Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting SelfIn a memoir about the power of race to share one's personal identity, the daughter of Jewish father and African-American mother recalls her confusing but ultimately rewarding life lived between two conflicting ethnic identities. When Mel Leventhal married Alice Walker during the civil rights movement in the late 1960s, his mother declared him dead and did not reconcile until after the birth of her first grandchild. After Mel and Alice divorced, their daughter, Rebecca, alternated homes every two years, spending time in Mississippi, Brooklyn, San Francisco's Haight Ashbury, Washington, D.C., the Bronx, and suburban Westchester. With each new place came a new identity and desperate attempts to fit in: as white or black, as Puerto Rican or Jewish, as a party girl, a fighter, or a lover. Confused, and mostly alone, she turned to sex, drugs, books, and a cast of dangerous and thrilling characters. Black, White, and Jewish is the story of a child's unique struggle for identity and home when nothing in her world told her who she was or where she belonged. Poetic reflections on memory, time, and identity punctuate this gritty exploration of race and sexuality. Rebecca Walker has taken up the lineage of her mother, Alice, whose last name she chose to carry, and has written a lucid and inventive memoir that marks the launch of a major new literary talent. |
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Page 103
... mother's daughter , I like it even . I like the attention , the way the people who love my mother's writing dote on me and make me feel like I am special , too . Standing by my mother's elbow at the head of the long line of people , I ...
... mother's daughter , I like it even . I like the attention , the way the people who love my mother's writing dote on me and make me feel like I am special , too . Standing by my mother's elbow at the head of the long line of people , I ...
Page 245
... mother is home and his is too , we sneak into his basement , a dark room with no heat that his older brothers have renovated to look like the Parliament Funkadelic Mothership by covering all the walls with tinfoil and screwing purple ...
... mother is home and his is too , we sneak into his basement , a dark room with no heat that his older brothers have renovated to look like the Parliament Funkadelic Mothership by covering all the walls with tinfoil and screwing purple ...
Page 261
... mother walking up the speckled smooth cement stairs with me on the first days of school , but I am so excited about being an Urban student I don't dwell on it until the school has an open house for new students and their parents and my ...
... mother walking up the speckled smooth cement stairs with me on the first days of school , but I am so excited about being an Urban student I don't dwell on it until the school has an open house for new students and their parents and my ...
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References to this book
Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism Jennifer Baumgardner,Amy Richards No preview available - 2005 |