At first, Rebecca Carroll鈥檚 childhood in rural New Hampshire seemed idyllic. But as a Black child raised by adoptive white parents, her life became much more complicated.
鈥淚t essentially was the white gaze,鈥� Carroll told . 鈥淚t was the world my parents created, the way they wanted it to look, without any indication of race beyond me.鈥�
Carroll鈥檚 memoir is titled 鈥淪urviving the White Gaze.鈥� In the book, she describes her childhood with her adoptive family, navigating a difficult relationship with her white birth mother, and being the target of racism in her hometown where she was the only Black resident at the time.
Carroll is a cultural critic and host of the podcast 鈥�.鈥�
This interview was featured in the most recent episode of NEXT from the New England News Collaborative. .
