Some of My Best Friends: Writings on Interracial Friendships

by Emily Bernard (Editor)

Emily Bernard examines the complexities of interracial friendships -- white and black, Latino and white, black and Asian, black and Jewish -- in this poignant book that includes essays from Pam Houston, Darryl Pinckney, Luis Rodriguez, and Susan Straight, among others. Meet a young Italian American heading off to college, the first in his family to do so -- where he rooms with and befriends a sophisticated young black man from a highly educated, socially prominent Washington, D.C., family. Meet a second-generation Korean American "from the 'hood" who is more comfortable with Latinos and blacks than with Korean kids who grew up in the suburbs, and compares his friendships to bi-bam-bap, a Korean dish of "all different vegetables, meats, rice, hot sauce mixed in together like crazy." Meet a black man who reflects on a twenty-year friendship with a Jewish man he met in school and with whom he can talk about absolutely everything, except perhaps the politics of the Middle East. A book that celebrates interracial friendships as it examines them, Some of My Best Friends is a timely look at a subject that has yet to be fully explored.

Genres: Nonfiction, Race, Essays

240 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2004

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bernard takes on a subject you don't read much about, so I found this fascinating. A short summary would be similar to the relationship status some people adopt on Facebook: "It's complicated." Many of the friendships described are fraught with ambivalence. The contributors are just about all creative writers by profession as well as friends or acquaintances of the author. So the essays are reflective of the personalities of the trade, and not entirely dissimilar from one another in their points of view. At least one of each of the essay's main characters has attended an Ivy League university, it seems. And being writers, they are a little over developed in the self-examination category. Political aspects of the professional writer's life (where you got or didn't get your graduate training, what you've published or not, teaching positions, etc.)permeate many of the essays. I sensed some unprocessed emotional baggage there. I would like to read a collection like this with contributors who are not novelists or poets, and of less privileged class.

[Alice Yeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I generally have low interest in race-related literature (thanks to an overabundance of them, at least within the Asian-American community), this book did strike me as particularly interesting, given that it was covering interracial friendships instead of one's inability to fit in.
What I found was a series of essays written by various authors about some experience that they had had in the past that illustrates one point or another. They were thoughtful entries, ones designed to make the reader sit back and think, "Huh. How about that?" With that being said, I didn't come out feeling profoundly changed, though that may be more of a reflection on an open-minded upbringing than it is on the book itself. In any case, this is more than "just another book about race," and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in social dynamics or self identity.

[Oyceter · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something here for everyone interested in the topic of interracial friendships, but I connected most with David Mura's "Secret Colors," which I've already read three or four times. Reading about his move toward anti-racist activist was illuminating and moving, and it's now in my personal canon of Important Books.

Full review: http://oyceter.livejournal.com/626004...

[Jena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essays by all different races about their relationships with "white folks." Some say that racism is built into every relationship with a white person, sometimes due to the white person's upbringing, almost against their will. Some also say that it is impossible to be "real" friends with a white person. Interesting perspectives. But, being a white person, hard for me to imagine what other races have gone through to get here, both individually and as a people.

[Rona · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story collection of memoirs and anecdotes about interracial friendships and where they bind and where they rub. Every story is different. Some very thought-provoking, some dogmatic, some unevenly written. All worthwhile.

I will probably read this again in a year or two.

[Anna]

So far this is a really multi-faceted and interesting take on interracial friendship.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing quality of this book was very good but none of the pieces really moved me.

[K LF · Rating 5 out of 5]

(6/10 - beach reads in Playa del Carmen)