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About David Matthews (author)
- David Matthews (born November 8, 1967) is an American author and screenwriter.
- Matthews is of African American and Jewish descent.
- His memoir Ace of Spades recounts growing up in the inner city of Baltimore, Maryland as a biracial child who could pass for white. Matthews' Jewish mother was schizophrenic and left his father when Matthews was only a few months old.
- As a result, Matthews was raised by his father, Ralph Matthews, Jr., an African American journalist who counted Malcolm X and James Baldwin among his friends.
- The Matthews family lived in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., but in 1977 moved next to the segregated Bolton Hill area of Baltimore, a tiny enclave of rich, white families, which was surrounded by the primarily black ghetto of west Baltimore.
- He describes himself as not initially fitting in with either the black or white children in his public elementary school, sparking his decision to "pass" as white.
- Matthews attended Baltimore City College High School where he attempted to "pass" as not only white, but Jewish.
- Lacking any cultural knowledge of Jewish life, Matthews was not accepted as a Jew and continued to search for an identity.
- Matthews' first book, Ace of Spades details this search, and is presented in a somewhat acerbic coming-of-age literary style.Matthews currently resides in New York City and Los Angeles.
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