Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have to respond to the unfavorable reviews calling it racist (or, as they put it, reviving the one-drop rule) to describe white-looking mixed-race kids as "black." I am mixed (50/50 African and European, so classified by most North Americans as black). My husband is white, and my son is also completely white-looking, as far as anyone I've met can tell. (People are often very surprised that he could be my son.) There are really, really good reasons to encourage a black identity in kids like my son. First off, the white-looking kids in these pics probably have siblings, parents, grandparents and cousins who do "look black"--it's not racist for them to want to be part of all the cultures that comprise their family. Kids who "look white" may have cultural connections that most uninformed observers would not suspect. That's not the one-drop rule: it's life in the 21st century. By contrast, there's no need for special positive reinforcement of white identity--he gets that in the hundreds of other kids' books he has where the main characters (or all the characters) are white. He gets that from the culture, when people compliment his white features (such beautiful blond hair! such lovely green eyes!). If mixed parents like us didn't offer positive reinforcement of black and African culture and identity, a child who looks ours could go through life completely ignoring the part of his heritage and culture that comes from his African grandmother, aunties, uncles and cousins. He could absorb mainstream cultural values that valorize white as good and normal--and devalue blackness as deviant, bad or simply invisible. I'm surprised and delighted to find a book that encourages kids of all "shades," including his, to feel good about their black culture and identity. Talking about race is a bit like sex ed. We have to do it even if it feels uncomfortable, bc if we say nothing, our kids will pick up erroneous facts and objectionable values from mainstream culture, their peers and maybe even their schools. Racism doesn't go away if we just ignore it. Teaching racial equality goes against the current, but it's worth it.