Popular Culture Review 29.2
not only wins the argument she presents , but she offers a place for so many aspects of self and identity to be examined that you finish this read wanting to write your own long hand response .
In this process , Washington also scrutinizes the notion of “ whiteness ,” reflecting on it as an unexamined code word that strangles any conversation about race because the word is so laden with assumptions of identity and power that no one contests its meaning . “ I use transracial theory to denaturalize and disrupt normative racial categories ,” ( 13 ) she says . Focusing on race as a construct ( Washington uses the word “ performative ”), Washington dives into the reality of a culture that cannot cope with the reality of the diversity it seems to embrace . And in positing the strength of a hybrid understanding of race that is more vital than white vs . another she comes closer to an investigation about the nature of identity that is more flexible and therefore more genuine than the one
This is a compelling text . It is well written and wonderfully argued . It is also an aggressively contemporary with the text focusing people and events affecting the reader NOW ( Miss Japan Beauty Pageant , Law and Order episodes , Charles Mingus , and the Kimora Barbie , for example .) I can think of several ways this text will further any number of investigations into racism and the way it affects the human psyche . I finished this book feeling as if I could fill notebooks with new ideas generated by my interaction with this text . Washington offers solid conclusions but more importantly she offers a myriad of rhetorical avenues one might pursue after reading this work .
Kim Idol University of Nevada , Las Vegas
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