatum examines issues in American education and race relations: the
need of African American students to see themselves reflected in curricula
and institutions; how unexamined racial attitudes can negatively affect
minority-student achievement; and the possibilities--and complications--of
intimate cross-racial friendships. Tatum approaches all these topics with
the blend of analysis and storytelling that make her persuasive and
engaging.
Pact says: We consider Beverly Daniel Tatum to be one of the truth-tellers
about our current state of race relations and issues. This is must reading
for all parents of children of color.
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Debating Race
by Michael Eric Dyson
$26.00
Having risen from poverty to become an ordained minister, a tenured professor at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, Dyson has been called the voice of Black America because of his ability to combine intellectual rigor with popular culture. Collecting 27 transcribed conversations involving an impressive list of thinkers-including scholars (Gary Orfield, Cornel West), politicians (John McCain, John Kerry) and pop-political commentators (Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher)-Dyson and company tackle practically every angle in America's experience of race, including the legacy of the civil rights movement, immigration reform, affirmative action, urban poverty and the war on terror.
Pact says: Dyson is controversial and provocative, offering real insight into the state of race in America.
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Does Anybody Else Look Like Me?; A Parent's Guide to Raising Multiracial Children
by Donna Jackson Nakazawa
$14.95
This book takes a developmental look at raising multiracial children. The author is the white mom of Hapa (Asian/white) children. She asserts that race matters and offers concrete suggestions for how parents can talk with and shore up their kids to handle the racism and scrutiny they will face.
Pact says: A very accessible book, but the focus is limited to parents of two different races raising a child of mixed racial heritage.
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First R, The; How Children Learn Race and Racism
by Claudine C. O'Hearn
$19.95
A study of 3 and 4 year olds in progressive multicultural day care centers showing that young children have a sophisticated knowledge of how race/ethnicity is used in our society to rank people -- AND that they know this racial hierarchy makes many adults anxious so they try to cover their knowledge.
Pact says: An extremely useful book that underlines the importance of explicitly teaching about race and tolerance. Although the book is academic in tone, the content make this a worthwhile read to complete.
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Going Natural
By Mireille Liong-A-Kong
$13.95
How To Fall In Love With Nappy Hair. Filled with suggestions and pictures of natural hair styles, this is a great book that explores the how-to's of natural hair care combined with ideas and support for feeling beautiful as an African American woman. Mireille grew up in South America and is all about helping black women celebrate their beauty and their hair.
Pact says: Great support and information for African American hair care and styles for girls and women. (Although the information can be applied to boys as well!)
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Half and Half
by Claudine C. O'Hearn
$13.95
Personal essays from seventeen writers, including Julia Alvarez, Indira Ganesan, James McBride, David Mura and Lori Tsang, and a range of other distinctive voices, this anthology reveals the constancy of the human concern to find the place that feels right, and the challenge of addressing and incorporating (biracial) dual ethnic identity.
Pact says: This outstanding work offers food for thought for all readers, but in particular for those interested in transracial families or multiethnic identity.
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Heart of Whiteness, The: Confronting Race, Racism, and White Privilege
by Robert Jensen
$12.95
A personal discourse on being white and the necessity of owning whtie privelege in order to stop it and make change in the racial landscape in which we live. Gives good insight into ways in which white privelege pervade and the reasons it matters.
Pact says: It is time for white people to acknowledge that they are at the heart of the race problems in
America - this book is a call to action.
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How It Feels To Be Adopted
by Jill Krementz
$16.00
Nineteen kids from diverse backgrounds confide their feelings.
Pact says: This classic is still the best book we've found explaining a variety of children's perspectives of how it feels to be adopted. The inclusion of photographs brings a greater sense of immediacy and realism to the text and help children to identify with others who share their experiences. Required reading for Pact clients.
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It's All Good Hair: The Guide to Styling and Grooming Black Children's Hair
by Michele Collinson
$12.95
Learn how to do coils, knots, twists, and more. Featuring hair-care and styling tips from a variety of experts, and learn the secrets to braiding, relaxing, and locking,. Detailed instruction on how to care for a variety of hair textures from bone straight to wavy, to tightly coiled and everything in between. This book covers parting to combing to cornrows, twists and braiding. It also covers some basic style for boys.
Pact says: Nice reminders for readers about the importance of telling their children that they are beautiful and smart as they spend time together combing and styling.
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Kids Talk Hair
by Pamela Ferell
$19.95
As Ferrell writes in the introduction, "Hair care the hard way has left some tearful and unpleasant hair experiences. ... I imagine that all this trial and error stuff could be avoided if there were simple, user-friendly hair care instructions for grown-ups ... that explain: how kids' hair grows; how to shampoo or get gum out of hair; how to deal with head lice, ringworm and comb-out disasters and, mostly, how to make pretty hair styles."
Pact says: A practical and colorful book, essential for parents of African American daughters.
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Measure of Our Success
by Marian Wright Edelman
$10.00
An inspirational book by America's premier advocate for children. In this book, written for her own children, Ms. Edelman details the lessons for life she hopes to pass along to the next generation.
Pact says: Marian Wright Edelman is a powerful role model. In this inspiring book, written for her own children, she details the lessons for life she hopes to pass along to the next generation. Beautifully written and highly recommended.
