AMERICAN NEGRA

A journalist chronicles her life journey as the child of a Black father and Puerto Rican mother.

As CNN analyst Alford recounts, when she was young, she never quite knew how to express her identity. Her Puerto Rican mother was raised in New York City, while her father was a Black custodian from Syracuse. An only child, the author grew up in Syracuse acutely aware of her otherness, in terms of skin color, hair texture, and her Spanish-speaking mother. Early on, she identified more with her Black relatives, who helped her develop “an idealized version of Black womanhood that equated to regality, community leadership, and wisdom.” At the same time, her mother encouraged her: “You are Black. You are Puerto Rican. And you are a girl. That’s three strikes against you—but you can be anything you dream of being.” A gifted student, Alford excelled at oratory in the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics, and she went on to attend Harvard as part of “the first incoming freshmen class to have access to a little website called TheFacebook.” Her hard-charging lifestyle as a dedicated journalist took a toll, first in the form of a blood disease, and then lupus. “I had spent my whole life working twice as hard to prove myself, to the world and my own self,” she writes. “I’d managed to avoid becoming a statistic for both the communities I came from—but now I was among the sick.” After stints as a hedge fund manager and educator, Alford joined the Black news website TheGrio, where she is now the vice president of digital content. The author doesn’t delve deeply into her personal life, but her career arc will prove inspiring for aspiring journalists, especially those of color.

A heartening and instructive portrait of a young woman’s search for identity.