Mishna Wolff grew up in a poor black neighborhood with her single father, a white man who truly believed he was black. He strutted around with a short perm, a Cosby-esqe sweater, gold chains and a Kangoltelling jokes like Redd Fox, and giving advice like Jesse Jackson. You couldnt tell my father he was white. Believe me, I tried, writes Wolff. And so from early childhood on, her father began his crusade to make his white daughter Down.
Unfortunately, Mishna didnt quite fit in with the neighborhood kids: she couldnt dance, she couldnt sing, she couldnt double dutch and she was the worst player on her all-black basketball team. She was shy, uncool and painfully white. And yet when she was suddenly sent to a rich white school, she found she was too black to fit in with her white classmates.
Im Down is a hip, hysterical and at the same time beautiful memoir that will have you howling with laughter, recommending it to friends and questioning what it means to be black and white in America.
