Reviews

Same Family, Different Colors: Confronting Colorism in America's Diverse Families by Lori L. Tharps

lizmart88's review

3.0

Interest book that explores the tension between race and color, and the idea that racism is not quite the same as colorism. People are discriminated against based not just on race but on color. In practice, this means that light-skinned blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and others face less racism than dark-skinned people in the same group. She does a good job of a brief exploration of colorism in several major racial/ethnic groups - African American, Asian & Asian American, Latino/Hispanic, multi-racial, and white. It is quite compelling to read the origins of colorism across all the ethnic groups.

One of the things that was most fascinating is that while colonial oppression led to the favoring of light-skinned people as they were closer to "white" in most cultures, in Asian light-skinned favorability began before Western oppression.

The book explores the history in each group, and then several stories that reveal the complexity of colorism. The book focuses on families with biological children who may be different shades of color and how that plays out in family and societal dynamics.

Interesting read for sure!

amerikanerin's review against another edition

5.0

Great read on how colorism changes the way we are treated, the author delves into her own biases on color and how different hues in her own children change the narrative with each child. this book also touches on how skin color could dictate who we feel like we belong to culturally and how important the belonging matters for children, but may not have been addressed, as told by the adults looking at their own history.

For parents, especially those adopting a person of color, this could be a great learning took to help understand why color matters and the importance of discussing color early on.

joinreallife's review

5.0

By examining the ways different families from different ethnic groups confront and deal with skin color differences in the intimate space of the home, we can see where, when, how, and why color bias beings or ends and why it takes hold of some people while others are able to shrug it off like yesterday's news. We can see why a dark child in a Latino family scrubs herself with bleach every night so people understand she is her mother's child. We can see why a blond-haired, blue-eyed biracial girl covers her face with her Black mother's makeup so people recognize she is her mother's child. Colorism isn't just public statistics; it is also private agony that influences identity formation, self-esteem, and personal relationships. (13)

I received this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program, which is one of my favourite things in the world. I love books, I especially love free books, and I love that as a relative plebeian in the world, I still have the opportunity to get some ARCs. (Some authors receive stacks of ARCS per week. I would love to get there someday.)

I was stoked to win a copy of this book. While I have not personally been affected by colorism, I have close friends who have, and the issues examined within this book have been near the forefront of my mind for a while. As someone who is constantly looking to be more aware, to be more intersection in my causes, Same Family, Different Colors offers a look at a fairly taboo topic which is nonetheless incredibly present in many people's lives. As evidenced by the excerpt above, colorism within families and in America at large can have a devastating impact. If the idea of a child scrubbing themselves with bleach in an attempt to fit in and be recognized and identified with the rest of their family is not heartbreaking to you, you might want to check yourself.

This book was perfectly toned for me, with just the right ratio of personal anecdotes, interviews with individuals and families about their experiences, and historical context for why colorism might affect the four main types of families included (African Americans, Asian families, Latino families, and multiracial families). As a history nerd and someone who received a degree in History, there were some pieces of historical context that I knew, of course, but were presented in such a new light, in consideration of how that past might have led to this present where colorism is a real experience for people. For example, the idea that white men were willing and eager to marry African or Native women because of the lack of white women in the colonies, but if the law sanctioned those marriages, it would be implying that African and Native people were human. And then, of course, it would be much harder to justify the enslavement and mass slaughter of those groups. I've never heard that fact of history stated in quite that way before, and it was quite a revelation for me.

I shared some more general thoughts about the book in my vlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqPqRVZlKN4 .

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is interested in race and color in the United States. This book is being released in early October, and is LibraryThing, and to Beacon Press, for the ARC of this book! And thank you to the author, Lori L. Tharps, for writing this difficult and essential book. Please note that excerpts in both the blog and the vlog are from an uncorrected proof, and may be changed in the final bound version.

Originally posted at Musings of an Incurable Bookworm: http://incurablebookworm.blogspot.com/2016/09/same-family-different-colors.html