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Why my mother lied about her race

Gail Lukasik’s mother was a multiracial woman who passed as white and kept her heritage a secret from her family for her whole life

When Gail Lukasik was growing up in the US, she'd always wondered about her mother's quirky habits. For instance, she always wore a light foundation before she went to bed. Years later Gail would discover that this had been one of her mother's attempts to hide the fact that she was actually multiracial and had passed as white her whole life. Gail wrote a book about her story, White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing.

Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: Alice Gioia

Picture: Alvera Rita Frederic Kalina, Gail Lukasik's mother
Credit: Gail Lukasik

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22 minutes

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