The Pigment of Your Imagination: Book Review

Book Review:

The Pigment of Your Imagination

Author: Joy Zarembka
2007
Madera Press


I found this book by chance. I usually make a concerted effort to find books on race, particularly mixed race. For the longest time, I went to various bookstores asking to see their section on Mixed Race. Such section does not exist, I have been told time and time again. Then I saw this book, with its orange and white front with two cute kids and intrigueing title. I remember wondering how this author was going to address the issue of mixed race and if she could do justice to the title.

Joy Zarembka exceeded my expectations. Captivated first and foremost by the topic and second by the balance Joy was able to strike between pure statistics and engaging personal insight.

It is great how purposed Joy is in how she presents questions mixed race Americans know well. Joy took a very broad topic and made it simple. She wanted to address the mixed race of black and white. So her grouping of people were mixed with one white parent and one black parent. Joy begins by addressing components of race in the U.S. but thankfully does not stop there. At best, she barely begins there. Joy takes this topic and projects it further across the borders to Britain, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Jamaica.
Through extensive interviews and exhaustive analysis, Joy reveals information most wouldn’t expect. There are many examples that expand the idea of race that should be deemed quite necessary for all to examine.

Though I enjoyed every element of this book, the epilogue was most engaging to me. Her beginning metaphorical story held great insight to the weight of race and identity. She is incisively on point in her conclusion. She is able to concert her own findings with the sensitive acknowledgement of what exists around the concept of race.

I personally enjoyed this book on so many levels. At one moment it was theraputic and encouraging, at another it brought out the sociologist in me and laid out hard findings. She was able to present all of the material with poise and directed insight.

This book does an appropriate job of filling a very hefty void in the topic of race. There was no chance in my finding this book, it was directed by need. There is a strong need for more authors, such as Joy, to start engaging others in this dialogue around mixed race. It hope this is just the beginning.