In Confessions of a Peppermint Pattie, a ‘Whiteblack’ Girl Asks if She’s Black Enough

Posted in Articles, Autobiography, Media Archive, United States on 2015-04-05 23:46Z by Steven

In Confessions of a Peppermint Pattie, a ‘Whiteblack’ Girl Asks if She’s Black Enough

The Root
2015-03-24

Hope Wabuke, Media Director
Kimbilio Center for African-American Fiction

From the way she speaks to the color of her skin, a former TV personality explores the ways in which she does and doesn’t fit society’s conceptions of blackness.

When Barack Obama arrived on the national political stage and emerged as a presidential contender, more than one observer asked whether the young, biracial, Ivy League-educated U.S. senator was black enough to be the first African-American president. And this kind of authenticity challenge isn’t new: Many other black Americans—upwardly mobile and highly educated—are sometimes seen as “not black enough.” There’s a sense that to be black, one must fit into a narrow box of stereotypes rather than embrace the many-faceted experiences and identities of black people.

So what does it mean to be black—and to be black enough?

These, ostensibly, are the questions that former TV host and news anchor Donna Davis poses in her debut nonfiction book, Confessions of a Peppermint Pattie: Why I Really Am Black Enough Already, Y’All. This journey begins when Davis’ 14-year-old son tells her that she is “not a real black person” but “so white until you’re not even an Oreo anymore.” He calls her a “York Peppermint Pattie.”…

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