In his memoir, Life on the Color Line, author Dr. Gregory Howard Williams, in an odd reversal of the "passing" paradigm, grew up believing that he was white only to later discover his African American parentage. Williams's poignant accounts of the confusion and ostracism he encountered on both sides of the color question also illustrate the general ambivalence society experiences about these issues.
So although recent nonfiction works have begun to probe the sexual politics of race, fiction writers have largely ignored the subject. Kitt deserves high marks for creating a novel that treats with authenticity and evenhandedness from the inside out about how African Americans can sometimes react to the many colors of their identity. Dr. Meta G. Carstarphen is at the Department Of Journalism at the University of North Texas.
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