Black, White & Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self
Publisher
Riverhead Books
Publication Year
2001
ISBN
9781573221696
Pages
320 pages
Genre
autobiography
Format
full length
Item Type
Nonfiction
Annotation
In 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.
Grade Level
6-8; 9-12
Diversity Topics
Family Relationships; Racial Diversity; Culture/Ethnicity; Divorce; Biracial; Race discrimination; Biethnic; divorced parents; biracial child; racism; biethnic child; two homes
Main Character
girl
Race/Ethnicities
Black / White
Family Formation
mother and father
Awards
Booklist Editors' Choice: Adult Books for Young Adults, 2001
Senior High Core Collection, Seventeenth Edition, 2007
Senior High School Library Catalog, Sixteenth Edition, 2002
Alex Awards, 2002, Winner
Keywords
Jewish; Civil Rights Movement; identity; sex; multiple cities
Diversity Impact
direct
STARS Citation
Walker, Rebecca, "Black, White & Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self" (2001). Diverse Families. 1029.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/1029