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 90
... stepmother covered with flowery contact paper is next to my bed . On top of it I put the portable yellow and white record player Daddy gave me for my birthday and all of the forty - fives I buy for a dollar fifty at the record store ...
... stepmother covered with flowery contact paper is next to my bed . On top of it I put the portable yellow and white record player Daddy gave me for my birthday and all of the forty - fives I buy for a dollar fifty at the record store ...
Page 197
... stepmother for my two - year - old brother , Ben , her firstborn son . It means walking around with my stepmother , this Sephardic- looking Jew who calls me her daughter around people who never question . The Bronx means saying hello ...
... stepmother for my two - year - old brother , Ben , her firstborn son . It means walking around with my stepmother , this Sephardic- looking Jew who calls me her daughter around people who never question . The Bronx means saying hello ...
Page 204
... stepmother has concocted to kill me , to wipe away all traces of blackness or to make me so uncom- fortable with it that I myself will it away . I don't know that I am thinking this , but I am . I think that she and I are doing battle ...
... stepmother has concocted to kill me , to wipe away all traces of blackness or to make me so uncom- fortable with it that I myself will it away . I don't know that I am thinking this , but I am . I think that she and I are doing battle ...
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Common terms and phrases
Andrew arms blue body boys brown camp close color comes Daddy dark door drives everything eyes face father feel floor friends front girls give goes Grandma green hair hand hard head hear hold imagine inside Jewish keep kids kind kitchen late later laugh leave legs Lena light Lisa listen living look Mama means meet Michael mind mother move never night parents pick play pull pushing remember says shirt side Sing sister skin smile sometimes stand starts stay stepmother stop street sure talk tell thing told trying turn Uncle waiting walk wall watch wearing whole window woman women write yellow
References to this book
Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism Jennifer Baumgardner,Amy Richards No preview available - 2005 |