Monday, April 21, 2008

Biracial Literature using Black is Brown is Tan (Daniel Wright)

            This is a very important text in the area of biracial literature for children and young adults.  It is the first children’s picture book ever published that showed a multiracial family.  It was published in 1973 and, needless to say, was a huge step forward in the multicultural and biracial literary movements.  The book’s author is married to Virginia Hamilton, a respected author herself.  Perhaps it is this collaboration of two children’s writers that produced such an effective and accurate book.

            Black is Brown is Tan shows one family with a white father, a black mother, and two mixed children.  The skin tones used make it easy to tell that this is not a household of only one race and the children look mixed.  Of course, there is no science that will tell someone what a child will look like based on their parents, but this text does a good job of blending both parents into the appearance of the children.  One of the best parts of this book is that if you took out all of the color, readers would have a hard time telling what race each of the characters were.  I am not saying that because of the actual drawings and appearances of the characters.  The key is that the text and images do not portray the characters doing anything stereotypical or racially spurred.  The family is American first and foremost.  They go sledding, they barbecue, and the kids get sent to bed with a little yelling every now and again.  In some books for children that take on multicultural issues often show Asian people cooking rice, African Americans with cornrows, and Hispanic people driving pickup trucks.  In this book, the behaviors and activities are not like that and could best be described as typical American behavior. 

            It is great that this book shows a biracial family doing things that any family could do.  Too often, biracial families, children especially, are shown as either doing white things or doing black things.  There is an invisible line that biracial people have to navigate back and forth across.  In reality, biracial people aren’t sometimes black and sometimes white.  They are always biracial.  There would have been a problem is this book showed the children listening to rap music and eating collared greens on one page and tried to say that this is how they embrace their black side.  This is unlikely, but it does happen.  Adoff’s book is a great portrayal of how mixed children embrace both parents equally. 

            I think it was good to show the other family members coming to spend time with the children.  Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents from both sides of the family came together at the house and enjoyed each other’s company.  There are the few cases where a man and a woman from two different races come together to start a family and there relatives do not support their union.  By showing extended family members together, Brown is Black is Tan does something very important.  It extends itself to those readers who may be considering the positive and negative effects of starting a biracial relationship themselves.  Then again, the pages with all of the family members on it could raise questions in not so perfect homes like “Why doesn’t my grandma come around?”  This is an unlikely occurrence though, especially in today’s more global community.

            This book was way ahead of its time in terms of breaking down racial boundaries in America.  It is still relevant today and is a must read for any student or teacher who is working with biracial affairs.  Some books can take the issue and spin it so that it seems like it is saying that be biracial is okay even though it is different.  Rather, this book makes being biracial look as normal as not being biracial.  As an insider reader, I was able to look at this book almost as though it were an illustration of my life.  I wish I would have read it earlier.

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