One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life--A Story of Race and Family Secrets

This book came on the date promised. It is in excellent condition.I would certainly buy from this seller again.

That is the idea behind the Birmingham Pledge written by Mr. John Roche and exemplified in this courageous biographical volume of Anatole Broyard by his daughter, Bliss Broyard. We will never know what might have happened if Anatole Broyard hadn't felt compelled to pass over the imperceptible line of race, deny his Creole culture, and live as a white man so that first, he, and later, his family, could have better social and economic opportunities.Unfortunately, this was not only a loss for people like Anatole; it is a loss for us as well. We are diminished when we have to live inauthentic lives and be confined to those we associate with, hire, and, yes, ultimately, love.

I was very satisfied with my purchase, in great condition and fast shipping.

I enjoyed reading the story, but the author was so big on using words that the normal American does not use. I found myself skipping through a lot of it, because she didn’t really speak to the average population. I did not feel comfortable about her, wanting to identify as African-American because she was only of African American descent. Her father was indeed white. It is the crazy racist American system that creates this craziness. It’s about time we stop checking off boxes. We are Americans.

The best part of Bliss Broyard's latest book is her description of the dying Louisiana Creole culture and ethnic identity. Even Bliss realizes that the Creoles are not "black" or "African American," but she is not consistent in separating the two identities, often using the word "black" when she should say "Creole." Of course, her miseducation in forced hypodescent and the "one drop" theory by her newly discovered black-identified Broyard relatives had a lot to do with that. Creoles have been subjected to what one might a call a "documentary genocide" (to use the phrase coined by Brent Kennedy, author of The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People : An Untold Story of Ethnic Cleansing in America). Since the Jim Crow period, both whites and blacks in Louisiana have worked to destroy the unique Creole ethnicity and forcibly assimilate them into the "Negro/black/African American" fold by simply refusing to recognize Creoles as anything but "Negroes." The Creole relatives Bliss encounters are thus divided into those who identify with the "white race" and those who believe all Creoles are part of the "black race." Bliss, as a liberal, sensitive white girl, tends to automatically give more credibility to the "black" side of the family, even when common sense should tell her that have only internalized an inferiority complex that makes them think they are unworthy of being anything but "black." Some great books on this documentary genocide are:White by Definition: Social Classification in Creole Louisiana by Virginia R. Dominguez, Passing for Who You Really Are by A.D. Powell and Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise And Triumph of the One-drop Rule by Frank W. Sweet.Bliss disappointed me greatly by seeming to buy into the old canard that there is something immoral about a person with even a small amount of "black" ancestry identifying himself as "white." Hello, Bliss. Have you heard of Latinos and Arabs? They are almost always partially of sub-Saharan African ancestry but don't call themselves "black." Most of them identify as "white" on the census and other forms. You live in New York City, which has more "mulattoes" than New Orleans. However, because they are also Puerto Ricans, their "black blood" doesn't count? Why?Many reviewers in the media have painted Anatole Broyard as a villain who deprived his children of some kind of wonderful heritage. I side with Anatole. First, he was not "black" and he would have been guilty of emotional abuse if he had taught his children to embrace a false racial identity invented as a stigma. A few say that he should have taught them about their wonderful Creole heritage. Why? It is a dying ethnicity and its people are being assimilated by force into the "black" fold. Creoles either go as "black" or "white." The few remaining Creoles who seek an in-between path are dying out and have no political power. I also noted, from reading the book, that Bliss is a very emotional, impressionable person. She was too full of liberal guilt and easily enamoured of anything "black" as a grown woman. I shudder to think how she would have reacted as a teenager or child. Her brother Todd seems to be far more stable. There is no evidence that the great revelation that his father was "tarbrushed" caused him to change his identity or indulge in racial angst.There is a scene in the book where Alexandra Broyard (the supposedly "pure white" Norwegian-American mother of Bliss and Todd) discovers that she has partial Native American ancestry. It is interesting to her, but she has no plans to change her identity or even check more "race" boxes on those omnipresent forms. She is like most white Americans in that regard, since American Indian ancestry is not presented as a source og genetic inferiority that destroys forever one's European heritage or right to call oneself "white." Shouldn't "black" ancestry in white people be decriminalized and treated like American Indian ancestry?

This is a quite interesting book about Anatole Broyard, a writer and literary critic, written by his daughter, who, after his death, discovered that he was of mixed racial ancestry. As it turned out, his family was from Louisiana where they were part of of a group of people known as Creoles. When they moved moved north to Brooklyn, NY, those that could, passed for white, as it ensured them better job opportunities.When his daughter discovered this, she was surprised and curious about her hidden racial heritage and did a great deal of genealogical research that is both interesting and thought provoking. She also writes a great deal about the history of the Creole people of Louisiana, which was really fascinating.The book could have used a bit more editing, perhaps, and I did find the author to be a bit silly at times, still she should be commended for this interesting look at her paternal family history. The accompanying photos, though a bit grainy, add to the enjoyment of this book. It is clear that the author inherited her father’s writing talent.

Did not understand the significance of this book. Stopped reading, may read later.Should have continued, but the book did not hold my attention

My friend felt like it came across as a history lesson and did not capture the spirit of Anatole.She felt like it made him sound like "he was getting away with a lie" and felt like there was a lack of empathy for his reasons to do what he did. Since his choices where made to improve the oportunities for his family. Not just to improve his lot in life.

Though at times I skimmed over the deep details of Black American history and politics (and admired the research and work to set this all down so thoroughly while being saddened still at the staggering exclusion structures put into place in the US South), I enjoyed Ms Broyard’s deep dive into understanding why her own family was so isolated from the rest of her extended family, and how this impacted her own sense of herself when she learns more about her father’s unspoken roots after his death. Thanks to my father’s military career, we also grew up without extended family, so this isolated-ness and identity search resonated with me, for different reasons than colour.

Intereting but needed a good editor. Far too much on the very extended famil.

Bliss Broyard's beautifully written and thought provoking book is not only the story about the 'Walter Mitty-esque' life of her late father Anatole Broyard but also a damning and devastating expose of the legacy of the politics of 'race and identity' in American society. The abolition of slavery and advancements made through the civil rights movements of the 1960s have not completely eradicated the problems caused by the fiction of mind called 'race and identity' which is nothing but a syllogistic (logical but not true) ideological construct - 'race' has no biological, genetic or scientific foundation whatsoever!It is indeed sad to read Bliss's accounts of how people in America are still affected today by the pseudo concept of 'race & identity'. This problem is not going to go away easily and should not be 'swept under the carpet' but needs to be addressed once and for all so that healing on all sides of the 'racial divide' can be facilitated; most disheartening is that this may not happen in my life time.For anyone who does not understand why America is such a polarized society, particularly in regards to skin color, then they would do well to purchase and diligently read this book.

I was very disappointed to see this practically brand new book arrive covered with a geometric shaped mylar on top that can't be removed. It's been perfectly glued on to the dust jacket. What a disappointment!! Ugly!! I wouldn't have bought it if I would have known it was like this. Will no longer be ordering from this seller.

Good enlightening read, an insight to the world at that time and the inequalities which are man made, and to some degree still exists.