VBB 278 Kelly McWilliams

February, we honor Black History Month by welcoming the voices of Black women to share their lived experiences. We continue that tradition this year, but on a theme that sheds a different light on racism and the black experience. This month's guests are women born into black heritage through black families, but all present to the world as white. Kelly McWilliams is a mixed-race writer, the daughter of an African American author and literary professor; her father is of Norwegian heritage. Kelly wrote an article in TIME titled, The Day I Passed for White about her daughter's birth in a hospital. To ensure optimum health care in the face of institutionalized racism, Kelly faced an agonizing decision: reveal her black heritage to hospital staff or betray it by declaring herself as white.