Críticas Magazine

Loida García-Febo

Interracial Couples
February 13, 2008

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. How to spice up our libraries and help our ever-diverse communities celebrate?

Ideas: Book displays, screening of videos, exhibitions and talks bout interracial families, multiracial children, multicultural friendship, and diverse communities.

Resources: Flint Public Library has a neat list of books about Biracial Identity. A list of children books about interracial families can be found at a blog from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Gallaudet University has a Birracial Children and Interracial Marriage: a selected bibliography. Infography has a wonderful mix of materials about Interracial Marriage in America.

A sample of books – for various age groups - recommended by colleagues:

The Legend of Freedom Hill

School Library Journal said:  ”The story concerns the friendship between outsiders Rosabel, an African American, and Sophie, a Jewish girl. The tale turns on the fact that Rosabel has her "freedom papers," but her mother does not. When the woman is captured under the Fugitive Slave Act, the girls hatch a plan to free her. Conveniently, they find gold in a nearby cave that is worth enough to buy freedom for Rosabel's mother and the five other prisoners on the slave wagon.” Grade 1-4.

Awards:

Children's Book of the Year Selection, Bank Street College/ STORYTELLING WORLD Award

Notable Children's Book of Jewish Content, Association of Jewish Libraries

Rain is not my Indian name  

School Library Journal said: "It is one of the best portrayals around of kids whose heritage is mixed but still very important in their lives. It's Rain's story and she cannot be reduced to simple labels. A wonderful novel of a present-day teen and her 'patch-work tribe.'" Grade 5-9.

Of many colors: portraits of multiracial families

Library Journal said, “This book will be useful to parents who want to show the variety of family life to their children, to teachers exploring issues of race and identity, and to readers trying to understand the current proposal to add a multiracial category to the decennial census for the year 2000.” Recommended for all public libraries.

Sex, love, race: crossing boundaries in North American history

Journal of Social History said, “the breadth of human experience and historical subfields traversed by the authors is astonishing. Working from discussions of the intersection of race and sex, the essays yield insight to historical issues of gender, sexuality, marriage and the family, class, religion, slavery, violence, national and personal identity, politics and political activism, diplomacy, culture, economics and commercial exchange, law, and crime, just to name those themes most prominent and recurring.”

As per the US Census report on America’s Families and Living Arrangements: 2006, 7.2% of marriages in the United States are interracial marriages. Diversity is present everywhere in America’s neighborhoods.  

Publishers: it would be really good to see more books about multiracial children and marriages. Talk to children of mixed-interracial children and to interracial couples to obtain real-life experiences for stories reflecting real-life scenarios.

 *Many thanks to Karen E. Downing  for suggesting this topic and sending links to convince me - not that I needed to be convinced :-)

Posted by Loida García-Febo on February 13, 2008 | Comments (2)