Reddit reviews Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children

I’m mixed (Italian and Haitian) and grew up with a lot of identity issues starting very young, including not truly feeling like a part of either side of my family because I didn’t look like them. I get mistaken for Indian and Dominican often, my dad is very dark and my mom white with dark long straight hair. I was never made to feel outcasted by a family member and there was so much love on both sides, but I still felt like I’d never truly be apart of or understand either culture.

Out of everything ever given to me the ONE book that has actually stuck with me when I got it at 5 years old was Shades of Black by Sandra Pinkey.

It’s a beautifully written book filled with pictures of mixed race kids of all the different shades you could imagine and comparing their skin tones and hair textures to beautiful things you find in nature and everyday life. Implying that there is no specific look to being partially black, that every shade of biracial/multiracial is beautiful and should be embraced.

I still enjoy looking back at it now at 25 years old so I think all the kids might enjoy it. Older ones will have a more introspective look at it.

I know this isn’t exactly what you were looking for but this post hit close to home and this is a book that has stuck with me through all these years.

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask! Everyone’s experience is different but it’s good to get insight from all sides.

I'm sorry, but your husband is a little bit of an idiot. The first thing a black person should know when having kids is that we're very much so like calico cats. Black people can have kids that look white, Filipino, Hawaiian, Indian, Native American, hispanic, and that's all in my own family, without much outbreeding, for lack of a better term.

Like everyone here's saying, take the paternity test, shut your husband up about that, take him in for councelling, get him the children's book Shades of Black, and make sure you read it with your kids too so that if your husband keeps acting stupid about genetics, they don't develop any sort of psychological complexes.

Reminds me of this book, which I have. It's only a picture book but it's sufficient for a small child who doesn't need a long story and it's good for starting a discussion about skin color (check the "Look Inside" button).

My little sister (adopted from Hati) when she was in preschool said something about a classmate not being dark enough to be black (it was something among those lines). My parents responded by getting her a book with pictures of various black kids of different shades.