A Brief History of Social Identity From Kinship To Multirace is, appropriately, a book with a very wide reach. From ancient India to modern America, from Buddhism to the American Constitution, from religion to race, and from multiracial identity to the rule of hypo-descent, the author describes the at times liberating, at times stifling embrace of identity. The most fascinating proposition of the book is that a previously marginalized heritage-multiracial-is the source of the next historically significant social identity. After tracing identity from its origins in kinship to its most recent in race, the author argues that the opposition to a multiracial identity, hypo-descent-more commonly known as the one-drop rule-is the last socially accepted form of racism, but that this is ultimately unconstitutional. And so once this is demonstrated-and the author quite convincingly does so-multiracial identity will find social acceptance, allowing a large portion of our population to realize its fullest potential.
