Caucasia is the story of biracial sisters Birdie and Cole Lee. They are the daughters of Deck Lee, a black intellectual father, and Sandy Lee, a white Boston Brahmin mother. Birdie, with creamy skin and straight hair, looks white. Cole has milk chocolate skin and curly hair, and she looks black. When their parents divorce, the girls are separated according to skin color. Cole accompanies her working-class intellectual father to Brazil, where he hopes to escape racism. Birdie goes into hiding with her activist mother. Through the normal complications of growing up, Birdie never forgets Cole and her father. Abandoning the deception that she is a white teen of Jewish descent, Birdie runs away to Boston to live with her black aunt. Eventually she is reunited with Cole and her father, although Birdie never understands why they deserted her. (read more)
