Sweeter the Juice | 
| Author: Shirlee Haizlip
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 517021
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0671792350
Dewey Decimal Number: 929.2
EAN: 9780671792350
ASIN: 0671792350
Publication Date: January 24, 1994
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Product Description
The Sweeter the Juice is a provocative memoir that goes to the heart of our American identity. Shirlee Taylor Haizlip, in an effort to reconcile the dissonance between her black persona and her undeniably multiracial heritage, started on a journey of discovery that took her over thousands of miles and hundreds of years. While searching for her mother's family, Haizlip confronted the deeply intertwined but often suppressed tensions between race and skin color. We are drawn in by the story of an African-American family. Some members chose to "cross over" and "pass" for white while others enjoyed a successful black life. Their stories weave a tale of tangled ancestry, mixed blood, and identity issues from the 17th century to the present. The Sweeter the Juice is a memoir, a social history, a biography, and an autobiography. Haizlip gives to us the quintessential American story, unveiling truths about race, about our society, and about the ways in which we all perceive and judge one another.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
Fascinating March 12, 2008
This author tells the story of her own family, spanning many generations. She did this mostly for her mother Margaret Morris Taylor who had suffered the sting of abandonment from her father and siblings. Her mother died when she was four. This story is no doubt the story of many families. Many light skinned black people crossed over or gingerly walked the colour line. WHO CAN BLAME THEM? Considering the indignities, lack of opportunities etc.. forced on black people. I learned that some theatres and concert halls went to the trouble to hire "Negro spotters" to point out racial imposters - humiliating many a coloured socialite in the process. Interesting!
I was happy that Margaret eventually connected with her sister Grace after seventy-six years. The author concludes that her "white" relatives have missed the tangled richness of being black in America - sorry but her life may have been more priviledged than most black people's - but she acknowledges that they have also escaped that special pain and anger that most black Americans feel. She wonders though,what personal demons they may have created.
A great read!
 Well written, but surprisingly racist December 20, 2006
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
The Sweeter the Juice clearly demonstrates that racism is equally prevelent on both sides of the color line. While Haizlip's book is well written, the author is no less guilty of racism towards white people than the WASPs she condemns. Her comments about whites and "poor white trash" in particular are uncalled for (i.e. "my mother said there is nothing worse than poor white trash" and "a nice white person is nothing more than that. A nice white person"). As the descendant of working class Southern whites I was personally offended by her assumptions about my ancestors. In fact, my father rose out of Southern poverty and all of the associated racial biases of his family.
When a white person does something gracious for Haizlip, she overlooks it and portrays it as a negative event. For instance, when Martin Luther King is shot and Haizlip's white neighbor comes by to make her tea and offer her sympathies, the author says "she said that assuming she knew how I felt." While Haizlip's ambivalence towards whites is understandable given some of her experiences, she makes just as many stereotypes about whites as they do of her. She claims to be an integrationist, but part of the reason American society is not socially integated today, is the self segregation of blacks and mixed race people like Haizlip.
Haizlip is contradictory at times. As a New Negro like her mother, she is "eager to please" and be accepted by white culture, but at the same time, she resents her caucasian heritage and is active in African American social circles. This book seems to be more about the author's insecurities about her racial identity than about bringing familes together.
After meeting her white relatives, Haizlip creates a "white corner" to keep their photographs separate from the rest of her family. She says she wonders if they would have ever bothered to find her. This seems a bit ridiculous since it is the grandson of her aunt Grace who takes the initiative to locate Haizlip and unite the families along with her. Again, Haizlip cannot accept as legitimate any positive actions on the part of whites. Haizlip tells her daughter that she keeps the white family's photos separate from the others because it wouldn't be honest to do otherwise. Haizlip explains that she will never be able to connect with her white relatives because their lives are too different from hers- they passed for white and she didn't. So does this mean that Haizlip cannot have anything in common/be friends with any white person? And she's the one who worked so hard to locate her mother's sister to begin with. Without meaning to, Haizlip is passing down her own anger towards white people to her daughters, potentially preventing them from forming bi-racial friendships with whites who are color blind would not reject them the way Haizlip's mother's relatives rejected her.
The saddest part of this book is that towards the end, Haizlip does not accept her new-found white relatives the same way they accept her. She keeps their pictures and their lives as separate, but equal (to quote a Jim Crow phrase) as possible.
In order to make herself feel part of "Us" instead of "Them," Haizlip turns poor whites into the "Them." This is not how we will solve today's racial problems. Racism will only be solved if everyone becomes part of "Us."
 Only book Oprah recomended actually worth reading April 13, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am not an Oprah fan but one day with nothing to do I actually spent a rare session in front of television flipping channels. And I found myself stopping at her channel at her show's beginning wondering What is it This time?
The author of this book and her mother were there to discuss this book and her family saga as well as the Issue of 'Passing'.
I found their discussion so facinating that next day I went straight to the book store and ordered this book. Later I would buy other books on the subject.
Not wishing to be 'controversial' I must confess that the book was quite fasinating and I did enjoy reading it.
Very enjoyable, while still intense book.... December 13, 2003
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book from cover to cover. Sure, some of it was confusing, like some said, but what part of genealogy isn't confusing? My own genealogy confuses ME! :o) This book was wonderful! I think the author did a wonderful job in addressing this little spoken of topic. I was recommended this book after I found out that my family had African American roots, & so this book hit home with me. It aided me through an emotional journey...answering many of the questions such as: "Why so many secrets?" It also helped me to understand that some of my family members will never in their lifetimes will willing to openly talk about this subject, but the book confirmed my feelings that it's their loss. Thanks & kudos to the author!!!
Lost Family March 24, 2003
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I just read this book. It was very moving and insightful. It was so sad that Margaret Taylor, Shirlee's mother, was abandoned by her father,sister and brothers, and endured such a difficult childhood. It took over 70 years for Margaret to find her sister! I think that Grace Cramer's life was more tragic, perhaps, because she blocked out so many memories and isolated herself. I would think she could have at least written her sister, once in 70 years! even if she was nervous about revealing her heritage to other people. It was wonderful to hear that Grace's grandchildren had a happy meeting with Shirlee.
The photos are great and the stories about the Taylors, Morrisses etc. are inspiring. It was fascinating to read about African American life in New England and the South. I look forward to reading the book about the Haizlip marriage.
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