{"id":59207,"date":"2019-11-11T21:27:12","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T21:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=59207"},"modified":"2019-11-11T21:27:12","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T21:27:12","slug":"when-i-was-white-at-27-sarah-valentine-found-out-her-biological-father-was-black-a-chat-about-her-new-memoir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=59207","title":{"rendered":"\u2018When I Was White\u2019: At 27, Sarah Valentine found out her biological father was black. A chat about her new memoir."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018When I Was White\u2019: At 27, Sarah Valentine found out her biological father was black. A chat about her new memoir.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Chicago Tribune<\/a>
\n2019-10-29<\/p>\n

Alexis Burling<\/strong><\/a>, Writer. Book Critic. Editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Sarah<\/a>
\nSarah Valentine<\/a>, author of “When I Was White<\/a>,” was unaware until she was 27 that her biological father was African American. She discusses how this affected her life. (Marcello Rostagni \/ HANDOUT)<\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

When Sarah Valentine<\/a> was growing up in the mostly white, middle-class suburbs of Pittsburgh<\/a> during the 1980s, she assumed her experience was just like that of her peers. She embraced the traditions of her Irish and Italian heritage, did well in sports and school, and hung out with her white friends at the mall. \u201cI didn\u2019t know much about race,\u201d she writes of a childhood friendship with a girl who looked like her, \u201cbut I knew it existed; I thought some people were black, but most people were normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as Valentine came of age and became more conscious of her place in the world, something seemed a little off. For one, her skin was a darker shade than that of her family members. Her classmates called her \u201cSlash,\u201d the nickname of the mixed-race Guns N\u2019 Roses guitarist<\/a>. Her high school guidance counselor suggested she consider minority scholarships when applying for college.<\/p>\n

Finally, when she was 27, after years of grappling with deep-rooted insecurities about feeling like an \u201cother,\u201d Valentine confronted her mother about her suspicions. What she found out was disturbing. According to her mother, Valentine was the product of a rape by an unknown black man. The revelation, she writes, meant that her entire upbringing had been \u201can insidious lie.\u201d…<\/p>\n

…Q: In the United States<\/a>, we\u2019re still learning how to talk about identities that fall outside of our traditional understandings of race. In your memoir, \u201cWhen I Was White<\/a>,\u201d you describe yourself as mixed-race African American. Why that, specifically?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: For me, mixed-race experience is part of black experience in this country. Race is often seen as binary, but mixed-race people fall between categories and can encompass multiple identities. Growing up, my family denied my being black and mixed race, so it\u2019s important for me to reclaim those identities…<\/p>\n

Read the entire interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tribune spoke with Valentine about what it was like to grow up under such false pretenses, surrounded by a family and community clearly discomfited by issues of race. She also offers thoughts about what it means to be a mixed-race person of color in America today and why the statement \u201cI don\u2019t see race\u201d can be so detrimental. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,395,414,8,6462,20],"tags":[2805,11554],"class_list":["post-59207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-autobiography","category-family","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-usa","tag-chicago-tribune","tag-the-chicago-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59208,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59207\/revisions\/59208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}