Author Joy Zarembka and her brother, Tommy Zarembka (featured on the front of cover of the book), look strikingly similar but were labeled totally two different races at birth. Joy’s birthing document states that she is “black” while Tommy’s states that he is “white.” How do these and other racial classifications effect the lives of mixed race people?

By combining vivid anecdotes of her travels, historical context, and oral histories from mixed-race families, Joy Zarembka examines the notion of race in order to explore the vastly different interpretations of racial identity in various parts of the world in her new book, “The Pigment of Your Imagination: Mixed Race in a Global Society” (Madera Press 2007).