White like Her, Gail Lukasik
White like Her, Gail Lukasik
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
Club: $9.97

White like Her
My Family’s Story of Race and Racial Passing

Author: Gail Lukasik, Kenyatta D. Berry

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne

Unabridged: 9 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/27/2018

Synopsis

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.

About Gail Lukasik

Gail Lukasik, PhD, 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 is also the author of several mystery novels featuring the character Leigh Girard.

About Kenyatta D. Berry

Kenyatta D. Berry is a genealogist, businesswoman, and lawyer with more than fifteen years experience in genealogical research and writing. She is a host of the PBS broadcast Genealogy Roadshow and is the past president of the Association of Professional Genealogists and on the council of the Corporation for the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston. A frequent lecturer and writer, her area of focus is African American and slave ancestral research.

About Bernadette Dunne

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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lisa on December 20, 2017

During the 1960's I was active in the Civil Rights movement. I've always been involved in social and economic justice issues. In 2o13, prior to visiting Eastern Europe, I began to search my roots, hoping to discover unknown relatives in Hungary. While I was unsuccessful in that endeavor, the exercis......more

Goodreads review by Jacqui on January 02, 2018

I’ll pass Disappointed. The author wrote the book through the lens of white privilege. Annoyed with her take and felt she whined through the whole story. Felt very disconnected"......more

Goodreads review by Jo on March 08, 2021

I am torn regarding my opinion of this book. I can be cynical and viewed the book that way. I was asked to read it for my book club and would not have picked this story on my own. But I also could empathize with the author's need to learn her own family history and not being able to learn any of it......more

Goodreads review by Debra on October 27, 2017

Really liked her story. Made me reexamine my own unconsciousness about bigotry. I don't feel like I'm racist; however, I don't know what it is like to be black. I am white and not mixed. But I do have mixed races in my family - African and Hispanic. I was raised in the South during tumultuous times,......more

Quotes

“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 Beast

“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

Awards

  • Washington Post Notable Book
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