That White Girl

by JLove Calderón

That White Girl is a fresh and hard-edged novel chronicling a young woman's quest for self-discovery while straddling two worlds, that of her middle-class Irish Catholic upbringing and her new family -- the Crips, America's notorious street gang.

What happens when a white girl flirts with the color lines and crosses the border into gang territory, where the bullets are in part real and the rules cannot be broken? JLove tells this incredible story inspired by her own remarkable life.

Amber, a fearless white girl, has a passion for rap lyrics and an addiction to graffiti, but her journey begins when she becomes immersed in the power and grind of gang life after holding a gun to an innocent man's head during a robbery.

That White Girl is a sharp and candid coming-of-age story, with hip-hop as its backdrop, that explores a young woman's struggles and triumphs as she crosses boundaries, discovers her own limits, and finds a new way to express herself in a world divided into black and white.

Genres: Fiction

311 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2007

About the author

Author, educator, and producer of film and television, JLove Calderón has worked passionately on social justice, race and gender issues for the last 16 years. In settings that range from hip-hop ciphers to the college classroom, JLove is widely respected for her advocacy of “truth, love, and freedom” as guiding principles to inspire dialogue and action toward liberation for all people and the planet.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed how it talks about Amber's struggle to try and fit in with different cultures and races in a time where it was controversial for races to intermix. I think that this book does a good job showing how someone, specifically a juvenile, trys to be many different things and in a way looses a sense of self in the process. This was any easy and enjoyable story that is based off of the author's own life experiences!

[Jasmine V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thiis book wass soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo qood. ii could totally relate to it soo much cuz like amber shes a teen qoinq throuqh life struggles just like we do she gets into fights theres alot of violence in thiis book, loving, arguing, screaming, crying, anything you could name ITS IN THAT BOOK ! its starts of with amber saying how like the first month or two she already was chilinq wiith the crips and she wanted to join them so they was liike you gotta do something in order to join so they made her hold a gunpoint at a clerk at the bodega while they was robbing the store and thats how she officially joined the crips. after she joined, thats when she started going to partys and drinking and smoking and all that and she started to get into alot of drama, she almost gets raped, she almost goes to jail and everythingg iis a really good book !

[Sabrina Bawcum · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book keep me on the edge of my sit. This book was based on the authors life. The character of the book is a normal young teenager who lives a normal life. But as she gets older and goes on in high school she has changes in her life.As life goes on for this teen she starts living a double life. One life is the one her mother thinks she is living, going to school and being responsible. The other, the life she is really living, the thug life. She new a boy from elementary school and he got into the gang life, so she is easily introduced to the gang life.She grows huge trust relationships with her new life friends. For fun her and her new friends go out and steal from gas stations. Amber even held a gun up to a innocent cashier to show her strengths in the gang.As ambers thug life grows shes feeling confedient about it. But it all starts turning around when the police catch amber stealing from a store. Amber

[Autumn Lucero · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that this book was really really good! i would recommend this book to anyone who likes books about someones life and how much your life can change in a moment or second. This book was mostly about a girl who is white but she doesn't let her skin get in the way of what he thinks is right, even though she is white she tries to act black, and how hard she tires there is always someone who tells her that just because she is white she can be on both sides. The girl, Amber makes mistakes in her life that has changed her life forever and the crip life that she always go back to even though in the back of her mind she knows it isnt right her gang life has lead her in to some bad paths deaths and crazy relationships, which she has at the end with her boy friend that is in prison and she has a hard time trying to move on because she knows he has years lefted even though its hard fot her to move on she manages to get through high school and college with such down falls in her life.

[Sheena · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

This book started off slow, but after getting through 1/3 of the book, it finally started to pick up. This isn't your typical "urban fiction" as the main character is white. Amber is naive and decides she wants to runs the streets and joins the crips gang. The book follows her through high school, college and then a few years after college. She gets involved in drinking, drugs, graffiti, robbery and a few other crimes through high school. She finally starts to straighten up her life in college, but encounters many other obstacles that affect her life. She eventually finds herself and things fall into place. There were parts of this book that were very interesting, and some parts fell short but overall it was a good read.

http://www.hoteatsandcoolreads.com/20...

[Cynthia Mariscal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that the book, That White Girl was an amazing book that dealt with gang relations, racism and discrimination. Many things have happened in this book. I think many people would relate to this book because being a type of race and moving to community where there is more than one race mixed together is difficult. Many people can over come the way that gang or racism is in the world. This book teached me that many people can overcome the racism that they are facing in their own lifestyle. Many people can see that if we all come together then we can overcome anything in this world. I think this book is REALLY amazing and interesting and I recommend this book to many people that like to read about gangs, violence and all that good stuff.

[Qing Yu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about gang life and a girl named Amber. A theme that keeps coming up in this book is that you're the one who is going to make the ultimate decision. Amber started out as a white girl who wants to be "down" with black gangs. After proving herself, she gets in but she starts to do illegal things like stealing. She also starts doing drugs and her life goes out of control. What I learned from this book is that even if you did a lot of wrong things in your life, you can still change it. Amber turned her life around by going to college. She watched her friends go to jail and her friends die. It's a really sad story but she turns out to be the type of "underdog" protagonist.

