Shades of Black Diversity in African American Identity

"There is not a comparable book that pulls together all of the literature on race attitudes as Cross has done. This is an excellent book; it should be widely read."
- Harriette McAdoo, Howard University

"In his book, Mr. Cross presents the results of his close re-reading of the original data from the literature on black identity from 1939 to 1967. Almost without exception, he says, the scholars involved committed two significant errors: They drew conclusions about adult identity from the results of research among preschool-aged children. In addition, they used measures that assessed social attitudes-views about racial identity-but interpreted their findings as if they had also measured elements of personality, such as self-esteem and self-hatred."
-The Chronicle of Higher Education

"A major contribution to the scholarship on Black psychological identity.... Cross has carefully addressed this dominant thesis of psychology, and successfully brought it under a new scientific jurisdiction."
- James M. Jones, University of Delaware