In the historical context of the Jim Crow South, Gail explores her mother’s decision to pass, how she hid her secret even from her own husband, and the price she paid for choosing whiteness. Haunted by her mother’s fear and shame, Gail embarks on a quest to uncover her mother’s racial lineage, tracing her family back to eighteenth-century colonial Louisiana. In coming to terms with her decision to publicly out her mother, Gail changed how she looks at race and heritage.
With a foreword written by Kenyatta Berry, host of PBS’s Genealogy Roadshow, this unique and fascinating story of coming to terms with oneself breaks down barriers.
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“Important in helping us understand America’s complex racial history…[and] adds to the ongoing conversation about race and racial identity in America because it looks at the ramifications of institutionalized racialism and racial passing through one family’s story.”
— Kenyatta D. Berry, host of PBS’s Genealogy Roadshow
“Lukasik, with the persistence and canniness of the sleuths as the detective novelist she sometimes impersonates, explores how complicated race is in America.”
— Randy Fertel, author of The Gorilla Man“Meticulously researched…Offers new insights into issues surrounding the complex history of racial passing in the United States.”
— Ronne Hartfield, author of Another Way Home: The Tangled Roots of Race in One Chicago Family“In White Like Her, Lukasik, with the persistence and canniness of the sleuths and the detective novelists she sometimes impersonates, explores how complicated race is in America.”
— Randy Fertel, author of The Gorilla Man“Offers new insights into issues surrounding the complex history of racial passing in the United States.”
— Ronne Hartfield, author of Another Way Home“Lukasik, bravely and eloquently, writes with a researcher’s eye and a daughter’s heart.”
— Goldie Taylor, editor-at-large of the Daily BeastGail Lukasik was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and was a ballerina with the Cleveland Civic Ballet Company. She has worked as a choreographer, freelance writer, editor, and college lecturer. Recently, Gail appeared on PBS Genealogy Roadshow (St. Louis Central Public Library). She said, “I’m a mystery author who’s never been able to solve my own family mystery.” The show solved the mystery and revealed her mother’s life-changing secret. PBS was so intrigued by her story that they invited her back to update her story. She is also the author of several mystery novels featuring the character Leigh Girard.
Bernadette Dunne is the winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and has twice been nominated for the prestigious Audie Award. She studied at the Royal National Theatre in London and the Studio Theater in Washington, DC, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center and off Broadway.