Rachel’s mixed-race heritage affects how others perceive her and how she perceives herself. As the child of a White Danish mother and an African-American father, Rachel has little awareness of racism until she moves to Chicago from a German air force base. As she learns more about race and identity, Rachel assimilates her racially ambiguous status, her harsh experiences of different kinds of racism, and her traumatic history to develop her sense of self.

Rachel’s first experience of her difference comes from physical appearance. Her striking blue eyes and light-skinned complexion attract mostly unwanted attention. In school in Portland, boys sexualize and objectify Rachel, while other Black girls shun and bully her out of jealousy. Rachel assumes their taunts are her fault, internalizing self-doubt that destabilizes her during an already fragile time in her life.

Later, Rachel turns this kind of superficial judgment back on others. Absorbing racial stereotypes without question, she looks down on her grandmother for her relative lack of formal education and idolizes her Aunt Loretta for enjoying stereotypically White activities like reading and tennis. Rachel is proud of her innate intelligence and denigrates girls she deems less smart.

However, as she matures, Rachel learns to see race in a much more nuanced way.