[Teagan (Chaoteac) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this YEARS ago in high school and don't really remember it all, but I remember thinking it was good. I will hopefully pick this up again in the future because I would really like to. I remember thinking it was amazing and that it was a quick read. I've rated it 3.5 stars out of 5 just to kind of play it safe just in case I read it again and don't like it as much as I used to. But in high school, this was THE BOOK to read amongst some of the more popular girls. Maybe because they were into the rap scene and the partying and they all said they identified as being sassy black women (which bugs me to no end) but I read this anyway - something to read you know?

[Autumn · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this quasi-memoir, white girl Amber spends her high school days writing graffiti and hanging out with the Crips in Denver. She struggles with guilt over her comfortable home life and relatively bright future. When she gets to college, Amber studies identity politics and hangs out at the BSU. She also wonders why white people are so wack.

This is a good coming of age novel about race that takes the subject seriously from a unique point of view. I'm so glad this book exists!

[Lisa-Jaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a deep passionate book about a white girl who doesnt see why the colour bar of black and white exists, who rolls with people of all colour and starts finding out that prejudice works both ways. it is a coming of age novel with her finding her way in a world, asking questions and finding answers which are not always pleasing.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book for those of you who might be working with teenagers. Especially if you are interested in utilizing hip hop, discussing race and/or gender as a character building activity or leadership training

[Luby · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a really good book that opens your eyes to the true division between the "white" and the "black".
A young girl tries to overcome that border, going through alot in the process.Love, loss, death.
Definitely worth a read. The truth behind this will amaze you.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. So this is an interesting concept but the writing is pretty terrible. The slang felt forced and the book was choppy.

The idea of this experience was valuable. I want to know what happened to Omar!

[Cynthia]

GOOD BOOK !

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wasn't that bad, it followed the life of a young girl trying to make it with a group of gang members, going through hard times with her love life, her family, and how it is in the ghetto

[Davlyn Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Your average "coming of age" story, but relatable for me. A good read for people who see no color lines in the world, or those trying to understand other backgrounds.

[Adeena]

this book is a great book despite some harsh material in it. it presents such irony when it tells of a girl named Amber, who's white and got affiliated in the Crips gang.before she was just friends with the members but soon decided to risk her herself when she helped them rob a 7- eleven for "night train" and other drinks and food particles. she never had to go through initiation so many other members disliked her.she also got involved with drinking, smoking weed and falling in love countless times with the wrong people. once she got to college she was raped by someone her friends told her was no good but she neer listened. this story could make you take sides of the characters even though the things they do are totaly wrong.this book has a good way with words. what keeps it interesting is that it has quotes from raps and songs even poetry from 1990s even before so those are nice to read. the quotes come from Notorious B.I.G,DMX,ice-T,tony toni tone,-x-clan,Mc search,3rd bass,De la soul, Jungle brothers,q-tip, Queen latifa,monie love, maya angelou,snoop doggy dogg,Dr. dre,tupac, ice cube. this book is a great thing to get your hands on. as usual i found this book in the library and just had to read it..

[Lucy]

This book really was great. It opened my eyes and it got me thinking about a lot of stuff doing with race. I didn't think the book was written well as in structure-wise, but the experiences were so deep. Amber, the main character, was white and she lived in Denver. She hung out with blacks more and people would talk about her. She becomes involved with gang banging and many people questions what she is doing. Amber constantly face racial problems. During her time in her gang, she saw a lot of bad things and did a lot of bad things too. When she wanted to pull away, it was hard for her. i thought this book was so real and it seemed like a movie to me. Amber also had guys in and out her life and she was constantly hurt and to relieve this pain, she would cut herself. What i found weird was she talked about cutting herself like it was normal and i found it so crazy. at the end she does find purpose in her life and she makes tough decisions. This was a good book and it really addresses racism and how everyone was racist. All the incidents described were so tragic and sometimes i just felt so bad and questioned why the world can be so cruel.

[Vanessa Urbina · Rating 5 out of 5]

To start off this book is great it has much irony. The name of the main character is Amber who is a middle class irish female. She recently got affiliated in to the Crips gang, she used to always keep touch with them but risked it all when she associated with them to rob a 7-eleven for "night train" (the semi buzzed feeling one has the day after smoking a lot of weed). Although she was now part of a huge gang she never went through initiation, due to the fact that so many members disliked her. Her hanging out with the wrong crew influenced her to drink, smoke weed and steal. Something that you will remember at the end of the book will be the fact that she falls inlove countless times with the wrong guys. Something interesting that the author does with the book is it adds quotes from rap songs. Some quotes that I recognized we're from Snoop Dog, Tupac, Ice cube, etc. What I learned from this book is that even if you did bad things in life, it's never to late to switch it all around. Like for example Amber changed her life and went to college she watched "her friends" all die or end up in jail. I will definitely recommend this book to people.

[Yhiadira · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good read but I was very dissapointed in Amber alot of times, but then you realize it was all a struggle to fit in.

[Joey · Rating 4 out of 5]

i purely loved this book. period. it has that thing about it. not many books cross between the racelines any more. i like its old skool effect and the way the book is set . its just amazing

[Randi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It took me on a journey to my past. I was deeply touched by this book.