I Am Tan

There are white people, black people, brown people, red people and yellow people, but what about the people who are bi-racial or multi-racial? They may find that they do not fit so neatly into one of these basic colors.

This question of race and color leads one six-year-old boy named Christian, on a quest to seek answers. He asks his parents, kids at school and teachers what color they think he is, and what color he should say he is. As the day progresses, he hears stereotypes about race and color, but he also hears valuable information which helps him to embrace all of who he is. By the end of the day, he has learned to think outside of a black and white box.



Note from publisher:

The main character of this book has a white mommy and a black daddy. The word "tan," is from the child's own mouth. He came to this conclusion when he was coloring a picture of his family. The brown crayon that he used for his daddy, was too dark for him, and the light peach crayon he used for his mommy, was too light for him; however, the tan crayon was just right!

There are endless possibilities to what a person might be mixed with. The author was only able to add a few of these in this children's book, but she did want to illustrate that there are many "tan" people throughout the world, who are more than simply black, white, red, yellow or brown. The other racial mixes included in this story are: Filipino and white; Asian and black; Mexican and black; and white, black and American Indian. Two famous people are also included! Mr. Barack Obama, who was the 44th president of the United States is half black and half white, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is half black and half Samoan.

This book is written on the level of a small child, and the author hopes that as children grow older, their parents will expand upon this discussion of race, stereotypes and color.