How a biracial woman grew up thinking she was white When Lacey Schwartz was accepted to Georgetown University, the school saw her photo and passed her name along to the black student association. The organization contacted her. The only issue: Schwartz had grown up in a Jewish household in Woodstock New York, and had always — despite occasional questions about the source of her brown skin and curly hair — identified as white. She confronted her mother, who revealed that Schwartz biological father was actually a black man. The 18-year-old began a quest to reconcile her newly discovered identity with the way she was raised, all while navigating sensitivities around what had been a family secret. Little White Lie, currently in limited theatrical release in New York, LA, and San Francisco, and set to air on PBS in 2015, is her documentary about that journey. In part, it highlights the subjective and malleable nature of racial identity. If you looked too closely at it, it didnt make any sense, so we found ways to see what we wanted to believe, Schwartz says. I wasnt pretending I was something I wasnt. I actually grew up believing I was white. A childhood friend adds, I always looked at you liked you looked black ... but not that you were. Schwartz, who told Vox she now identifies as black/biracial, explaining, I look at bi-racial as a category of being black, said Little White Lies message is about more than just race. I think the films broader lesson is about the power of telling the truth, having difficult conversations and then moving forward, she said.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 00:59:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015