One week after terrorist attacks shook New York City and Washington, D.C., author Rebecca Walker delivered a lecture titled, “Black, White, and Jewish: Growing up Multi-Racial in America,” sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation and the Office of the President. She spoke to a racially diverse audience of approximately 200 students, faculty and community members.
“You all don’t know how far I’ve had to travel to get here tonight, physically, psychologically, psychically,” Walker said, “I hope after I do some reading and talking, we can raise some of the contemporary issues we’re dealing with and have a real dialogue. Please be open to that.”
Walker read five consecutive excerpts from her latest memoir, Black, White, and Jewish: The Autobiography of a Shifting Self, detailing the struggles she experienced growing up in a multi-racial household. She spoke on the difficulties of identity formation. Her goal was to write a book about “what it means to have a fluid identity at a time when many of us are growing up in many different communities,”
The audience responded positively to Walker’s narrative. At one point Walker recounted a story about her birth at a southern hospital that her father had shared with her on her 25th birthday. She described the moment when a nurse presented Walker’s mother and father with her birth certificate and questioned the race section. Could the baby have a Negro mother and a Caucasian father?
“Rebecca aimed to get the reader to drop into the mind-frame of a little child and how she perceived blacks, whites and her own identity. After hearing so many speeches, it’s nice to learn in a more creative way,” junior Kerstin Ahlgren said.
Later she used airports as a metaphor to describe the difficulties of negotiating a mixed identity.
“Airports are limbo stations,” Walker said. She breaks her story into sections by state and area, referring again to this metaphor. “Growing up I did not ever feel contained...I remember most of all the doors, and how they opened for me,” Walker said.
Upon opening the floor for questions, Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance Caroline Jackson-Smith surprised Walker with a more personal greeting. Jackson-Smith had worked in the African-American Cultural Center at Yale University during Walker’s undergraduate years at the school.
“Hi Caroline, oh my goodness, it’s so great to see you honey,” Walker said.
After the two exchanged an enthusiastic hug Jackson-Smith presented the first question of the evening, asking why Rebecca had chosen to use the memoir form as a platform for her writing.
“I needed to tell this story in an immediate way in order to help people really experience what it’s like to be a person who is a border-crosser,” Walker said. “On a personal note, as a child of well-known parent I felt a real need to claim my own story…It was very therapeutic,” Walker said.
Oberlin resident Patti Pitts made the next comment. “I am the mother of two mulatto children. My husband and I have been married for over 15 years, and I read your book recently and it’s very interesting. However, your perspective is not what I envision my children’s experience to be growing up in Oberlin, as multi-racial as it is.”
She went on to ask Walker’s sentiments on patriotism and the differences between that of whites and blacks. Walker responded with personal advice first: “I’m glad you feel that way, however, I do want to say many parents – mine were the same way – really have no idea what the experience of their children around these issues is.” Walker then spoke of her belief in peace and fear of hate in America and around the world.
After a lengthy discussion of current political concerns, junior Kobe Jackson changed gears, stating, “There’s a lot of mixed raced students on this campus. I’m one of them. Actually, it’s one of the reasons I came here. I think a lot about how race and sexuality are intertwined and was wondering if you could speak about that.”
Walker responded with a return to her own experiences. “My struggle around being mixed was often located around my sexual romantic relationships. I had a lot of sex very young and needed to feel a lot of approval as a self that was underneath all of the racial stuff...I’m bi-sexual, bi-racial, bi-coastal, bi-cultural. I’m like one big bi,” Walker said.
The national acts of terrorism again took center stage as recent political events provoked another question. “The events of the past week have driven home the idea that students generally are disinterested in activism. As an activist, I was wondering if you could share some advice as to how those of us who are interested in social change can invite others into the same work,” sophomore Aaliyah Bilal said.
“There’s a tremendous opportunity in front of us. I think now is a great time for coalitions to be built. I think that there are those people who know that right now is a time to act. But I think there are also people who sense and feel that maybe now is the time not to act, but to reflect and go inward,” Walker said.
Walker set out with a long list of what she wanted her book to be and what good it could do. With a goal to avoid the “stagnant intellectual discussion and cut right to the heart somehow,” Walker’s reflections proved successful. The 32-year old graduate of Yale is considered one of the most audible voices of the women’s movement and is currently working on a new novel.

Walker closed her talk with a message for the community from a story relevant to both the national struggles we are currently facing and the identity war she previously highlighted. “It’s like the monkey who is holding the dried up grapes in his hand and somebody’s offering him the new fresh grapes to eat. The monkey doesn’t want to let go of the old grapes because he’s afraid of that moment when there’s nothing in his hand. We have to be willing to experience that empty-handedness. To not know what this new paradigm is gonna look like, but to know that the grapes we have aren’t feeding us anymore,” Walker said.

Following the lecture a long line of students formed around Walker, many of whom, while waiting for autographed copies of Walker’s book, spoke well of the speaker.

“She was able to describe how she was able to thrive in two different cultures. Although she had difficulties her ability to flow between two separate spheres was really hopeful to a lot of us here at Oberlin. She generally seemed like a highly evolved human being,” junior Laurie Pickard said.