As American families have grown more racially and culturally mixed, so too have their stories. These stories, more common than ever, are captured in memoirs by multiracial authors who delve into the complexities of the mixed-race experience. Many of these memoirs follow authors as they navigate their identities within families, communities, and cultures that struggle to fully embrace every part of their heritage.
My own family called me “pale-faced or mixed race.” Some referred to me as “light, bright, almost white.” But most of the time I was known as “high yella.” That’s because I was the white passing, youngest son growing up in an all-Black family. The journey to reconcile my identity within my Black family was complicated by struggles with poverty, abuse, and generational trauma.
My memoir, High Yella, is my account of how I had to leave my troubled Black family behind in search of a new identity. Ironically, it was only when I returned to them that I began to fully understand my true self as a parent of color after my husband and I adopted two Black daughters. Our efforts to guide our children to find their place in the world were rooted in the significance of where they—and I—came from.
There are many powerful mixed-race memoirs about love, family, and identity. Here are 8 that stand out, each capturing the unique journey of the mixed-race experience.
Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughter and the Mother Who Gave Her Away by June Cross
June Cross was born in the 1950s—at a time when interracial relationships were illegal and deeply taboo—to a white up-and-coming actress and a Black comedian. To protect June, her mother decides to have her be raised by a Black family, all while maintaining a complicated, secret relationship with her daughter. Her memoir explores the heartbreaking sacrifices of time where love across color lines was forbidden.
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride
Award-winning novelist and musician James McBride intertwines his own coming-of-age journey with the story of his mother, Ruth, a white Jewish woman who married a Black man and raised twelve children in a racially segregated America. As he grows up, McBride struggles with his racial identity, often questioning why his mother refuses to discuss her past. Eventually, he uncovers her history and her decision to embrace Black identity and Christianity.
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
Comedian Trevor Noah was born in apartheid South Africa to a Black mother and white Swiss father, during a time when miscegenation was illegal. In fact, his very existence was “born a crime.” Noah tells humorous and sometimes harrowing stories of his youth, from growing up in poverty to being hidden indoors to avoid detection to hustling CDs in the streets, and finally the freedom that came with the fall of the apartheid regime. At the heart of his memoir is another fierce, independent mother, whose determination and faith shape his resilience.
When I Was White: A Memoir by Sarah Valentine
Sarah Valentine grows up believing she is white because she is raised in a white suburban middle-class family in Pittsburgh that never talked about race. As a young adult, she discovers that her biological father is Black, and the revelation shatters her sense of self. Valentine’s memoir explores the psychological and emotional toll of being denied one’s true heritage and how she embraced her identity as a Black woman, after spending her life living as a white woman.
Mixed: My Life in Black and White by Angela Nissel
Angela Nissel’s memoir chronicles growing up in Philadelphia, where she constantly feels like she exists between two worlds. In predominantly Black spaces, she is sometimes seen as too light-skinned and talking “too white”, while in white spaces, she is viewed as an exotic outsider. Her journey sees her dabbling in Black activism, working as a stripper, briefly hospitalized for clinical depression, before finally finding herself on the West Coast. Mixed is a witty examination of what it means to fit in, told through a lifetime of fascinating and colorful anecdotes.
Heart Radical: A Search for Language, Love, and Belonging by Anne Liu Kellor
Anne Liu Kellor’s memoir follows her journey across China as she searches for a deeper connection to her heritage and herself. Raised in the U.S. by a Chinese mother and white father, Kellor wrestles with questions of identity, language, and belonging as she moves from L.A. to immerse herself in Mandarin and Chinese culture in Chengdu. Heart Radical is a meditation on how language shapes identity and how one woman pieces together a life from the fragments of two cultures.
On Gold Mountain by Lisa See
Lisa See traces the sweeping history of her Chinese American family, beginning with her great-great-grandfather Fong See, who immigrated to the U.S. in the late 19th century at the tail end of the Chinese Exclusion Act. His son Fong See built a successful business in Los Angeles despite being a second-class citizen facing rampant racism and xenophobia and married a white woman at a time when interracial relationships were against the law. On Gold Mountain blends personal narrative with historical insight, shedding light on the challenges of building a new life in a country that doesn’t want you and the enduring strength of family bonds.
Where Did You Sleep Last Night? by Danzy Senna
Novelist and essayist Danzy Senna’s personal investigation into her family’s past uncovers the complex and often painful history of race, class, and identity that shaped her upbringing. Senna is the daughter of two American writers from completely different backgrounds, her mother, a white woman from a prominent Boston family, and her father, a Black man from a struggling single-mother household. The marriage was tumultuous and her search to understand herself and her parents takes her through generations of Black and white ancestors, revealing hidden truths and uncomfortable realities.