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No Lye: The African American Women's Guide to Natural Hair Care
by Tulani Kinard
$13.95
Kinard's study on African American natural hair care is based on her philosophical belief that beauty and self-love is healthy and biologically sound. A must-read for every African-American woman, man, girl, and boy-and every parent and friend who plans to take care of a child's hair! Tulani Kinard reveals the secrets to obtaining and maintaining beautiful healthy hair-naturally.
Pact says: Don't think hair is not an adoption issue. Feeling beautiful and handsome is part of feeling good about oneself.
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Of Many Colors
by Peggy Gillespie
$22.95
The families include transracial, interracial, same-race blended, adoptive, single parent, and two-parent families, both heterosexual and homosexual.
Pact says: In this moving and intimate look at multiracial family life, the compelling photograph of each family is accompanied by revealing text culled from interviews with the family members - children as well as adults - who describe in their own voices and words some of the joys and challenges of life in a multiracial family.
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Once Upon a Quinceanera : Coming of Age in the USA
by Julia Alvarez
$23.95
Skillfully blending memoir and social science, Alvarez explores the quinceañera, the coming-of-age ceremony for Latinas turning 15. She structures her book around one particular girl's ceremony, from the dreamy planning stages through the late hours of the actual, dizzying affair. Both
sympathetic and critical, she doesn't dismiss the event as a waste of hard-earned savings or as a mere display of daughters for the marriage market; nor does she endorse it as the essential cultural tradition connecting Latinas to their roots. Instead, Alvarez wants readers to focus on creating positive, meaningful rites of passage for the younger generation.
Pact says: By intercutting the party narrative with stories from her own youth, Alvarez reminds herself-and readers-of both the value and complexity of the ritual in the Latino community.
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Thunderhead: A Children;s Hair Care Video For Parents
by Pamela Farrell
$24.95
Learn how to prepare the hair to do a simple braid, and cornrow with this
22-minute video that demonstrates easy comb-out for natural hair. Learn how
to do a 6-step shampoo at home, an easy blow dry, and two adorable braid
styles you can complete in 15 minutes. Great for moms, dads, grandparents.
Kids love it too.
Pact says: This clear and practical video show you how to do hair,
"hands-on." Highly recommended. VHS
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Transracial Adoption and Foster Care: Practical Issues for Professionals
By Joseph Crumbley
$18.95
This book describes specific ways practitioners can work with transracial families to ensure that children develop positive racial and cultural identities. Dr. Crumbley also
addresses such concerns as cultural competence and recruitment of adoptive and foster parents of color. Case studies and "myths" of transracial adoption provide valuable background information for child welfare professionals as well as adoptive parents.
Pact says: Joe Crumbley is one of the adoption world's clearest thinkers about transracial placements. Informed by his expertise as a clinician and his experience as a Black American, he has created an important book for anyone interested in the identity development of adopted children of color.
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Tripping on the Color Line
by Heather Dalmage
$24.00
Dalmage describes how people of all races support their own sense of racial identity and safety by erecting and maintaining "racial borders" - welcoming people of their own race inside and keeping those of other races out. Multiracial people, transracially adopted people, and all members of first-generation multiracial families share many experiences as they cross these racial borders.
Pact says: This is an accessible and stimulating read, useful for anyone interested in racial identity issues.
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Wake Up, Little Susie
by Ricki Solinger & Elaine Tyler May
$24.95
A highly readable history of the difference in services provided to African American women facing unplanned pregnancies compared to white women in the United States.
Pact says: This book provides an exceptionally clear statement of the effects of racism on women and children in crisis. There is a lengthy discussion on the implications that have played out in the context of US adoption in terms of both who the children are that are available for adoption and who gets to adopt them.
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Wavy, Curly, Kinky: The African American Child's Hair Care Guide
by Deborah Lilly
$14.95
In Wavy, Curly, Kinky, renowned stylist Deborah Lilly shows parents the best ways to style and maintain African American boys' and girls' hair from infancy to the preteen years. She presents clear, easy-to-follow hair care guidelines for the three different types of African American hair and gives you expert recommendations for the best products and techniques for each hair type.
Pact says: Another good addition to your hair care library.
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Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In the Cafeteria?
by Beverly Tatum
$15.95
In high schools and colleges daily, young people can be observed segregating themselves by race. Beverly Daniel Tatum explains this tendency as a way of affirming racial identity and outlines the process of developing racial pride through a series of predictable stages. Includes chapters on understanding Black, white, Latino, American Indian and Asian Pacific American identity.
Pact says: A fascinating and clearly presented map of steps toward integration of racial identity, this book affirms the need to understand the process and to talk about it. Highly recommended.
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Yellow: Race in America beyond Black and White
by Frank Wu
$16.95
A leading voice in the Asian American community tackles what is means to be Asian American in contemporary America. Wu suggests that the widespread stereotyping of Asian Americans, while "superficially positive," is inherently damaging. Mixing personal anecdotes, current events, academic studies, and court cases, Wu not only debunks the myth of a "model minority" but also makes discomfiting observations about attitudes toward affirmative action, what he calls "rational" discrimination, mixed marriages, racial profiling, and assimilation versus multiculturalism.
Pact says: A fascinating and clearly presented discussion of the Asian American experience.
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