Books About Race for Adults

AsianAmerican.jpg Asian American Dreams
by Helen Zia
$16.00
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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beyongwhiteness.gif 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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canwetalk.jpg 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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DebatingRace.jpg 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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DoesAnybodyElse.jpg 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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FirstR062.jpg First R, The; How Children Learn Race and Racism
By Debra Van Ausdale & Joe R. Feagin
$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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GirlWhoFell.jpg Girl Who Fell from the Sky, The
by Heidi Durrow
$13.95
In her first novel, Durrow draws her own experience of growing up biracial through Rachel who, like Durrow, is the daughter of an African American man and a Danish woman. Rachel struggles with racial identity when her family moves from Europe back to the United States, as she responds to peoples expectations of her and how they expect her to act out her blackness.

Pact says: This is a great read that explores the intersection of race and class as well as the challenges and assumptions from both the white and black communities about how education, speech and her looks place her within the racialized continuum of her identity as a member of the African Diaspora.
going-natural.jpg 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.jpg 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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HeartWhiteness.jpg 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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goodhair.jpg 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-hair.gif 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.gif 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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jimcrow.jpg New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexande
$27.95
Alexander reviews American racial history from the colonies to the Clinton administration, delineating its transformation into the war on drugs. She offers an acute analysis of the effect of this mass incarceration upon former inmates who will be discriminated against, legally, for the rest of their lives, denied employment, housing, education, and public benefits.

Pact says: This book reveals how both the move toward colorblindness and affirmative action may blur our vision of injustice.
NoLye.jpg 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.jpg 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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Quinceanera.jpg 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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Tripping.jpg 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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WakeUpLittleSusie.jpg 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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WavyCurlyKinky.jpg 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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WhiteLikeMe.jpg White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son
by Tim Wise
$14.95
Racial privilege shapes the lives of white Americans in every facet of life, from employment and education to housing and criminal justice. Using stories from his own life, Tim Wise shows that racism not only burdens people of color, but also benefits those who are "white like him" - whether or not they're actively racist. Using stories instead of stale statistics, Wise weaves a compelling narrative that assesses the magnitude of racial privilege and is at once readable and scholarly, analytical yet accessible.

Pact says: All of us can learn from Wise's honest self-assessment.
whyareblackkids.gif 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.jpg 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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