rejecting your mother's heritage...

"...when a jamaican is born of a Black woman and some english or scotsman, the Black mother is literally and figuratively kept out of sight as far as possible, but no one is allowed to forget that white father, however questionable the circumstances of birth. you hear about 'my father this and my father that, and my father who was english, you know,' until you get the impression that he or she had no mother. Black skin is so utterly condemned that the Black mother is not going to be mentioned nor exhibited. you get the impression that these virile englishmen do not require women to reproduce. they just come out to jamaica, scratch out a nest and lay eggs that hatch out into 'pink' jamaicans."

*excerpted from "i love myself, when i am laughing..." by zora neale hurston, pg.127