My So-Called Community -ISM (N.)
My So-Called Community Diarists
Michelle

MICHELLE feels like a bridge between her divorced parents--her mother, a Panamanian immigrant, and her father, a white rural North Carolinian who tells Michelle, "You are white. You're not nothing else. If you don't like America go back to your homeland and live under their conditions."

Mimi

MIMI's story revolves around her mother, a Haitian immigrant who has always pushed Mimi to be better than everyone else, to defy expectations. But the pushing has led to animosity in their relationship, and Mimi spends her year on a quest from California to New York to Florida to South Africa to understand why.

Charles

CHARLES spends the year piecing together the story about why he--as the first black pledge to an all-white fraternity--was asked to depledge. The fraternity president assures Charles that it wasn't a racially motivated decision. After all, he reminds Charles, the fraternity's cook is black.

Andy

ANDY's hunt for a new girlfriend has only one criteria--that she be nice to him. His parents, on the other hand, want a little bit more. They want her to be nice and Jewish. "We brought you up in a Jewish home and you should continue the Jewish heritage. It's important to us and I hope it's important to you."

Erica

ERICA says she is the "Christian girl that Jewish mothers fear." But in reality, it is her mother--the organist at their small-town Lutheran church--that fears the prospect of Erica marrying Jon, her Jewish boyfriend.

Rich

RICH is about to graduate from college. He's excited and proud of what he has accomplished. But Rich can't help being worried about achieving success as a black man in a white man's world. "There's a power that they have that I want."

George

GEORGE is an actor. His greatest role to date is the one that he performs for his parents. "Out of the closet" at school, George pretends to be straight at home to avoid the hostility of his abusive father.

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