#Difference between Black Mama Biracial And White Mama Biracial

[ausetkmt]

Mixed Race Is NOT Black - Stop Trying To Silence Us!

Difference between Black Mama Biracial And White Mama Biracial

Biracial Dishonesty

[jobesimming]

"This is...Issue 32" August "

"This Is...Daring Darling Family" magazine issue 32, August

Transcript Below:

The Daring Darlings aren't so daring as we thought?

Written by Carrington Williams

Welcome back "This is.." Family, today we have everyone's favorite family, "The Darlings". A family filled with secrets and lies...But whose family is normal right? There's a difference between "normal" and "keeping-a-child-secret-for-sixteen-years".

"Adrienne was my girlfriend at the time I got my ex-high school lover, pregnant. Porsha didn't even know of the status of our relationship. I wasn't even aware either were pregnant until Maverick came and a few months later, Posha messaged me on Simbook about Belle." Said Messer Darling. Wow, imagine committing infidelity and trying to blame your partners because you're a douchebag? May I add that he and Mrs. Darling were engaged at the time? What do you mean by girlfriend Messy Messer? I know the burning question is.."Why now?"

"Why now? Well, I want the world to know who my family is. It's extremely hard dating someone outside of your race, you know? So between the many death threats and Adrienne's pregnancy? I was stressed. So when Porsha reached out...I ignored her. I was 27 and my career was taking off, I couldn't let this mishap ruin my career because I was horny and young." Messer continued. Now we're getting to the truth! Here you have it, folks, Messer Darling has admitted to not being shit! Also knowing Adrienne was pregnant. And that concludes "This is...(MESSY)Messer". #BOYBYEMessyMesser #CancelMesserDarling #AdrienneDeservesBetter #WhenIsAdrienne'sNextMovie

"This is...interracial love"

"I think what was really hard...was explaining to the kids their black and white. 'But people at school call us black'. It was so difficult explaining to them, they're biracial and have two different sides to them. Blair is kinda the only one with kinky hair. Maverick and Brysen, their hair ranges from straight to curly a lot." Adrienne confessed.

Love comes in many shapes and sizes and in this case, skin tone. No one can deny the cultural differences that exist here. Look at the wonderful and beautiful set of kids they made! True love shows through family first.

"My parents are...racist, which is why we didn't date in high school. But they're coming around, mainly because of the kids. I knew Porsha, we were best friends because of cheer. There was always resentment because of Messer. "

The way people are treated because of their appearance is shameful. Back then, I think I was in the eighth grade, and I was obsessed with the couple! Messer used to take her to basketball and football games, they were cool. It is true though, many did hate Messer because he married a white woman. People assumed he was a colorist, but the love between them is true. He loves her for her, not because of her skin and the same for Mrs.Lauren-Darling.

"I love what Messer and I made. I look at my kids every day and start crying. To think two different people from different settings came together and made this beautiful and wonderful blend...warms my heart. "

Congrats on sixteen years of marriage Mr. and Mrs. Darling! Can't wait to see what's next for this couple. "I know they can't hear me...but I want to end it off. I'm Adrienne Lauren-Darling and this is...Interracial love!"

Belle'Anna's Interview

I was honestly shocked my former classmate ok-ed an interview between the two of us. Belle'Anna is the daughter of Porsha Richards and Messer Darling.

Q: We're curious, whom are you dating and how long has it been? What happened to aspen?

A: Aspen broke up with me after prom. I was so hurt and sad. My bestie Naura wasn't having it though. So we'd go out. One day we went mini-golfing and Colt walked up to me, "Wow, you're gorgeous. I hope this doesn't sound weird..but I follow you on Simstagram and it's crazy I'm seeing you in person." It was funny though because his family is famous and wealthy! Like he was fanboying and it was so cute. It started off as a friendship until he expressed to me how he felt about me...then late April he asked me out. We've been to get her for four months, five next week.

Q: Are you going to college?

A: Yes, I'll be attending Howard in a few weeks

Q: What's your major and/or minor?

A: I'm majoring in Media...and my minor is acting

Q: Do you plan to marry Colt?

A: *Turns around* Is Colt in here..*laughs* I do, he talks about it all the time. He wants four kids!

Q: Do you want kids?

A: I already feel like a mama because of Naura. I live with her and Silas, her son. For the most part, she takes care of him...but I hate when date night comes because Silas wants me to sing, read, dance, cook, and play! I order zoomers delivery and put on some kids toons. But I do want kids. I want black kids though. It's been a dream of mine to raise black kids. Colt agreed, but he really wants kids of his own.

Paragraph by grad photo:

Belle'Anna has recently graduated from high school and was named "Class valedictorian". She also won Prom Queen, Homecoming Queen, three scholar awards for best young novelist. It was rumored that their class salutatorian wasn't supposed to be the famous "Luna Villareal" and it was originally "Kimberly Jeng". The Principal felt that there should be a "racial balance"..whatever that means.

