Going to College and Learning You’re Black: The Moving Story of Little White LiePosted in Articles, Autobiography, Book/Video Reviews, Judaism, Media Archive, Religion, United States on 2014-11-28 18:30Z by Steven |
Going to College and Learning You’re Black: The Moving Story of Little White Lie
Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair’s Hollywood
2014-11-25
“You boys are black, and don’t you forget that.”
From an early age I was taught that both my black identity and my white-Irish identity were important, and that I was never to relinquish either from my understanding of who I was. Watching Lacey Schwartz’s thought-provoking documentary Little White Lie— now in limited release and airing on PBS March 23—I was reminded of this formative experience, the wisdom of these seemingly competing messages and the diverse range of biracial narratives out there.
Little White Lie traces the story of Schwartz’s discovery of her mixed-race heritage after 18 years believing she was the product of two white, Jewish parents. After submitting a photo of herself with her undergraduate application to Georgetown and being contacted by their black student alliance, she begins to question the story she’s been told about who she is and that of her parents’ picture-perfect marriage. Ultimately she’s forced to confront her mother about a secret affair with Schwartz’s biological father, a black man and longtime family friend, and reexamine who she is as person…
Read the entire review here.