Crossing the Color Line

.

This thought-provoking mix of autobiography and analysis by a white woman married to a black man and the mother of two children documents "my own journey toward an internalized understanding of race--white, and black--and racism." Reddy, who teaches English and women's studies at Rhode Island College, notes that most literature treats interracial unions and families as problematic and recounts how she tried to find "nonproblem" books for her toddler son. She discusses the shifting identifications that her son and other biracial children make and tells disturbing stories about institutional insensitivity to racism in her son's school. Reddy discusses literature by authors like Toni Morrison and her own struggles in talking about race in her classrooms. Her experience has led to well-grounded lessons: though Reddy agrees that white women must learn to understand black women for feminism to "progress," she also argues that black women too readily demonize white feminists. "Loving blackness," she concludes, does not mean hating whiteness, but "refusing to put whiteness at the center of everything."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.