[bruhnushka]

earn that kiss - johan x reader (1/2)

summary : you've known dre for a while and come and live in their house in a trailer- then rainbow's brother comes and makes everything a tad bit more complex

warnings : slight smut, cussing, evil children, maybe transphobia

a/n - WHY??? ARENT??? THERE??? MORE??? JOHAN???? FICS???? anyway here's This for compensation!!  I love johan & daveed so sUe mE

pronouns - they/them (ftm trans)

part 1 | part 2

you remembered the first time dre introduced you to rainbow. she was so skeptical of you, her mans 'best friend' since y'all were in diapers. obviously, any sane heterosexual female would see the female heterosexual best friend as a threat. luckily for her, you were neither heterosexual nor female. when you had came out, three months into rainbow & dre's relationship, rainbow opened her wonderfully toned arms to you. she put aside all jealousy and you two became the best of friends, and since then, you and her were practically inseparable. of course, that made dre, the man baby she would marry, jealous, but he could deal with it. you though rainbow and you were close friends because you both struggled with your biracial identity- hers was black &a white, yours was Indian & Mexican. Though they were different, you'd always find yourself being able to talk to rainbow about anything.

now two kids already born, a couple already wed, and twins on the way, rainbow was preparing dinner when she got the phone call. a panicked, frenzied voice spoke on the other end.

"bow! I need your help." you whispered into the phone. then in a louder voice, "I was checking to see if you were still going to Peggy's place this afternoon?" rainbow dropped the knife and froze.

"oh my god where are you?" she said, grabbing her car keys.

"oh you are! I hope the kids are great!"

"y/n where the hell are you?"

"Actually right now I'm taking a little walk down." a pause. rainbow held her breath as she slid into the car seat. "Ashlyn Dr." rainbow hit the wheel in frustration, racking her mind for a location. when you didn't hear an answer, you opened up your mouth to elaborate , before another young, distant voice cut you off.

"talking to another one of your gay friends? another tranny? you think you can run? get back her-" the audio crackled before stopping. rainbow let out a scream in frustration and typed in the road name, speeding to your location. she finally saw you, running for your life with a group of teenage boys behind you. she quickly stopped in front of you, pulled you into the car, and drove off.

once seated, you exhaled loudly, before loud sobs racked your body. "rainbow- they- they know where I live- they-" you couldn't even finish a sentence before tears streamed down your face again. rainbow rubbed your back calmingly, looking upon her close friend with sympathy. and that's when it was decided. you were living at their house, under their protection. dre was thrilled, his "brotha from another motha is stayin in da house!" it had taken a lot of convincing but you finally packed up your 'herbal-truck', an old rundown trailer someone gave you in college, and drove to their house, currently parked in their garage. now you had been living there for almost ten years.

ruby and you would sip tea and talk about the stupid shit the family did. beside your differences, ruby loved you more than your mother ever could, and put aside her religiousness to knock some sense into her when your mother refused to help you transition. now you two would gossip to your hearts content and talk about how fucked up this family is.

you were in your trailer, which you slept in by the way, when you heard a car pull up. you were in the middle of brewing together your morning tea when you peered out the window. the most gorgeous man you've ever seen in your whole life steps out, three suitcases in hand. ah, you thought, so that must be john. you watched him from the trailer, in just your boxers and a loose college hoodie to some university you never attended, and swirled your spook in you tea. you eyed him up and down while sipping your tea. he stood their awkwardly for a full three minutes unsure where to go before he stepped into the house.

a few hours later, you walked into the living room, wearing a comfortable sweater and a pair of pink jeans.

"johan!" rainbow exclaimed, "you haven't met my favorite person ever!" dre acted shock, placing a hand lightly to his heart.

"johan, this is y/n. y/n, this is Johan. you guys are very similar. like scary similar. y/n? Remember that rant about capitalism you gave me the other day?" she asked you, and johan quirked an eyebrow. that was hot, god.

"yeah when zoey was with Marco or whoever?" you ask nonchalantly. Dre spits out his coffee.

"my baby girl," he seethes, "was with a boy? oh hell to the-" rainbow dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

"that's not important. anyways, johan basically sent me a three page essay over email about the exact same thing. I swear, you both could be the same person and we'd never know it!" she laughs and then walks away, leaving you two to socialize.

"so..." johan rubs his elbow awkwardly.

"you’re definitely not straight." you blurt, then gasp and cover your mouth.

"how'd you guess?" he smirks, although inside his own gaydar was screaming.

"you know, intuition." you waved your hand around to try and explain, earning a chuckle from him.

