Passin' ― A Novel

Shanika Ann Jenkins is the pride of her African-American family; smart, beautiful, and born with blue eyes and blonde hair. Though her grandmother and father are happy because she represents years of passing down light skin and marrying well, Shanika's mother insists on her name reflecting her African-American heritage so that she will always be proud of who she is. When Shanika gets the opportunity to work for a PR firm in New York, she finds that everyone assumes she is white; she also notices that being white has it advantages, from getting respect at work to getting picked up by a cab when other African-Americans are passed by. When she starts dating a successful white colleague, she continues with the lie, despite the guilt she feels at disappointing her mother and her heritage. When she falls for a handsome African-American business man, she must finally face who she is and what she's done, even if it means losing everything and everyone she loves.

Born and raised in Harlem, Karen dropped out of school at age 13. When she was 22, she joined the Navy and served for five years, after which she married, had a child, and got divorced. She moved to Philadelphia at age 29 and began a career in the newspapers, first as a secretary at the Philadelphia News, then as a correspondent for a weekly African American paper, and, after graduating magna cum laude from Temple University with a B.A. in Journalism, as a reporter for the Virginian-Pilot and The Philadelphia Inquirer. She has also served as correspondent for People magazine.