Mixed Blessing - by Chandra Crane (Paperback)

About the Book

Chandra Crane has keenly felt the otherness of having a mixed multiethnic and multicultural background. But those of us with a mixed heritage have the privilege and potential to serve the Lord through our unique experiences. Crane explores what Scripture and history teach us about ethnicity and how we can bring all of ourselves to our sense of identity and calling.

Book Synopsis

ECPA Top Shelf Book Cover Award

"So what are you?"

Chandra Crane knows what it's like to get that question. She has a Thai birth father, a European American mother, and an African American father who adopted her when she was five. With this mixed multiethnic and multicultural background, she has keenly felt the otherness of never quite fitting in. Where do people of mixed ethnicity belong?

Those of us with multiethnic backgrounds may have pain surrounding our mixed heritage. But we also have the privilege and potential to serve the Lord through our unique experiences. Crane explores what Scripture and history teach us about ethnicity and how we can bring all of ourselves to our sense of identity and calling.

Discover the fullness of who you are. Find out how your mixed identity can be a blessing to yourself and to the world around you.

Review Quotes

"Mixed Blessing reminds us that people are not created for boxes but for God's glory. This book helps fill an inexcusable gap in our understanding of racial and ethnic dynamics. . . . Is Mixed Blessing an easy read? Certainly not. But it is an essential one."

"Building on her story as a Christian of mixed ethnicity, Chandra writes a deeply challenging book. There is no self-pity, even as she dissects what it is to be treated as other. Rather, the joy in her biblical studies is infectious as she writes of learning to image Jesus in all the complexity of personhood, and of the special place multiethnic believers can have in the modern church, showcasing God's present and future community. I warmly commend this gospel-focused book that will encourage those identifying as mixed race and inspire others (like me) to listen and learn afresh."

"I think about multiethnicity a lot. I have beloved family members who are multiethnic, and I pastor a diverse congregation. And yet, as Chandra's book makes plain, I still have so much to learn about the experiences--the pains and the joys--of those who don't neatly fit into monoethnic categories. With the sure footing of one who has lived the experience, Chandra invites those of us who haven't to listen carefully and to imagine ways of following Jesus together that are hospitable to everyone. Mixed Blessing is required reading for anyone who wants a glimpse of the complex and hopeful future of the church in this country."

"This book should become an instant classic--a moving, wise, knowing guide for those of biracial or multiethnic backgrounds who so often feel other. Chandra Crane gets it! But it is also necessary reading for all who need to hear more intimately the stories of our friends, coworkers, and neighbors, and thereby understand the sometimes perplexing new vocabularies we need if we are to honor the hopes and dreams of all of God's image bearers. Chandra Crane is painfully honest--her writing made us cry--yet Mixed Blessing is upbeat and interesting and full of gospel hope. We need this book now more than ever."

"Those of us who are of mixed ethnicity defy categories, stump those trying to pin us down, and can even stump ourselves while trying to figure out our own identities. Where do we belong? Where do we fit in? Will we ever feel at home? It is clear that in Mixed Blessing Chandra Crane has done her homework and has done the interior work to detail for the rest of us the complexity, beauty, and gift of being a multiethnic person. She also shares some real but hard truths about how we are 'othered' by others. In reading Mixed Blessing, I felt seen and understood. This a welcomed and needed resource!"

"We live in a society that values placing people into neat categories and tidy boxes. Chandra Crane's important book Mixed Blessing speaks a needed word about the complexities and blessings of embodying a multiethnic identity in a world that often overlooks these voices. As a White person, this book has opened my eyes and helped me begin to better understand the experience of multiethnic people, something that will help me better minister in my church and in my community."

About the Author

Chandra Crane (MA, Reformed Theological Seminary) is the mixed ministry coordinator for the multiethnic initiatives department of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and has written for In All Things, The Well, and The Witness: A Black Christian Collective. Growing up in a multiethnic/multicultural family in the Southwest and now happily transplanted to the Deep South, Chandra is passionate about diversity and family and is a member of the multiethnic Redeemer Church in Jackson, Mississippi.

Jemar Tisby is the author of the New York Times bestselling book The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church's Complicity in Racism. His writing has been featured on CNN, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. He is the founder and president of The Witness--a Black Christian Collective and the cohost of the Pass the Mic podcast. He is a PhD candidate in history at the University of Mississippi.