"intuition, is your only real valuable thing-"

"-Albert Einstein. quoted incorrectly, might I add. the real quote would be the only real valuable thing is your intuition." you finish off. he laughs, eyeing you down.

"anyways, I'm bisexual."

"and I'm a trans gay boy." you laugh. his eyes widen. "really! wow you pass so great!" he didn't say it as a belittling or heterosexually ignorant statement, more as a "wow im so proud of you!" and that made you blush. you shyly looked away, unsure what to say. daveed clears his throat, noticing the tension that had arisen in the air between you.

"I gotta go-uh- pack my bags." he stuttered.

"pack my bags my ass." said a familiar voice. you turned to see ruby, judgmentally stirring her tea and humming in appreciation at his body.

"baby boy," she looks at you and grabs your shoulders with her free hand, "I swear on black Jesus if you don't go down on that hunk of sexual heaven I'll have to do it myself." she shakes her head in approval.

"ruby!" you squeal, dropping your keys to the floor, since he was still there when she made that statement. you forgot the keys on the floor and walked to your trailer, laughing the entire way there.

it was originally an extra large food truck, which you had revamped. you planted a mini garden, half of it a hanging garden, and added in a small bed, plenty of storage, and a mini couch. the thing was, there were plants overflowing every part of the trailer, but it made you feel safe. you had planted things like lavender next to your bed to help you sleep, and made all your own products like shampoo and tea. the fridge and stove, preinstalled, were constantly in use. the only thing there wasn't was a bathroom, and that's why you had a house. right now, you were boiling down some herbs and roots to make more face wash for yourself. johan knocked on your door, startling you. you were only wearing a binder and sweats, and you forget this as you opened the door. johan didn't seem to mind, handing you your keys and taking in the view of your 'home'.

"this is... pretty cool." he breathes. he nods towards one of the pots hanging from the ceiling next to your bed. " schisandra?" he asks. you nod giddily. he smiles at you, then takes a step inside.

you welcome him inside and then take a seat on your bed as he tours the trailer. you point out the locations from your position, too lazy to get up. "do you like it?"

johan turns and grins at you, "magnifiqué"

"Vous avez été en France pendant deux ans et c'est tout ce que vous avez appris?" you laugh and reply. (You've been in France for two years and that's all you've learned?) his face turns red and he shrugs his shoulders awkwardly.

"sí?"

you burst out laughing and he smiles in accomplishment, because your laugh was so goddamn pretty. he stares at you for a good two minutes before your laughter dies down, and all that's left is you and him staring at each other.

zoey interrupts the silence. "moms calling for breakfast- so- finish up whatever is happening here and come into the house." she motions to the tension and walks out.

"my favorite kid." you both say at the same time and laugh, walking out of the trailer. you step into the house and look at rainbow, who wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.

"oh god no." you face palm as rainbow walks towards you, a whole cabbage in hand.

"you're tryna steal my brother, aren't you?" she jokes.

"she getting all up on my man!" ruby calls from the table. johan chokes and sits down at the table. he grabs the wine bottle and pours it delicately into his cup, swirling the wine delicately.

"this wine is the most distasteful thing I've had since rainbows attempt at empanadas because she threw a Mexican party for her Indian friend." he comments, but continues to sip it.

"in my defense- she spoke fluent Spanish to the hot dog vendor on second." rainbow said, putting her hands up in defeat. "but it was still wildly embarrassing."

"wildly" johan echoed, puckering his lips for another sip before Ruby stopped him.

"don't you trash talk mamas wine less you it gonna drink it." she said, grabbing the wine glass and somehow gracefully slurping it down. johan was confused and everything that happened, making you laugh. he brushed his hair out of his face with an artful flick and started to eat.

"I never understand how your meal times are so early, back in France we would"

"excuse me baguette, no one cares." dre said, throwing a lettuce piece at him. it stuck into Ruby's hair. you knew how this would end, so you pushed your chair back and watched the chaos unfold.

ruby took a piece of the chicken and threw it at dre, missing and landing onto Diane. Diane's head turned slowly, an evil grin spreading on her face. "oh you're gonna get it now old lady..." she said maliciously.

"old lady! I'm barely a day over thirty two!" Ruby screamed.

"uh-uh" earl commented, laughing.

"you listen here you old hairy ass-" before she finish, a grape landed perfectly in her hair. ruby squealed and that's when all hell broke loose. food was flying everywhere and you were sitting on the counter laughing at the stupidity.  Zoey, who had stayed out of it as well, sat next to you.

"how are we related?" she asks, rolling her eyes.

"I have absolutely no idea." you laugh, "don't tell the rest of the kids, or your man-baby dad, but you're my favorite kid."

she flips her hair, "I know." you two walk around the chaos and sit on the couch in her room, watching cheesy rom-coms on Netflix until junior crawls into the room.

