My mother passed for white for most of her life. Here’s what that taught me about racial identity. |
My mother passed for white for most of her life. Here’s what that taught me about racial identity.
Mic
2017-09-12
 Gail’s grandfather’s family that she never knew Source: Gail Lukasik |
Gail Lukasik, Ph.D. is a professional speaker, mystery novelist, and the author of the upcoming memoir, White Like Her: My Family’s Story of Race and Racial Passing (Skyhorse; Oct. 17).
For the majority of my life, I believed I was a white woman. I had no reason to question my race or my racial heritage. Why would I? I had only to look in the mirror to know the veracity of my whiteness — or so I thought.
In 1995, while scrolling through the 1900 Louisiana census records looking for my mother’s father, Azemar Frederic of New Orleans, I made a startling discovery. Azemar Frederic and his entire family were classified as black. In that split second, everything I knew about myself changed. When I walked into the Illinois family history center, I was a white woman. When I left I didn’t know who I was. My sense of identity was shattered…
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Tags: Gail Lukasik, MIC, New Orleans