Interior Design | Reno ideas

Just for Jenelle | April Showers

MAC 315 | The First Children

"The President is Black. The First Lady is Black. The First Daughters are Black." - Rikyrah

Holy Contradiction Batman. When did a man born of a white mother and a black father become strictly black? If we are getting technical here, he's clearly biracial (50% black and 50% white)and his children are biracial also (75% black and 25% white). Does that separate them from the "black community"? No. Does this separate them from the "white community"? No. They belong to both. This racist-'One-Drop Rule' was BANNED in the U.S. waaaayyyy back in 1967 and making statements like, "The President is Black. The First Lady is Black. The First Daughters are Black" sets us back decades.

I think it is important for children of mixed cultures to embrace all aspects of themselves and are not forced to decide between parts of their identity. Should Sasha and Malia decide to embrace only their black heritage, kudos to them but they are still biracial.

This really makes me think about my nephew Donovan and the discussion we are going to have with him in a few years about his race. His mother/my sissy is black (100%) and his father is White, Korean and Native American. My Donny is clearly biracial and at 4 years old, he is already struggling with the what am I complex. In an effort to combat the eminent identity crisis, we tell him all the time that being different makes Donovan awesome! We are teaching him the tiny bit of Korean we know and are introducing him to Native American customs. His playmates are different races and we celebrate their differences as well.

To wrap this up in a nut shell...

The President is Biracial. The First Lady is Black.
The First Daughters are Biracial.

MAC 315 | Ethnic Notions

What is black? An interesting question proposed by my college professor just a week ago. Is black determined by skin tone or is it a culture? As a “black” woman (by which the U.S. Census labels me), I can clearly see where the lines defining the concept can be blurred. On one hand, society defines who is black by skin tone alone which often leaves out a large majority of our people because they have fairer skin. To others, blackness is defined by cultural standards or the “black experience”. Whether or not you’ve been called the “N” word, if you’ve been followed around a store or suspected of stealing based on color alone, or if you’ve been pulled over for no reason at all.

Personally, I find that blackness is determined by the individual. I was raised in the South in a prominently white middle class neighborhood. My first encounter with a racial divide occurred when I was only 4 years old. One summer as I was jumping rope with my white best friend Mallory, we were encountered by a group of neighborhood children led by a blonde haired, blued eyed tyrant named Stacy. Surrounding us in a circle of pink bicycles, they began to bombard us with insults. “Nigger…Nigger Lover…Dirty black girl”, they even went as far to tell Mallory, “You’re going to catch the nigger cooties playing with her”. Before this incident, it never occurred to me that I was different. I knew I was darker obviously, but I had no idea I was considered as a different category of human that my white counterparts. Mallory and I continued on as friends for years to follow and as could be expected, the taunts continued into grade school. We were sisters but the world was not satisfied with that explanation. We would forever be the black girl and the white girl, not friends or sisters. We shared in this experience that so many others would consider as a ticket to blackness, so does that make her just as black as me? She could run faster, cook chicken, and make Kool-Aid better than me but her skin was Snow White.

I am black because my lips curl a bit when I smile. I am black because there is a permanent sway in my walk. I am black for so many reasons excluding my skin tone or this so called “black experience”. More so, before I am a black woman…I am a Child of God. I am an American. I am a woman of purpose and I choose not to be defined by just my color.

Interior Design | the building in my head.

There I go daydreaming again.