"all was well," he starts, wiping the stains of his shirt and staggering up, "before Diane brought out the hand mixers." both you and zoey's eyes widened. Diane was the spawn of Satan, as ruby would repeat every few hours. junior shakes his head and limps out.

"what the hell?" you ask Zoey. she shrugs and you continue to watch the show. it wasn't your problem, not until someone brought the fight to either your trailer or zoey's room. ruby ran in, and slammed the door close behind her.

"that child," she held her cross tightly, "the Holy Spirit and mother Mary oh black Jesus-" she mutters, and takes a shaky breath. "that Diane needs help." and she sits down. suddenly, there's a slow knock on the door.

"Ruby..." says a sinister voice, "I know your in there." and suddenly the door smashes open, a fork sticking out of the door, and Diane grins at you two. everyone screams and the next thing you know, you're waking up in dre's room, holding a dirty pair of his shoes, head on johan's lap. you groan and hold your head, and johan bolts up.

"what the hell happened?" you grunt as you get up. "hopefully Diane didn't accidentally kill everyone."

"what the hell?" johan asks, rubbing his forehead. he looks down and sees you on his lap. "...hello." he says, making you laugh.

"let's scope out the damage." you tell him, and get up.

"Uh..." johan stutters, and you don't realize why until you look down, noticing your lack of pants.

"okay, seriously, what the fuck happened?" you chuckle, grabbing one of rainbow's skirts and putting it on. johan gasped out loud and you turned around to him and frowned.

"WAIT... aren't you guys like not allowed to wear skirts or something?"

oh hell no.

TO BE CONTINUED......

a/n pt2. - i know how fics in chapters make me anxious so i already wrote the next one. its a two part. ill let y'all sleep on it. it also took two months for me to write this so i hope u like it :))))))

[how2to18]

IN THE WORLD of Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s We Cast a Shadow, an expensive cosmetic surgery is increasingly popular — one that promises to remove all markers of Blackness from the patient — to whiten the skin, whittle the nose, and thin the lips. Like the plastic surgery of our world, the early adopters are celebrities. The narrator tells us that the poster child of the procedure, a ubiquitous pop star, “had been a black girl from Baltimore. Now she looked more or less like a Greek woman.”

The novel’s setting is the American Deep South in the near future — an America that has become even more unsafe for people of color. The “de-melanization procedure” is just one of the hydra-headed manifestations of racism in this future, and it becomes the narrator’s dream for his biracial son. The narrator becomes obsessed with his son’s birthmark, “his stain.” As his son grows, the narrator watches in terror as “the birthmark colored from wheat to sienna to umber, the hard hue of my own husk, as if a shard of myself were emerging from him.”

The narrator fears, above all, that his son will be seen as a Black man, just like him, in a world he knows to be “a centrifuge that patiently waits to separate my Nigel from his basic human dignity.” This riotous novel details the farcical lengths this father will go to in order to afford the surgery and save his son from the fate of Blackness while simultaneously hiding his mission from his wife. The novel straddles many modes of storytelling — adventure story, family drama, political satire — but it shines because of the jocular voice of the narrator, a man who, Ruffin says, became his unlikely “tour guide in American history.”

¤

JOSELYN TAKACS: What was the seed of the novel, and where did it come from?

MAURICE CARLOS RUFFIN: I think any writer is trying to decipher the code of what is happening in our society. So certainly for me, it was seeing racialized incidents in America — events like the death of Michael Brown, and later Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Rekia Boyd, Tamir Rice, and so many other people. I was trying to figure out why these things keep happening, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Once I figured out who this character was and what he cared about most, the rest fell into place.

When did the birthmark come into play? 

I believe a lot of things exist subconsciously as you’re writing. In an earlier draft of the novel, the son had a sickness that wasn’t a birthmark. But just before I started writing the novel, I had taken a literature course, American literature from the 1860s, and I was reminded of this story I’d read, “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This, in turn, reminded me of Toni Morrison’s Sula — Morrison has a lot of symbolism attached to Sula’s own birthmark in the novel. I saw that this child would have something similar to that, and it would become a center of the plot and of the book.

It becomes such a compelling allegory for how people of color are treated in America.

Yeah. For people of color, and especially Black folks, oftentimes just existing is criminalized, pathologized. I think you can see in the novel, the various characters, including the secondary characters, have different attitudes about how they pathologize “Otherness.” I think the birthmark is just a way of making this succinct and direct.

You can tell that you’re having some fun as you’re writing this. I wrote down some lines that I just thought were hilarious. Like, “In my thinking, the entire south beyond my hometown was just one sprawling countryside of ectoplasmic Colonel Sanderses on horseback chasing runaway spirits until the Rapture. Hardly my idea of a refreshing getaway.” 

