A FRESH TAKE ON INTERRACIAL FAMILIES AND MULTIRACIAL IDENTITY

A new, groundbreaking book on growing up biracial is now appearing on bookstore shelves around the country. Fade: My Journeys in Multiracial America, by Elliott Lewis, examines the growing numbers of interracial families in the United States and the issues multiracial people face in the post-civil rights era.

In praising Fade, Clarence Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune, writes, "With rare flights of wit and poignancy, Elliott Lewis offers a fascinating look at race through the eyes of biracial Americans whose world, once marginalized, slowly is becoming the new mainstream."

National Public Radio news anchor Lakshmi Singh adds, "This book dispels multiracial myths with comical finesse. Elliott Lewis takes us on a topsy-turvy ride through racial identity that's so compelling, we beg for more."

Author Elliott Lewis, a freelance television news reporter in Washington, DC, weaves his memoirs as a black-and-white biracial American with the voices of dozens of other multiracial people who are challenging how we think and speak about race today. Nearly seven million people checked more than one racial category in the 2000 U.S. census, the first time in history Americans had the option to mark more than one box.

"People often make snap judgments of anyone who says they're biracial," says Lewis. "Some people think we're confused or we're trying to escape being labeled as black. Others go to the opposite extreme and think we're exotic and the wave of the future. Neither view captures our reality."

In Fade, Lewis speaks with dozens of multiracial individuals, tackling hot-button issues such as the often complicated lives of multiracial people in communities of color, interracial dating, transracial adoption, "black versus biracial" identities, and the birth of a national multiracial movement. His interviews illuminate a variety of coping strategies and reveal stark generational differences in the ways mixed-race people have come to terms with their identity. Lewis also shares his own moving - and sometimes humorous - firsthand experiences with race, along with intimate stories from those at the forefront of nationwide efforts to formally recognize the multiracial population.