Tripping on the color line : Black-white multiracial families in a racially divided world /

Dalmadge (sociology, Roosevelt Univ.) presents the results of 47 interviews with members of interracial (black-white) families. Chapter 1 examines the hostility and discrimination directed against these families and the families' responses. She delineates three types of discrimination: border patrolling, rebound racism, and intensified racism. Chapter 2 explores the impact of the institutionalized racial segregation maintained by whites in the housing market and its impact on interracial families trying to live integrated lives. Once this racist context is established, the author deals in chapter 3 with issues of the ambiguous racial identities of multiracial Americans and the relationship of these identities to a changing color line. For example, white members of interracial couples often find other whites, who do not know they are part of interracial couples, making racist comments in front of them. This research-presentation approach is an improvement over that of Marion Kilson (Claiming Place: Biracial Young Adults of the Post-Civil Rights Era, CH, Jul'01), who deals with similar identity issues. Chapter 4 examines two "hot" policy issues, transracial adoptions and multiracial census categories. This is a thoughtful and data-backed analysis for all collections, useful to readers at many levels. Endnotes. J. R. Feagin University of Florida