Oh yeah. And it’s the narrator. He definitely deals with a lot of his pain through humor. Sometimes it’s sarcastic. Sometimes it’s direct humor. But I think that that’s his honest way of observing what’s going on without letting it destroy him. Some parts of the book can get very heavy, and he sort of leans away from it.

I also think it’s so significant how you portray generational responses, or strategies, for coping with racial inequity. The narrator’s parents were activists, but the narrator wants to assimilate. The narrator’s grandfather had his own mode of moving through the world.

I think that made sense to me naturally because in my own life I’ve had the pleasure of watching different generations of people respond to oppression. We’ve all had to respond to America as it existed at a given time. In the grandfather’s voice, you can hear the frustration of spending 99 years of his life, and he hasn’t seen enough change. It’s really hurt him, you know?

I feel like my parents’ generation as well as young folks now have very specific ideas about the necessity of direct action, mobilizing, going out and protesting to get attention paid to what was going on. My generation was one that was more laid back, thinking, “We’re making progress. We’re just gonna push in these strategic areas to improve things.”

I will say that I admire people now in their 20s and their teens even because they have this mentality, for the most part, of self-love, and not allowing yourself to be destroyed by these stereotypical ideas. The narrator’s son, Nigel, is fortunate to have this mindset, his mom has this mindset, and it’s the idea that people had in the 1960s, in the Black Power movement that “Black is Beautiful.” You know, “Don’t let anybody tell you just because you have dark skin and a broad nose and thick lips that you’re not one of God’s beautiful creations.”

Speaking of the Black Panther movement, there is an activist group, ADZE, who start out organizing for the benefit of the community, only to be labeled as terrorists by the government. I recognize some similarities between them and the Black Panthers. What role do they play in the novel?

The narrator really wants to avoid the fight as much as he can, so there had to be somebody in his reality who was fighting directly — going on the offense. There is a great history of nonviolent resistance in America, but there’s also a history of violent resistance as well. I think it was important to represent the idea that sometimes you’ve got to go out and fight. Literally go out and fight to protect yourself. Early in the book, as one of the characters points out, ADZE never does anything to hurt anybody. It’s just their presence that creates a panic. Where people were frightened, they run away, and in the process, people get hurt. I think Blackness can be so frightening based on ideas provided by the media. And sometimes the government has not been very judicious in how they react to what they see as instigators.

As I was doing research for the book, I was reading about farming techniques on the African continent, and one of the things I came across was this tool called an adze, which was used for thousands of years throughout Africa, the Near East, and the Middle East. When I saw that, it sort of clicked. I thought, “There is gonna be this group that is opposing what’s going on —tilling the soil to make a better crop, so to speak.” Then I thought, “That’s a good name for it.” Meanwhile, here in New Orleans, I kept seeing graffiti tags saying that same word. I can’t remember if I saw the tags first or read about the tool first, but I kept thinking about resistance, and for some people, graffiti is a type of resistance.

The women, like the narrator’s wife and mother, seem like a moral center of the book. Were you conscious of this while writing?

The women in this book, especially Mama, play a huge role in tipping us off on where the narrator has lost his way. Maybe it’s difficult to portray what’s historically a stereotype of the strong Black woman character, but I will tell you that as a man raised by a wonderful mother and a grandmother — you know, I had my father in the picture as well — that the strength of those women and my Aunties and others in my life was real. I see it so much.

The father in the novel, however, is not in the picture. He has been locked away in a prison called Liberia. I wondered if the prison had some relation to Angola Prison in Louisiana? 

In terms of the naming conventions, I wanted the place names in the novel to have multiple levels of resonance. We have Angola Prison here in Louisiana. Until very recently, we were the most incarcerated state in the nation — we’re number two right now, which is still not that great. The prison complex within this state just gobbles up young Black men and women.

The history of Liberia as a country, for whatever reason, is not taught all that much to people in America, Black or white. Liberia was founded as a nation for Black folks to free themselves. The premise was, “If you want to escape this racism, go to Liberia and live as a person with complete self-hood.” And the idea to have a prison named after this place that’s designed to be free — there’s a clear irony to it.

Many things that happen in the book are echoes of things that have happened in the past. In the novel, there’s the Dreadlock Ordinance, where they cut off Black men’s hair when they go to prison, which is directly related to the ordinance in the 1800s to forcibly cut the queue of Chinese people, which was a sign of personal respect in their culture to have that hair. They would say, “Well, you’re Chinese, obviously you’re dirty, we’re going to cut this off.” This sort of cruelty that has existed throughout US history toward people who are “Othered.” It became a part of the way that I use words in the novel.

In the future world in the novel, American society is sliding backward, becoming more racist. You describe a process gaining popularity among people of color: de-melanization, or “a scrub.” Where did that come from? 

