(Re)Animated Pasts

Abstract

I am dislocated. I am fragmented. I am mixed-raced.Utilizing Moraga’s (1984) theory of the flesh, I reflect on my childhood as a mixed-race child trying to find her “place” both in the family and in society. Neither looking like my mother nor of my father, my body becomes/is constantly surveyed for “proof” that I “belong.” But what does belonging look it? What does it feel like? What does longing to belong mean? In this article, I explore the notions of “ghosts” and “haunting” as metaphors of diaspora and trauma within a fragmented childhood.