Same Family, Different Colors: Confronting Colorism In America's Diverse Families

Weaving together personal stories, history, and analysis, Same Family, Different Colors explores the myriad ways skin-color politics affect family dynamics in the United States. Colorism and color biasùthe preference for or presumed superiority of people based on the color of their skinùis a pervasive and damaging but rarely openly discussed phenomenon. In this unprecedented book, Lori L. Tharps explores the issue in African American, Latino, Asian American, and mixed-race families and communities by weaving together personal stories, history, and analysis. The result is a compelling portrait of the myriad ways skin-color politics affect family dynamics in the United States. Tharps, the mother of three mixed-race children with three distinct skin colors, uses her own family as a starting point to investigate how skin-color difference is dealt with. Her journey takes her across the country and into the lives of dozens of diverse individuals, all of whom have grappled with skin-color politics and speak candidly about experiences that sometimes scarred them. From a Latina woman who was told she couldnÆt be in her best friendÆs wedding photos because her dark skin would ôspoilö the pictures, to a light-skinned African American man who spent his entire childhood ôtrying to be Black,ö Tharps illuminates the complex and multifaceted ways that colorism affects our self-esteem and shapes our lives and relationships. Along with intimate and revealing stories, Tharps adds a historical overview and a contemporary cultural critique to contextualize how various communities and individuals navigate skin-color politics. Groundbreaking and urgent, Same Family, Different Colors is a solution-seeking journey to the heart of identity politics, so that this more subtle ôcousin to racism,ö in the authorÆs words, will be exposed and confronted.

• | Author: Lori L. Tharps
• | Publisher: Beacon Press
• | Publication Date: Oct 03, 2017
• | Number of Pages: 216 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback/Family & Relationships
• | ISBN-10: 0807071080
• | ISBN-13: 9780807071083