Book excerpt: The Delicate Dance: Living White Being Black A Memoir By: Paula Heariold-Kinney Societal forces that shaped her life as a black woman impact Paula’s life. She finds herself attempting to fit into a dominant white society. She describes events from childhood to present that contributed to her life experiences. She addresses her parents’ endeavors to teach her how to assimilate and to value the white culture in order to succeed in life. She finds herself concealing her cultural identify when she is in an all-white environment. A hurtful childhood encounter shaped her mindset in believing being black was a negative attribute. As a four-year-old, she experienced a very negative situation, which launched the beginning of a trajectory that compelled her to transform her life, by assiduously working diligently to assimilate into a white society. She captivates the love and strong foundation of growing up in a black family. Yet the complexity of doing a “delicate dance” between two cultures was not without anguish. Paula shares both her outward journey and her inward journey. Although she becomes a successful professional woman, it was fraught with experiencing emotional, mental, and psychological consequences.