Potomac, MD

This is where Issa spent a portion of her youth. The first anecdote in the book is a story from her elementary school, located in this suburban town. Potomac is in Montgomery County, one of the wealthiest counties by median income in the United States. It is considered part of the Washington, DC metro area and is predominantly white.

Issa describes her peer group fondly and expresses the ease of life she recalls in Potomac: “Growing up as a young black girl in Potomac, Maryland, was easy. I never really had to put much thought into my race, and neither did anybody else. I had a Rainbow Coalition of friends of all ethnicities, and we would carelessly skip around our elementary school like the powerless version of Captain Planet’s Planeteers” (222). Her youth in Potomac has specific connotations for her sense of family. While living in...