They called him "pale faced or mixed race." They called him "light,
bright, almost white." But most of the time his family called him "high
yella." Steve Majors was the white passing, youngest son growing up in
an all-Black family that struggled with poverty, abuse, and generational
trauma. High Yella is the poignant account of how he tried to leave
his troubled childhood and family behind to create a new identity, only
to discover he ultimately needed to return home to truly find himself.
And after he and his husband adopt two Black daughters, he must set them
on their own path to finding their place in the world by understanding
the importance of where they come from.
In his remarkable and moving memoir, Majors gathers the shards of a
broken past to piece together a portrait of a man on an extraordinary
journey toward Blackness, queerness, and parenthood. High Yella
delivers its hard-won lessons on love, life, and family with exceptional
grace.