My Black/White Card

My Black/White Card is a pocket-sized poetry collection about race, belonging, contradiction, and the painful comedy of being told you are never enough of what people want you to be.Written from the perspective of a Black and White biracial poet, this collection wrestles with racial injustice, identity policing, family wounds, faith, love, representation, and the quiet violence of being asked to choose between the blood that made you. Across poems about heroes, country, culture, romance, media, and ancestry, Enoiret Russell turns the idea of a 'Black card' into something more personal: a card no one else gets to issue, judge, or take away.These poems confront discrimination from the outside and hypocrisy from within. They speak to the fear of not being Black enough, not being White enough, not being seen clearly, and not knowing where to stand when both sides claim and reject you. And where to escape when there aren’t any heroes who look like you that have not only paved the way, but are also there to save the day.But this book is not only about pain. It’s about looking in the mirror, facing what hurts, honoring both parents, and choosing wholeness over permission.This is not a card handed over by the world.This is one made by the person who had to carry it.'I tried to make my Black card physical, but I couldn’t escape my White half. So I stopped asking for permission and made my own.' -Enoiret Russell