The central fact of the Lee girls' existence is that although both girls are biracial, Cole looks black and Birdie looks white. This is complicated by the fact that the family lives in a black world. Their neighborhood in South End is primarily black, and the friends of both parents are almost exclusively black. Sandy Lee struggles unsuccessfully to be accepted by the black community. The two girls are sent to a school operated by the Black Power movement. When Birdie is too young to be objective about her own appearance, she assumes that she looks like Cole. She intensely wants to look like Cole, her Grandmother Lee or her Aunt Dot. Birdie herself, throughout her life, sees black people as the norm and never fails to describe white people by race.
Not until Birdie begins.....
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