Book Review: Fade to Black and White: Interracial Images in Popular Culture, by Erica Chito Childs. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefiled, 2009, 250 pages, $75.00 Cloth, $27.95 Paper. ISBN: 9780742560802.

Abstract

In Fade to Black and White, Erica Chito Childs (2009) builds upon previous work to demonstrate how interracial representations are problematized in popular culture media. Childs identifies numerous areas in which popular culture media can reinforce the racial status quo of inequality, and thus this book serves as a preliminary step toward future solution-driven research. Through her tri-framed theoretical argument, Childs contends that interracial representations in popular culture media meet one or more of the following criteria: 1) presents interracial relationships as deviant; 2) protects, defends, privileges, and empowers whiteness; and 3) perpetuates racist attitudes and practices while simultaneously denying, in colorblind fashion, whether race matters. Despite the book's shortcomings, which include methodological limitations in terms of sample selection and exclusion of the audience from analysis, Fade to Black and White is a significant addition to the sociology of race. The author clearly demonstrates how interracial representations are problematized, and readers will be exposed to a critical perspective of popular culture media and the images and discourses they create.