Contrast: A Biracial Man's Journey to Desegregate His Past

by Devin Hughes

Overview

In 1967, the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage in America. Devin Hughes was born two years later to a black father and white mother who fled to Washington DC to escape the racism of the Deep South.
Bigotry still ran rampant up North, and light-skinned, greeneyed Devin felt its pull from both ends: strangers who didn’t know he was half-black and friends who didn’t care he was half-white. In racial limbo, Devin found himself more consumed with his dysfunctional family life—a father who offered an alternative “street” education and a mother whose drug use zombified her for most of his childhood. Despite his parents’ flaws, they were Devin’s greatest believers. From his dad founding a neighborhood baseball team to his mom advocating for him in school, they taught Devin that anything imaginable was within reach, that their mistakes needn’t be his choices, and that his destiny was for greatness. Ultimately, Contrast: A Biracial Man’s Journey to Segregate His Past isn’t a book about race; it’s a book about acceptance, perseverance, and love.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940014634748
Publisher:	Writers of the Round Table Press
Publication date:	06/25/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	350
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Devin C. Hughes is an award winning speaker, best selling Author & former college basketball player who speaks to a variety of groups, organizations, and teams who have a desire to break down barriers and make communication easier through greater self awareness and understanding of each other.

Devin’s moment of change came the day he graduated from Colgate University. On that summer afternoon in 1991, he sat frozen with regret: he knew without a doubt that he had squandered his greatest opportunity—an education.

The son of a black father and white mother, Devin grew up in a mixed—and mixed up—world. His home life was chaotic, riddled with his parents’ drug use and unconventional ways of educating; dyslexia made academic learning a seemingly insurmountable challenge; and his identity was beyond confusing—was he black because he felt black or white because he looked white? Devin knew one thing: he needed to escape his environment and get into college, beyond which he believed the world would open up to him.

Basketball was Devin’s ticket to a brighter future, and he attended Colgate on a full athletic scholarship.
Despite his determination to get to college, however, he scraped through the next four years by doing the bare minimum. Realizing how many doors he had closed for himself was crushing. The day he graduated, he knew he had to change.

Devin spent the next twenty years building a successful career in corporate America before transitioning to a more fulfilling vocation: motivating people to reach their full potential. An avid storyteller with a unique talent for connecting with audiences, Devin is at the forefront of leading culture change, developing simplified tools for change, and aligning personal, professional, and organizational strategies for maximum results. After years of feeling isolated because of his mixed race and dyslexia, Devin now helps others thrive in a fragmented world.

Devin speaks at schools, universities, corporations, associations, and organizations in a wide variety of disciplines to help others access their potential for change. He is the author of Contrast: A Biracial Man’s Journey to Desegregate His Past (2012). He is also the author of the comic-Self Talk (2012). It is for children who feel alone, isolated or are being bullied at home or in school.

http://devinchughes.com/