A review by monicalaurette
Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black by Gregory Howard Williams

dark emotional informative sad fast-paced

3.75

Biographies and non-fiction stories are not ones that I normally turn to, but sometimes there are those few that really spark curiosity in me that I’ll actually sit down and read. Some take me a little bit to actually finish once I start, like with this one, but all-in-all I enjoy what I’m reading so I don’t stop. I had never heard of Greg’s story before and only found it from a friend who read it (I believe) for a class in Undergrad. The tag line hooked me and I knew that I’d want to read it. And my friend also said they enjoyed reading it and it was something they felt I’d enjoy too.

I think one part that worked for me with this book (or at least my edition/copy) was that in the middle were photographs of Greg and those in his life that were mentioned in the book. So I was able to go through those photographs and see the faces that he talked about, like Miss Dora, and make me feel like I knew them all more than what I was just reading.

“Muncie has never paled into insignificance. It has lived inside me forever.”

I could not imagine how uprooting your entire life as a child feels, especially from going from one type of life to one so utterly different and for no fault of their own, but being forced to navigate it as if they always had. Sure I had struggles growing up, but I never had to toe the line between two different worlds and wonder which one I belonged to or which one was safer to stay on (one could say both sides were dangerous for Greg while he grew up). And reading about all the different opportunities that slipped from his hands because of his background & race was infuriating. While I remember that our country has always been racist, I forget how racist it was and never really thought about some of the smaller effects to those communities until reading it.

Part of me wishes that I could find a documentary or interview with Greg to hear more about his story in his words, or maybe someone else like Greg to see how their experiences matched. I just like watching people’s life stories over reading about them, but glad that I gave Greg’s a chance because it really made me think about how different are those communities from then to now? The “black-coded” neighborhoods (normally that way due to stereotypes and systematic racism) versus the “white-coded” ones. While some of the threats have gone away, new ones have arisen that to some could feel like the Civil Rights Era all over again (this is speculation here but honestly I wouldn’t doubt if people of color felt this way right now and I’m sorry if they do).

This story I think should be taught, I don’t think the book is good to teach to younger kids, but maybe high schoolers could read the book, because not everyone goes to college so assigning it there leaves others out from reaching it. The way that this book made me feel is profound and I hope that someday there are no more stories like this in our country, and the hatred is only a distant memory that only appears in the pages of a history book. It’s a far-fetched dream and one that has been chased forever, and sadly probably not one that will be obtained during my lifetime, but maybe the lifetime of my children or grandchildren. I know that Greg, just by being himself, is working to fight that. Sharing his story is helping to reach it, and the more people that open their eyes and actually see the world for what it is, the faster we can stop more kids from experiencing what Greg and more kids in his Muncie neighborhood lived through.
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