An unforgettable coming-of-age memoir about a Black boy adopted into a white, Christian fundamentalist family-perfect for fans of Educated, Punch Me Up to the Gods, and Surviving the White Gaze
A powerful, experiential journey from white cult to Black consciousness, Harrison Mooney's riveting story of self-discovery lifts the curtain on the psychological trauma of transracial adoption and the internalized antiblackness at the heart of the white evangelical Christian movement. His powerful gift for storytelling, his keen eye for insight and observation, and his wry sense of humor will captivate readers.
With a voice as unforgettable as Tara Westover and as powerful as Brian Broome, Mooney's story poses age-old questions: Who am I, what do I believe, and how do I balance my need to seek my own way with my need for a sense of belonging, and love?
As an adopted and homeschooled Black boy with ADHD at white fundamentalist Christian churches and tent revivals, Harrison Mooney was conditioned to think not that things must be seen to be believed, but rather, they must be believed to be seen.
Mooney was raised within a radical and racist right-wing bubble along the U.S. border in Canada's Bible Belt, amid a swirl of conflicting and confusing messages and beliefs-and in an atmosphere of conditional love-before ultimately finding his own path.
Desperate to belong and to be "visible" to those around him, Harrison came to understand that the forces at work in his life were not supernatural, but rather, the natural progression of the same trauma and systemic violence that has terrorized Black families for generations, and that ripped him from his mother's arms at birth.
