| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Harlemworld: Doing Race and Class in Contemporary Black America. By John L. Jackson Jr. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. xiv, 285 pp. $30.00, ISBN 0-226-38998-7.)

Harlemworld is an ethnographic exploration of Harlem, the place, and of 'Harlemworld,' the imaginings of that space, particularly by black peoples throughout the globe. Unlike many contemporary ethnographers, John L. Jackson Jr. is interested in investigating Harlem residents' and by implication African Americans' cross-class relationships and their consciousness of race and class and their intersections. By presenting sophisticated behavioral-based interpretations of 'race' and class, Harlemworld offers a powerful defense of African Americans' understandings of identity and blackness. 1

Based on in-depth interviews, Jackson argues that racial authenticity 'is often achieved through performances and practices--usually, although not exclusively, through classmarked performances and practices.' Jackson identifies a concept of race, of blackness, among his informants, which is constructed via the interrelationship among biology, biography, and behavior. According to Jackson, Harlemites' tripartite theory of racial identity establishes a framework that could challenge racialist reasoning. His discussion of African Americans' complicated understanding of identity is quite convincing, especially when contrasted with poststructuralist theories that allege race is simply a social construction. . . .

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