Denny's Tapes

Denny's Tapes was written by Carolyn Meyer. Denny is a seventeen-year-old male who has a black father and a white mother. He is kicked out of his house by his step-father because his step-father found out that Denny was having a relationship with his daughter. On his journey, Denny learns very much about his black side of his family, his white side of his family, and being mixed.

After Denny is banned from his house, he decides to go visit his grandmother in Chicago, Illinois. While he is there he finds out that all of this side of the family is well educated and doing something productive in their lives that are making them financially and mentally healthy. Denny's grandmother tells Denny why she and the family didn't agree to his father marrying a white woman. She tells him that it wasn't because she was white, but due to the fact that they were in a lower social class than the them and it would make the family look bad.

His grandmother educates him on many African American artists, musicians, and artist. His grandmother tells him how his dad is a great musician and how he always wanted to be one of the greatest pianist in the world. This fascinates Denny because he want to be a musician himself. When his grandmother finds out that he wants to be a pianist and he could already play the piano quite well, she starts practicing with him for a few hours out of every day, in hope that he will be just as great as his father.

After Denny leaves Chicago, Illinois, he makes his way across the country to visit his white grandmother in Nebraska. Denny's white grandmother is going blind and she is very old. When he gets their, Denny's grandmother tells him how his mother grew up and shows him pictures of his mother childhood. Denny finds out why his grandmother and her husband, who had past, didn't agree to their daughter getting married to a black man. They said it would get around and their family would be the shame of the town. Another reason was because they said black people, especially men, start a lot of problems.

While Denny was growing up and during this journey across the country, he finds out a lot of things about being genetically mixed. He realizes that he has the best of both worlds. However, he will never be accepted into neither group. Especially because he defends which ever side is being ridiculed. Denny thinks about what side he rather claim but he cannot