Shades of Black

"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 "[Cross] is a respected scholar with a distinguished record. His credibility as an expert on 'Black Identity' is established. A book of this sort is long overdue." --Walter R. Allen, UCLA