If you’re a person of color in America, you pretty quickly realize how heartbreaking it will be for you. And so, a lot of people of color have different strategies for how to defy that danger, whether it’s standing up and protesting, or writing about it, like I do. And I think that for some people throughout history, there have been different ways to assimilate. I hadn’t really noticed, for example, that many Black performers in the 20th century, men in particular, straightened their hair. I’m thinking of Nat King Cole and Little Richard, but I could go on and on. We see celebrities like Michael Jackson who’ve had their skin lightened. We’re getting to the point where, with CRISPR, we can change genes. There’s this film Gattaca starring Ethan Hawke where, in the future, if you’re not this genetically perfect person, you don’t have any rights in that society. Those ideas were colliding in my mind.

I should say that there’s a thread of Black American literature from satire to straight literary fiction that encompasses this. There’s George Schuyler’s Black No More and Charles Chesnutt’s short stories and many other pieces by Black authors that have touched on this idea of fitting in however you can, whether it be through technology or magic, or whatever.

Yeah, I’m thinking of Nella Larsen’s Passing too.

Yes, totally.

Why set the novel in the American Deep South in the future and call it “the City”?

I thought that, when the setting is very specific, you can discount it. Like, “Oh this is set in rural Alabama? Well, obviously, that’s just how they are there.” Even outing myself, you know, because I’m from the South. [Laughs.] I’ve had this idea throughout my own life that the South is clearly so much worse when it comes to racial justice, but by thinking that, I was ignoring the works of people like Richard Wright, who would say, “Look, in the South Side of Chicago, it was just as bad.” Maybe there wasn’t hunched-up slaves, but you can see how, through housing policy, and the way people were treated economically, these systems were designed to disenfranchise people of color.

From sea to shining sea, or in the Deep South — as you’re reading, you can imagine this happening in your own neighborhood. 

What was hard for you when you were writing this? Were any sections of the book that were particularly challenging to write?

I saved the backstory of the book — the narrator’s father’s story and the racial history of this alternate reality — for last because it was painful to write about. And then there is a period in the narrator’s past, which is almost our present, when there were riots going on. People have asked me, “Did you predict this would happen?” I wrote this before the 2016 election. Since then, we’ve had Charlottesville and these guys with their tiki torches, and Mother Emanuel Church where nine African Americans were shot. My response was, “No, I didn’t know. But I do know, based on our history, that they tend to happen.” It’s baked into our American cake. These events will come back until we’ve finally addressed them in a real way. And we haven’t done that.

To ask, then, an impossible question — how do we reckon with this as a society?

I’ve said this many times recently because I think it’s important to state. I love America. I love our ideals. The more that I think about my own ancestors who were activists and protestors, who fought for their rights, it makes me proud that in this country we’re not being shot for our ability to state our case. I think one of the great failings of the country is in education. We don’t teach our kids detailed and difficult history. In Germany, those kids learn about the Nazi era, and they made a decision as a culture to avoid repeating those mistakes by making sure those kids know exactly what happened and why it was wrong to best avoid repeating that. In America, the story often is, we had slavery and then we fixed it. Obviously, when you see the things that have happened in recent years, you go, “Well, if we fixed it, how are these things happening now?” The answer is we haven’t fixed it, and we haven’t addressed racial injustice.

What I’d like to happen is for readers, after reading this book, to be at least curious to acquire knowledge they don’t have now. I don’t care what side of the blue-red spectrum you’re on. I don’t care what news shows you watch. But I do hope that you take a moment and go out and find a book by an author you wouldn’t normally read about race in America and about American history.

I wonder what you learned about yourself or about Blackness or about the world at large. Did you feel a change as you were writing, or when you were finished?

No one has asked me that. Now I’ve heard other African Americans say — and I’ve heard Africans from the African continent say the exact same thing — if you grow up in a community where most of the people in your life are Black, you experience a lot less racism than you would in other circumstances. I grew up in New Orleans East, which is pretty much an all Black and Vietnamese community. It’s a huge area, like 30 percent of the land mass of the city. I went to Black schools, Black restaurants, Black hospitals, and so for a lot of my early life, I really didn’t see a lot of the ugliness that people see in big cities for example.

By the time I got to this book, this narrator became a tour guide of American history for me, as well as the present-day responses to racism — either creating it or fighting it. I can honestly say that by making this character, communicating with him, coming to understand him very deeply, I learned a lot of things that I wouldn’t have learned about. For example, I read Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, which I probably wouldn’t have read without this narrator. She’s talking about mass incarceration. At the time, this was a niche idea that a lot of people weren’t very clear on, aside from a few people who were playing close attention. I’m one of those folks now as a result of my narrator.

You know, sometimes hanging with this narrator would be depressing, so it was important that he had this sense of humor. I feel like he gave me tools and strategies for dealing with what I’ve seen in America today.

