SURVIVOR'S GUILT

A poet reflects on issues of race and identity in America in this collection of essays.

“My family history,” White notes, mirrors the often violent legacy of “a mixed-blood American reality.” Her complex array of ancestors and “tangled blood ties” includes Africans forcibly brought to the Carolinas via the Middle Passage, lynching victims of Ku Klux Klan terrorism, and Scottish immigrants who were “one of the largest slaveholding families in America.” In this volume of over a dozen essays, the author—whose award-winning poetry has appeared in multiple anthologies, collections, and journals—blends autobiography with biting social and political commentary on themes centered on racial trauma, sexuality, gender, and class. Written “in the spirit of healing,” these profoundly personal essays place White’s personal tragedies, such as the death of a family member to cancer, in a larger context of American racial and homophobic domestic violence. In a world that too often simplifies racial experiences, the author constantly reminds readers of intersectional nuances, including her childhood as an upper-middle-class “Burger Princess” whose parents embraced Black American dreams of entrepreneurship by opening their own Burger King franchises. Other well-crafted essays discuss the challenges faced by transracial families and draw on her experiences with her White husband, whom she did not marry “because of his race” but rather “despite it.” With a Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky and a position as a professor of English at Pennsylvania’s East Stroudsburg University, White skillfully explores the ubiquitous racism confronted by Black educators in predominantly White Southern and Appalachian schools, both inside classrooms and in interactions with fellow faculty members. But a handful of essays fail to live up to the high standards set by those that focus on the author’s own personal history and experiences, such as a piece that looks at New York City’s African communities and another that analyzes the poetry of Vietnam War veterans. In an average collection, these would be standout essays, but here they are overshadowed by the brilliance of White’s remarkable pieces that combine memoir and insights.

A well-written, powerful examination of America’s racial legacies.