This autobiography about the daughter of an interracial couple-father Jewish and mother is black. The economy of the writing is spellbindingly poetic. After her parents’ divorce and Rebecca feels like a remnant. An eerie scene where it’s the last time she’ll be in the bathroom when her father is bathing and she is watching. Rebecca wants to be known as a not a black girl, to be able to pass as white. She begs her mother not to come to her performance in the play The Wizard of Oz because then everyone will know she is black. There is a beautiful line-she and her stepmother are doing battle for her father’s soul-scratching the dirt off pale Jewish roots she didn’t know her father had. Unfortunately, the remainder of the book turns into a tell all about all the boys she slept with. Despite her confused identity between being black and white, her Jewishness is hardly spoken up. A few mentions towards the end. Very unsatisfying. Final note–the author Rebecca Walker is the daughter of Alice Walker even though that information isn’t mentioned in the book.

[Black, White and Jewish] | C-SPAN.org

Rebecca Walker – Wikipedia