An 'outsider' growing up half black, half white

WASHINGTON • As a child, Mr Justin Harriot never had a fixed answer when standardised tests at school required him to state his race; he would check off "black" on some days and "white" on others.

He could pick only one race, but Mr Harriot, whose father is white and mother is black, did not want to erase either side of his heritage. "Why should I put down one and not the other? That's why I've always said I was white and black," Mr Harriot said about one of his earliest clues that he was different from most of his classmates.