CULTURE | RACE

What It’s Like To Grow Up Looking White While Feeling Black

I’d never relive my teenage years. However, what didn’t kill me did in fact make me, and others close to me, stronger.

High school years. That is me on the right with a close friend who majored in African-American studies in college. She was inspired by our friendship. Photo by KL Simmons

On October 3rd, 2021, I wrote a story about what it was like to grow up looking white with a Black mother. It was the…