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Review of


            Black, White, and Jewish: Trying to Fit.
             When you read a book what is the most important criteria you look for? For me it is the ability to place yourself within the text. I found myself doing this constantly with Black, White, and Jewish, a touching non-fictional account of a young girl. The text, written by Rebecca Walker, is about what it was like for her growing up being of mixed races and backgrounds. Not only was Walker black, white, and Jewish, but she was also from New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. When I read this book I felt like I was right there with Rebecca in the Bronx, hanging out with the neighborhood kids, or dancing to Bob Marley with her mother in their small colorful apartment. Walker describes the settings and people in her life with such detail that her readers can grow with her and follow her to these places.
             Rebecca Walker's mother is a famous African American author and her father a white, Jewish lawyer, who are working together during the Civil Rights movement when they fall in love and marry. Rebecca was born shortly after, a product of her parents" dreams for a more unified country, a movement child. As a movement child she symbolized blacks and whites coming together and living in peace as equals. Rebecca's parents' marriage didn't last long however. They divorced and left her to find her own identity. If Rebecca wasn't a movement child who was she? This is Walker's main question in her search for her identity. Acceptance and placement are Rebecca's main .
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             concern as a child growing up in the 70's and 80's. Walker shows how she searches for acceptance very clearly in the book by writing about her experiences with people and how they view her during various stages of her life. She shows this the most clearly in her writings about the Bronx.
             While living with her father in the Bronx in New York, Rebecca lives a double life. At home, she is her middle class, white, Jewish self, helping with her siblings and doing her homework while listening to pop music like REO Speed Wagon.


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