¤

Joselyn Takacs is a writer, teacher, and PhD candidate at University of Southern California.

The post De-Melanization Procedure: A Conversation with Maurice Carlos Ruffin appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

from Los Angeles Review of Books http://bit.ly/2WTzn1O via IFTTT

[guyslapoffski7-blog]

Virginia Rally Prey's Information 'Multiplied,' Mama Informs Remembrance.

The young boy accompanied by his mommy arrived between ten to eleven am. He was about 6 years old and was actually dealing with influenza. I may have spoken about red and/or white colored gowns (or even nudity) as the greatest wedding wear for a Wiccan wedding event, but that is actually certainly not written in stone. White trailed deer could function as quickly as 36 mph, jump as high as 8 1/2 feet, as well as jump as far as 30 feets. Because of these obstacles and due to the fact that the majority of biracial little ones are often increased through a single white mother, the creator from Metis recommended an extreme option. This must certainly not have crave the child products in order to get well-maintained and also that will definitely aid to keep your infant well-balanced and happy. All at once, Lisa goes with a hereditary examination and also possesses an unusual, non-White mt DNA haplogroup B, that does not show at all exactly how White she looks. They possess dark feathers on their back, white colored plumes on their underside along with some yellow on their higher boob, a patch from yellow feathers behind their eyes, a black costs along with a yellow-orange streak, as well as dark, knitted feet with claws. Then she entered to her mama and sis, and as she was actually thus highly covered with gold, they gave her a cozy invited. I've concentrated right here on two from the most popular Mommy Sirens in Midwinter, however the tale is actually duplicated in several methods. When she would decide on the kids as well as her filthy dishes up her relative will challenge telling her she provided her kid 4 tacos, as well as along with a bratty perspective b3st-Diets.Info to pick. I can easily work and really feel confident when my property is actually tidy yet a little dirty; I can not relax when that's tidy but chaotic. This was actually some months after his incredible recovery off an illness at the age from 10 which virtually took his life, otherwise for his mom's petitions to the Blessed Virgin Mama of The lord at the shrine from Santa Maria de Ona. As the new puppy increases, the mother will certainly require support being sure the now-explorative new puppy is risk-free. After relocating my mama right into a retirement facility, the first handful of weeks were nearly unbearable. Tamara Donn is a pregnancy, mother and also productivity advisor based in Hertfordshire, UK. A pair in Chicago reside under the weight of over 40 tons of books and also must wash their home just before the urban area gets an assessment warrant. Nonetheless, given that white tigers usually possess concerns, that's certainly not a great idea to utilize white leopards for preservation functions. Therefore if she is certainly not too younger to well-maintained homes, I do not believe she is actually too younger to walk on a series," Mechetner's broker Rotem Gur claimed. I recognized ahead of time he was actually heading to take his mom going shopping the next early morning alone to reveal to her. And yet Kevin Cruz's mama has started the lawful documents that would certainly enable her to give him up for fostering. Sometimes this vegetation will show up in little white flower petals generally when the plant is actually a handful of years of ages. A mom canine will certainly behave in a different way right before she begins having her young puppies. But if that was a white person selected off the Democratic Party as well as they did the same traits Obama carried out, I believe our experts would certainly still be actually fairly split. My Father (dark) was in prison for 2 years and he claimed he would not have actually wanted to be white colored inside that prison. Just before my child's mother was actually born, my little girl's mother's granny was living overseas.

[multiracialmedia-blog]

Parent of a Multiracial Kid? Here are 7 Key Hair Tips you need to know.

A few years ago I realized that my daughter was walking around with her hair looking a hot mess. I realized quickly that I needed to learn how to do her hair, and do it well.

I am a White woman, married to a Black man. We have 2 mixed / multiracial / biracial children. I have felt the pressure to make sure my children look put together because I knew we were already under a microscope of judgement from others and I didn’t want to add “she has her kids out here looking raggedy” on top of the pile of opinions.

Because of this I decided to learn as much as I can. Being raised in a diverse neighborhood and growing up around my Black girlfriends getting their hair done combined with my own Type A research skills already had me set up better than some other parents out there who may be reading this. I also am lucky to be close to my husband’s family so I have been able to ask them (especially my sister-in-law Salley Nycole Crews) questions when I wasn’t sure what to do.

So I started my own page, The Mixed Mama Blog, to share what I have learned with others that may not have the resources I do. Now I am here to share this information with the Multiracial Media audience. To start out we decided a post on Multiracial Hair Care Basics would be a good beginning. If there are any specific topics you are interested in learning about or reading please let me know either down in the comments below or by emailing me directly at: themixedmamablog@gmail.com with “Multiracial Media Column Question” as your Subject line.

