Ray "BEN" Studevent

Born in the mid 1960s in America's blackest city, Washington D.C., to a white, heroin-addicted mother and a black alcoholic father, Ray Studevent had no idea his unique look would take him on a two-sided journey throughout his entire life. After being abandoned by both parents at the age of five, he was adopted by his aunt Lemell Studevent, a beautiful, black Southern belle who hailed from the depths of the Southern hell that was segregated Jackson, Mississippi. While trying to fit into an all-black neighborhood looking like the all-American white boy next door, physically he was the epitome of everything Lemell despised about her childhood in 1930s and 40s Mississippi. Ray had to fight for Lemell's love, fight to survive the mean streets of D.C., and most of all fight the racial identity crisis that continually haunted him. This identity struggle set the stage that would prepare him to always look around the room and decide whether it was better to be black or white. His winding personal and career journey ebbed and flowed, taking him to prison, comedy clubs, fatherhood, modeling, and stock market researcher. In all these varied experiences, he realized that race played a critical role.