At first, Rebecca Carroll’s childhood in rural New Hampshire seemed idyllic. But as a Black child raised by adoptive white parents, her life became much more complicated.
“It essentially was the white gaze,” Carroll told NEXT. “It was the world my parents created, the way they wanted it to look, without any indication of race beyond me.”
Carroll’s memoir is titled “Surviving the White Gaze.” 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 “Come Through.”
This interview was featured in the most recent episode of NEXT from the New England News Collaborative. Listen to the entire episode here.
