But impressively, Diaz delivers a nuanced, thoughtfully-balanced approach to the easily incendiary issues of race, economics, religion, and education. In less capable hands Color Me In could’ve quickly melted into a syrupy after-school special, or worse, a novel-length lecture chock-full of worn-out platitudes. But while the physical move is certainly discombobulating, it’s easily the least significant shift, for Nevaeh quickly embarks on a seismic spiritual and emotional journey. Just ask 16-year-old Nevaeh Levitz, whose world is rocked when her Black mom and Jewish dad split, forcing Nevaeh to relocate from her affluent NYC hood to her mom’s more modest family home in Harlem. Unless you’re my super pragmatic Dad- name your 5 closest friends, and that’s you-for most of us, the road to self-discovery is no straight line. I see a small, pale girl whose light yellow hair is so fine it looks like silver thread in the sun. “Sure are,” my mom says, remaining friendly enough not to be rude, but monosyllabic so as not to invite further conversation. “They’re such a riot at this age, aren’t they?” she says. The woman laughs like we told the best joke in the whole wide world. “Six,” I say, holding up the fingers to confirm. I look up at my mom for permission to talk to a stranger. “Well, aren’t you just the prettiest thing?” she says. The lady bends down to me, meeting my gaze with Cinderella- ball-gown-blue eyes. I was wondering if they could go together.”

“My daughter is riding the swing alone too, and I’ve got to take the roast out of the slow cooker. “Excuse me?” a syrup-sweet voice asks my mom as we shuffle an inch closer to the tire swing. The line is taking forever, but I’m not going to have an accident, not when we finally made it up to the front.

Squirrels dart back and forth across the park, so I count them, anything to distract myself from how bad I have to pee. Will she continue to let circumstances dictate her path? Or will she find power in herself and decide once and for all who and where she is meant to be? It's only when Nevaeh stumbles upon a secret from her mom's past, finds herself falling in love, and sees firsthand the prejudice her family faces that she begins to realize she has a voice. Even with the push and pull of her two cultures, Nevaeh does what she's always done when life gets complicated: she stays silent. In the midst of attempting to blend their families, Nevaeh's dad decides that she should have a belated bat mitzvah instead of a sweet sixteen, which guarantees social humiliation at her posh private school. Nevaeh wants to get to know her extended family, but one of her cousins can't stand that Nevaeh, who inadvertently passes as white, is too privileged, pampered, and selfish to relate to the injustices they face on a daily basis as African Americans. When her Black mom and Jewish dad split up, she relocates to her mom's family home in Harlem and is forced to confront her identity for the first time. Growing up in an affluent suburb of New York City, sixteen-year-old Nevaeh Levitz never thought much about her biracial roots.

Natasha diaz color me in