Johnny's Ethnicity

Johnny Watkins' biracial ethnicity plays a significant role in Johnny's life. As the son of a wealthy white socialite (Eliza Boylston) and a black slave (John Watkins), Johnny has the appearance of a white man. However, he has black blood. In his native Barbados, Johnny's ethnicity is known. However, when he moves to America as a teen, his light-skinned appearance and the blood that flows through his veins are at odds. Since it is only the outer skin that everyone sees and no one knows that his father is a black man, Johnny passes for white. Though, he has opportunities afforded to a white man, he pays a price for going along with the deception. First, he must reject his own black history. Then, he lives in fear of his biracial ethnicity being discovered.

Johnny knows about his father's own biracial ethnicity, He was the...