One Drop

I just had to post this link to an interview on Fresh Air with author Bliss Broyard, author of One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life. Full disclosure, I haven't read the book, yet, but the subject matter is fascinating.

The book is billed as a memoir of the author's famous father, Anatole Broyard, writer and literary critic for the New York Times. Born in 1920 to Creole parents in Louisiana, he and his family decided or were forced to, depending on who you ask, pass for White when they moved to New York City and couldn't find work as Black people. Once Anatole crossed the color line, apparently he never went back to the Black side, including keeping a distance from his own family.

The interview with his daughter is riveting as she describes what it was like at age 24 to find out that she was actually "part Black." I almost crashed my car listening to the interview as she was describing this moment because her mother's response to her children upon revealing "the secret," was (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Well, even though your father is Black, you're not. You're White."

Deep. Deep. Deep.

I for one will add this book to my list of must read Meltingpot books.

For more information about Bliss and to see if she's coming to a city near you, check out her website.

Peace.