The World Where I Belong

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A memoir of race, resilience, and radical self-acceptance.

The World Where I Belong: My Quest for Identity As a Black Woman in White Skin is a compelling, lyrical memoir by Niedre M. Heckman, a Black woman born with albinism, who has spent a lifetime navigating societal perceptions, racial constructs, and the yearning to belong.

From her childhood in Los Angeles to her professional achievements in science and global public health, Niedre reflects on the painful and empowering experiences that shaped her identity: bullying, colorism, disability, loss, and triumph. She writes with clarity and heart about being Black yet perceived as white, and the emotional tightrope this imposed, from being excluded by her own community to feeling invisible to others.

Each chapter reveals a different thread of her journey: family, friendship, education, love, and legacy, all tied together by a quiet but unwavering determination to define herself on her own terms.

For readers seeking to understand what it means to belong when you've always stood apart, this memoir offers healing, inspiration, and the reminder that who you are is already enough.

This book is for anyone who has ever felt unseen, unheard, or misunderstood.

You belong just as you are.