The New Colored People: The Mixed-Race Movement in America (Hardcover)

~ Jon Spencer (Author), Richard E. Vander Ross (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Questions for the year 2000 census are already being vetted, and controversy is rising over the request by some multiracial Americans and their parents for a new "block" in its racial classification field. Spencer, an American studies and music professor at the University of Richmond who is himself multiracial, examines the experience of the mixed-race people classified as "coloreds" in South Africa as a basis for urging the U.S. not to add that new choice but to adopt instead a delicate "balancing act . . . a denouncing of race but a dependency on it until the vestiges of racism are obliterated." Spencer traces major arguments in favor of a separate "multiracial" classification and then challenges those arguments by tracing the actual consequences of such an intermediary racial status under apartheid and potential consequences of a similar category in the U.S. Not an essential acquisition but appropriate where issues of racial classification stimulate debate. Mary Carroll

Review

Many members of minority groups have long argued that society must recognize and accept an individual's racial identity for that individual to enjoy feelings of self-esteem Ironically, however, the very success of this message threatens the black community, since many people traditionally considered black now think of themselves as multiracial or of mixed race.... In The New Colored People, Jon Michael Spencer takes on the difficult task of explaining, from a civil-rights perspective, why government should refuse to recognize such a category.... [a] thought-provoking, if not always persuasive,book. -- The New York Times Book Review, Douglas A. Sylva

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 214 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press; 1 edition (March 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814780717
• ISBN-13: 978-0814780718
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,822,180 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars don't waste your time or money, July 4, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Oakland, California) - See all my reviews

as a self-styled "expert" on multiracial people, i quickly snapped this book up, mostly because of its title (and because i'm trying to acquire a library on the subject). i should have read the flap and hesitated. Spenser has valid problems with the politics involved when the parents of multiracial people try to change, or even dispose of, our way of seeing race in America; i shared many of his complaints. but he then goes on to propose that creating a "mixed-race" category would divide the Black community (no mention of other races here) and serve to help white supremacy. his evidence? mostly anecdotal comments made about the creation of a mixed-race class in Apartheid South Africa. in an amazing leap of academic faith, he predicts the problems created by South Africa's "Coloured People" will repeat themselves in the slightly (?) different racial climate of the United States. his other sources include African-American, but perhaps ashamed of being multiracial, commentator Lisa Jones and many outdated books on race relations (I had trouble finding a reference to any book written after 1980). simply put, this isn't convincing or particularly interesting. i also found it rather insulting that he would attack the "mixed-race movement" without bothering to consider the people most involved in the process--mixed-race people themselves. our diversity can't be represented by a small, but vocal group of bourgeois Black folk and their white spouses. the vast majority of mixed-race people i know aren't pushing for "racelessness" or assimilation, but Spenser found an easy target in some people who do. i suspect he found a hot topic and saw his opportunity to get published. don't get duped like i did.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Another Perspective Represented, September 25, 2001

By A Customer

Jon Michael Spencer's perspective on mixed identity is behind the times, to say the least. He makes false analogies to South Africa's Coloured population when critiquing the problematic aspects of multiracial people and their quest for a social identity in the U.S. While America has a long way to go when it comes to racial inequality, the nature and context of racial inequality has undergone major transformations. (His analogies don't work so simply and compactly). I have to say, while I do disagree with Spencer on most accounts, what I appreciate about his work is that he expresses a viewpoint and perspective shared by many --especially our brothers and sisters of color. I think it's a counterpoint perspective we should acknowledge. Certainly, we have seen political conservatives like John Sununu, Newt Gingrich, Ward Connerly, etc. latch onto the "multiracial cause," using mixed-race people as ploy to dismantle the gains of the Civil Rights Movement. I don't blame those like Spencer for being weary. However, te "new multiracial consciousness" is more complex than Spencer's simplistic Black-versus-White analysis. Race in America, while important to examine from the Black-versus-White lens, has become more and more complex (interstructured) w/ a whole array of other issues like gender, sexuality, class, immigrant status/generation complicating matters. (READ Paul Spickard's chapter in Rethinking Mixed-Race, edited by David Parker & Miri Song for a critique on Spencer's work).

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Another Perspective Represented, September 25, 2001

By A Customer

Jon Michael Spencer's perspective on mixed identity is behind the times, to say the least. He makes false analogies to South Africa's Coloured population when critiquing the problematic aspects of multiracial people and their quest for a social identity in the U.S. While America has a long way to go when it comes to racial inequality, the nature and context of racial inequality has undergone major transformations. (His analogies don't work so simply and compactly). I have to say, while I do disagree with Spencer on most accounts, what I appreciate about his work is that he expresses a viewpoint and perspective shared by many --especially our brothers and sisters of color. I think it's a counterpoint perspective we should acknowledge. Certainly, we have seen political conservatives like John Sununu, Newt Gingrich, Ward Connerly, etc. latch onto the "multiracial cause," using mixed-race people as ploy to dismantle the gains of the Civil Rights Movement. I don't blame those like Spencer for being weary. However, te "new multiracial consciousness" is more complex than Spencer's simplistic Black-versus-White analysis. Race in America, while important to examine from the Black-versus-White lens, has become more and more complex (interstructured) w/ a whole array of other issues like gender, sexuality, class, immigrant status/generation complicating matters. (READ Paul Spickard's chapter in Rethinking Mixed-Race, edited by David Parker & Miri Song for a critique on Spencer's work).