Reimagining The 'Tragic Mulatto' (book review)

[Blue_Tires]

Like so many children of mixed marriages, the author Heidi Durrow has often felt like she's had to straddle two worlds.

She is the daughter of a black serviceman and a white Danish mother.

Her own personal search for identity inspired her debut novel, The Girl Who Fell From The Sky. The story revolves around a girl who moves across the country to live with her grandmother after surviving a family tragedy.

The book has received breathless critical acclaim, and it was awarded the Bellwether Prize for fiction that addresses issues of social justice.

A Future And A Voice For A Survivor

Preteen Rachel, the daughter of a black GI and a white Danish mother, is the protagonist. And as the story unfolds, the reader discovers just how unfathomable her family tragedy was. Her mother, brother and baby sister all died after leaping off a Chicago apartment building — a jaw-dropping turn of events that was actually based on a real story.

"It was a real newspaper story that I read about 15 years ago," Durrow tells NPR's Michele Norris. "A mother went to the top of the building and the only survivor of this fall was this girl. I remember reading that and just being haunted by, not the questions that the other people were asking about why this happened, and how could we live in a world where it would happen, but I wondered what would her survival look like."

Durrow wanted to give Rachel a future and a voice, she says, and a life that wasn't solely defined by tragedy.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124244813

[bliss_eternal]

1. good grief....

:eyes:

....i'll be incredibly happy, when the word "mulatto" is officially retired from all discussions of multi-racial individuals.
:puke: seriously.

there's quite a bit more about this that bothers me, but words fail me at the moment.
and no, it's not the person's story that bothers me at all. it's the fact that only one type of story seems to be embraced, given accolades and major publicity...."the tragic mulatto." :banghead: as if there is no other story of multi-racial individuals....perhaps those that don't have dramatic, tragedy laden under or overtones.... (sigh)

which just adds to the idea(stereotype) that people from differing backgrounds shouldn't be together...and sorry, i have to call bullshit on that.

[kwassa]

2. This really does seem like a throwback to an earlier era ...

the "tragic mulatto" was bullshit in the old days, too. The imagined punishment for stepping outside your race. A classic case of projection.

I was wondering if the author grew up in the US. She seems to have missed a lot.

[Brewman_Jax]

3. As bliss has so aptly said

that's a stereotype that shouldn't be used--EVER. Here's an article on the source of the "tragic mulatto" myth at http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/mulatto/