I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla: Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World

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Summary: A solid, research-based guide to kids' ideas of race
Review: As a regular reader of current works concerning children's development of racial identity, I found Dr. Marguerite Wright's "I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla" to be both refreshing and urgently needed in our society. Most of the books available about this subject present a world-weary, pessimistic message, that children of color naturally feel inferior and the most you can do is "deal with it" by using defensive stop-gap measures. In contrast, Dr. Wright has sifted through observations gleaned from her years of research and practice to craft a proactive, empowering approach to fostering and maintaining what her research has found to be young children's initially innocent and accepting regard of so-called racial differences. While Wright acknowledges the pervasive, subtle prejudice of today's America, she does not stop at bemoaning these inequities, but instead strives to arm parents and teachers with the knowledge they will need to correctly gauge children's understanding of race and also with wise tactics to prevent the often malignant race-obsession of previous generations from seeping into the minds of children. The copious advice she offers emphasizes augmenting a questioning awareness of race in children--after all, if we pass on to children a merely self-defeating, "racism is inevitable and unassailable" mindset, aren't we ourselves perpetuating the status quo? Wright advocates a enlightening new view of cultivating children's racial development when she argues that even if bias is there, we can help children to think through options of action in a mature and questioning manner and not just "deal with it," but act on their own terms.

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Summary: Didn't like book at all
Review: I didn't care for this book at all. I think it is a very well written book, for TEACHERS, but not for a parent who is transracially adopting a child. I was looking for a book on how I would parent an African American child and this book was more of a textbook. I think it is very misleading to have it labeled as a "must read for parents and teachers" and it should be advertised as a book for teachers. I thought "Inside Their Voices" was much more informative about the experiences of a transracially adopted child.

Rating:
Summary: I'm Vanilla I'm Chocolate
Review: I read the book(I'm Vanilla I'm Chocolate) and is real and much needed in today's society. She speaks the truth about young children, not seeing the differences of skin color, like us adults. I like her nurturing techniques. Positive talking and down playing the negativity. I carry the book and use it as a reference guide and give it as gifts. The book is needed, as a parent that wants to learn.

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Summary: Very good for American parents, not as much Canadian content
Review: The book covers a lot of ground. But as a father of a biracial son the most relevant parts for me dealt with light-skinned and biracial children. An important theme of the book is "Don't racialize childhood": Young children should be shielded from our adult racial baggage for as long as possible. Wright believes that early teaching about race and racism tends to result in black children feeling needlessly powerless and confused about their place in this world.

Wright encourages parents to raise older children in such a manner as to teach that integration and educational success are fully consistent with "being authentically black." On this important issue, she encourages parents to become aware and resist notions of black identity that rest on longstanding white racist stereotypes that have been internalized by many African Americans. For example, successful blacks (particularly successful black men) are often derided as "oreos" or "sell-outs."

Sometimes Wright seems to downplay the degree to which residual white supremacy continues to constrict the lives of black children. For example, regarding the classic issue of black "self hatred," she argues that it is rare for young black children to be ashamed of themselves or their race unless they have been abused or explicitly taught racist attitudes by caregivers. On this point, her position differs somewhat from social psychological research that argues that black kids identify with whites because whites simply have more power, wealth, and social status in American society. Yet, I believe Wright is correct when she encourages parents not to get too bent out of shape if their child goes through a stage in which he or she insists that he or she is white. As she shows in her excerpts from interviews with preschoolers, young children might use racial language, but they do not have an adult understanding of race. For example, preschoolers do not know about the one-drop rule, and it is typical for light-skinned children to believe for a time that they are white, as they are aware that their skin tone is similar to that of whites. This does not mean they hate blacks or think they are better than darker blacks. Wright explains that many black parents needlessly feel rejected when light-skinned children assert that they are white-this is usually a developmental stage, not a political or emotional rejection of blackness.

The author feels that parents and other caregivers can buffer most of the negative effects of white racism during the important early years. However, she argues (correctly, in my opinion) that poorly funded inner city public schools threaten to undo much of parents' best effort to prepare black children to compete in the larger society. Hence, she makes a compelling argument for school choice/vouchers and encourages parents to be ever vigilant in the education of their children.

Wright shows her integrity when she boldly speaks out against injustice within the black community. For example, she denounces the cynicism of African American special interest groups (e.g., NAACP) who seek to use the racist and oppressive "one-drop rule" to suppress biracial or multiracial identity. (It is simply wrong for mixed children to be expected to "closet" any part of their family heritage!)

Noting the increasing nihilism among black youth, Wright warns that parents and teachers need to teach and model the Golden Rule, something she believes that many in the black community have drifted away from. And she does not shy away from identifying a series of behavioral issues that undermine the health of black children, such as hurtful color biases within the black community (including overt favoritism of females with "good" hair), high rates of teenage and single parentage, a tendency to mistake dehumanizing forms of physical and emotional abuse for "discipline," and overly permissive attitudes regarding exposure to high doses of commercial TV and misogynistic and brutal music lyrics (i.e., Gansta rap).

All in all, this is a well-written and balanced book written by a committed mother and psychologist.

Rating:
Summary: This is book for anyone who deals with children of any race.
Review: This book is by no means useful only to parents of black and bi-racial children. As a white parent I found it very informative and uplifting. Its basic premise, that there is a developmental awareness of race, so different from adults, is often overlooked even by professionals. Dr. Wright points out how much we can learn from this child's perspective and what a fresh start we can have to correct misconceptions. I recommend it to parents, teachers, childcare providers, anyone who deals with children of any ethnicity. After all, kids are kids.

Rating:
Summary: I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla
Review: This book was exactly was I was looking for. It is NOT a book about adoption. To me, the book was how from the preschool years, children start to form opinions about race on up through the high school years. Also, it's about how teachers and parents can have a profound impact on how children view themselves in situations where they would be in the minority. I would highly recommend this book especially to parents like myself (black/hispanic with a white husband). Our daughters look hispanic and we live in an entirely white community. Our girls are ALWAYS the only ones with "brown" skin (as they say) in their classrooms. This book actually helps you address some of these issues and how to talk to teachers. Excellent book!

Rating:
Summary: Deliciously insightful
Review: While racism in America has been superficially erased in the law books, deep-rooted prejudices and racisms still run through the conscious and unconscious core of society. In the case of the African American, our nation's most historically visible racial minority, efforts have been made to eliminate the black racial identity or security within which individuals develop subcultural bonds. Such an American mixing pot idea inherently fails to recognize epistemic human qualities of judgement and group formation. Others, even legal promoters of biracial marriage, clearly classify African Americans into two camps: "good spades" and "crazy niggers" - the obvious differences here implying that black people are either acceptable in a subservient manner or unpredictable/clannish and not to be trusted. Marguerite Wright's groundbreaking novel focuses on the reactions such confusing principles hold on the American child of any racial origin, be it minority or majority, in-group or out-group. Comparing cranial morphology, skin tone, and cultural background, Wright hopes to explain racism firstly by empirically observable differences and only then to confront the affective decisions such observations provide. Her means of doing so will be through the extended metaphor of candy: candy as it is cooked from common ingredients, candy as it is perceived by various tasters, and candy as it is thereby priced in the free economy.