7 Key Hair Tips you NEED to know

(Disclosure – This post may contain affiliate links but all opinions are my own)

1 – THROW AWAY THE BRUSH

Seriously parents. Do NOT brush your kids hair. Unless they are one of the few multiracial kids that don’t have any curl in their hair. But if they are like a majority of biracial kids then do.not.ever. brush their hair. It should only be combed while wet. My personal favorite comb is the Conair Wide Tooth Shower Comb.

2 – CONDITION, CONDITION, CONDITION

You should be using some form of, some combination of, some concoction of conditioner. Whether that is a leave-in, or moisturizing conditioner in the bath, and/or a deep conditioner. Honestly I recommend doing all of the above. If you would like to find out more specifics of some of the products I recommend you can check out my post CHEAT SHEET- Mixed Kid Hair Care – The Basics . 

3 – FIND AN OIL THAT WORKS FOR THEIR HAIR

You have probably heard of the LOC or LCO method. The method basically means LIQUID. OIL. CONDITIONER or  LIQUID. CONDITIONER. OIL. Its a layering technique to seal in moisture. The thing is though…. not all oils work for all hair. Try out different kinds until you figure out what works. Check out this post for a list of Top Hair Oils.

4 – LEARN A SIMPLE PROTECTIVE HAIR STYLE

Mixed kids hair has special needs and precautions you have to take as a parent. It is your responsibility to learn them. One of the basics is to keep their hair in a protective style, especially at night time while they sleep, or while they are swimming, or running around playing. This will help prevent knots and keep their hair healthy. If you need some ideas I have already done a few simple tutorial posts that you can check out here, here, and here on The Mixed Mama Blog.

Finding a hair salon nearby or making friends with someone who knows how to do natural hair is also a must have if you don’t know how to do hair.

5 – DO NOT OVERWASH HAIR!

Simply put… multiracial/curly hair has different needs than other races hair. I could technically wash my hair everyday and it would be fine. But… if I washed my kids hair everyday?! It would be SO DRY. Don’t do it. We wash once per week. But that is only because my daughter has a more oily scalp like I do. When we wash we use a nourishing shampoo and only shampoo her roots. ONLY THE ROOTS. Some people can go even longer without washing.  Figure out what works for your children and don’t be afraid to try something that is different.

6 – MAKE A REFRESH SPRAY

Ok… what am I even talking about. Basically go to the dollar store, get a spray bottle, and fill it with water, some hair oil, and some conditioner, shake up, and use this throughout the week. This can be used in between washes to help “refresh” the hair and add some moisture. This also makes it easier to re-do hairstyles and revive curls mid-week. Even if we could go an entire week without doing my daughter’s hair, we usually re-do it at least once during the week to try to prevent knots. But that just happens to be what works for us. There are also pre-made sprays out there that you can use. We have a couple that we like and love: Soft & Precious Baby Products – Detangling Moisturizer and Lusti Organics – Olive Oil Hair Sheen.

7 – TEACH YOUR KIDS TO LOVE THEIR HAIR

This is the MOST IMPORTANT tip in my opinion. We as parents have the responsibility to teach our children to love their hair. Even if it is different than all the other kids in school, even if they want straight hair like you, even if it makes them stand out. Teach them that their uniqueness is GREAT. I don’t know how many times I’ve read parents wanting to straighten their kids hair because they want to be like the other kids in school. In my mind this teaches them that they have to change who they are to be like others. NOOOOO. NO. NO. NO. NO. Our biracial, multiracial, mixed, curly kids are already going to have to face so much resistance in their lives for their differences. Start as young as possible teaching them to be proud and accepting of their traits. Especially vulnerable will be our multiracial daughters and sons with black mixed in. Society tells black/brown people that their natural/curly hair isn’t professional, isn’t acceptable, isn’t desirable… We have to fight that! I want my children to love their natural hair. It is our responsibility as parents to try as hard as we can to accomplish that.

Comment from HD Young that stood out to me on the original post that started this whole column on Multiracial Media

BONUS TIP: Get a satin sleep cap for your kids hair at night time or a satin pillow case. Also… put it into braids before bed.

  Disclaimer- I am not a professional… this is just what I’ve learned through research and trial & error. We are always learning and I am not afraid to admit if I am wrong and made a mistake. It’s ok if you do too. We, as parents, aren’t perfect. That’s ok. As long as we try as hard as we can for our children.

Again, if there are any specific topics you are interested in learning about or reading please let me know either down in the comments below or by emailing me directly at: themixedmamablog@gmail.com with “Multiracial Media Column Question” as your Subject line. 

Thanks for reading and good luck!

    Parent of a Multiracial Kid? Here are 7 Key Hair Tips you need to know. if you want to check out other voices of the Multiracial Community click here Multiracial Media