Arnold Adoff’s
All the Colors of the Race contains thirty-six short free-verse poems celebrating heritage, identity,
and a sense of self. The poetry can be read as individual works or as one narrative work. The poems are told in the first person from the point of view of a daughter who is a member of a biracial family. They are vehicles to express the girl’s thoughts and feelings about her
ancestors, about her place in the world, and especially about the place that she feels most welcome—the satisfying home created by her Jewish father and her African American mother.
The themes of pride in a diverse family background, of appreciation of one’s ancestry, the cultural bias prevalent in the world, family love, and hope for the future transcend the daughter’s immediate situation and become a mirror for both races and sexes. The language is simple, and the recognition of the positive aspects of both her black and her Jewish heritage on the girl’s personality is
evident throughout the poems. The works are sometimes thoughtful, sometimes reminiscent, sometimes observant, and sometimes questioning, but they always reveal a pride in diversity and hope that people will become more tolerant of others.
The poems fall into rough groupings. The first two deal with the colors that all human beings share, and the next four examine the past, such as ancestors and heritage. The largest section of poems treats the search for self-identity and the recognition and appreciation of the girl’s racial background, as well as her Protestant and Jewish faiths. These poems are followed by more general reflections about race relations in the United States and the prejudice that often arises. The last poems offers a celebration of family and hope for the future.
The entire book is only fifty-six pages long and can easily be read in less than an hour; some poems are as short as two lines, and much white space appears on the pages. Yet, the poems are meant to be read slowly and thoughtfully. Words fall across the page, and often one word becomes an entire line. Adoff communicates not only through his choice of words but also through the placement of words on the page, as is evident in "Sum People":
The black man
said
I was a half
breed,
but I told
him
to
check out his
math:
like
one
plus
one.
Titles do not always use capital letters, which is reflective of one of Adoff’s literary influences, E. E. Cummings.
Illustrations by noted African American artist John Steptoe accompany the text. These framed portraits of the girl and/or her family and her ancestors reflect the pride and joy that are evident in the poetry. The illustrations are in shades of brown and white, as are the cover and the endpapers.