Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

Race is an absurdity, having long ago been discredited as a valid biological category and, in the Brown decision, a defensible legal one. Yet as a means of defining and separating people, it retains its power. That power can’t be undone simply by pretending it doesn’t exist, or even by telling African Americans that they should desist from “race-holding” as an excuse or crutch. How do we ignore the power of racialist thinking when we see it exploited by cynical politicians who ignore facts and try to convince white voters—often in coded ways—that their economic woes are largely attributable to blacks and other minorities who are getting more than their share in a zero-sum struggle for economic advancement and opportunities? “We make up selves from a tool kit of options made available by our culture and society,” writes the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah. “We do make choices, but we do not determine the options among which we choose.”⁴ For my part, I can’t help seeing the ways race played, and continues to play, a role in my life. Yet at the same time, I recognize how a racial identity can be limiting and burdensome, particularly when it is based on, and helps to perpetuate, hoary myths and outright lies.

W. Ralph Eubanks, “What Makes Me Black? What Makes You White?” The Hedgehog Review: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Culture, Volume 20, Number 2 (Summer 2018). https://iasc-culture.org/THR/THR_article_2018_Summer_Eubanks.php.

Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black

Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black

Plume, an imprint of Penguin
February 1996
304 pages
5.35 x 7.95in
Paperback ISBN: 9780452275331
ePub eBook ISBN: 9781440665813
Adobe eBook ISBN: 9781440665813

Gregory Howard Williams, President
University of Cincinnati

Awards

Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Friends of American Writers Award: Nominee
Melcher Book Award: Nominee

A stunning journey to the heart of the racial dilemma in this country.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
The Open House Cafe
The Midas Touch
“Captain of My Soul”
Rooster
Learning How to Be Niggers
Bob and Weave
“Saved”
Hustling
Politics and Race
The Color Line
Accept the Things I Cannot Change
Choices
Go for It!
Big Shoulders
Persistence
Teammates
“Born in the Wilderness and Suckled by a Boar”
State of Indiana v. Gregory H. Williams
Mike: Like a Moth to Flames
Tottering Kingdoms and Crumbling Empires
Your Truly Mother

Tags: Gregory H. Williams, Gregory Howard Williams, Gregory Williams, Penguiun Press, Plume

This entry was posted on Friday, September 16th, 2011 at 03:19Z and is filed under Autobiography, Books, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Monographs, Passing, United States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Mixed Race Studies

Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black

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