Tell Me About Your Father: Samantha Francine

Last summer, 27-year-old Samantha Francine became the star of a viral photo of her staring down an enraged racist twice her age, Jay Snowden, at a Black Lives Matter rally in her hometown of Whitefish, Montana. In every subsequent interview Samantha, who is Black, credited her late father Brian, who was white, for instilling in her the mantra to always look a racist in the eye so they can see your humanity. The photograph and the story were picked up by major media outlets in part, because of its feel-good message about a single father of biracial children who empowered them to stand up for themselves. Wouldn't he be so proud of the woman Samantha had become? That's where the story ended until now, when Samantha opened up to Erin and Elizabeth for the first time to give a fuller picture of her father's tragic life death, and the complicated truth of his legacy. Get full access to Tell Me About Your Father at tellmeaboutyourfather.substack.com/subscribe