Mishna Wolff grew up in a poor black neighborhood with her single father, a white man who truly believed he was black.

“He strutted around with a short perm, a Cosby-esqe sweater, gold chains and a Kangol—telling jokes like Redd Fox, and giving advice like Jesse Jackson. You couldn’t tell my father he was white. Believe me, I tried,” writes Wolff.

From early childhood, her father began his crusade to make his white daughter Down. Unfortunately, Mishna didn’t quite fit in with the neighborhood kids: she couldn’t dance, she couldn’t sing, she couldn’t double dutch and she was the worst player on her all-black basketball team. She was shy, uncool, and painfully white.

Yet, when she was suddenly sent to a rich white school, she found she was too “black” to fit in with her white classmates.

I’m Down is a hip, hysterical, and at the same time, beautiful memoir that will have you howling with laughter, recommending it to friends, and questioning what it means to be black and white in America.