A review by freder1ck
When I Was White: A Memoir by Sarah Valentine

4.0

Beautifully written memoir. The author is biracial, but through family insistence, was raised as white in the United States where racial identity is related to everything. To the people who ask how she didn't embrace her biracial heritage until she was 27, the memoir makes clear (as with family secrets generally) that she did have a certain awareness. If your mother is the keeper of your memories and identities, who do you believe when your mother tells you one thing and everyone else tells you another thing? Love and acceptance are only adequate when they embrace the whole person, omitting nothing.