Madam Bigot?

Meltingpot Question of the Day: Why does the wax Brangelina family only include Baby Shiloh in New York City's Madam Tussauds Wax museum? In other words, why aren't Maddox and Zahara immortalized with their parents and new sister?

Is it because Maddox and Zahara are adopted? Is it because they're colored? Did Madam Tussauds run out of wax? Any way you look at it, it's reprehensible and I hope Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie demand that their statues be melted down and the wax donated to charity.

Okay, with war raging all over the Middle East, I know I should be spending my time caring about something a little bit more serious, but I was extremely irritated when I heard the news. And let's face it, most Americans probably know more about Brad and Angie's domestic affairs than our foreign ones, so this is what people are going to be talking about around the water cooler. And this is how our opinions and beliefs are formed. This is the influence of popular culture. I only pray that the conversations are as angry as mine. I hope the majority of Brangelina fans are outraged and say so aloud.

I'm doing my part.

Peace Out!

Photo Credit: ST / Splash News

Black Men Bare All About their Inner White Boy!

They say two is a coincidence and three's a trend, but My AmericanMeltingpot is going on record and calling this trend before it is official. Black men who don't fit the stereotype of keepin' it real, homeboy, from the streets brutha' man, are coming out of the closet to tell the world that indeed there is more than one way to look at a Black Man.

Earlier this year, Joseph C. Phillips (You remember him as the guy who played Denise's husband on the Cosby Show) wrote "He Talk Like a White Boy: Reflections on Faith, Family, Politics and Authenticity." As you can imagine from the generous subtitle, the book is a memoir-esque collection of essays, with the primary point being that Black men (and by extension women), don't come in a one-size fits all category. In fact, (gasp) some Black people vote Republican, listen to classical music and like George Bush!

Next up is the just released, " Not a Genuine Black Man: Or, How I Claimed My Piece of Ground in the Lily-White Suburbs," by Brian Copeland. Copeland is a California based radio host and performer and this book was first a successful stage show. Also a memoir, Copeland details his life as a Black kid growing up in an all-white suburb and his subsequent relationship with the Black community. The show/book was actually a response to an angry letter he received accusing him of not being a "genuine Black man." That kind of taunting is enough to get a man to take pen to paper apparently.

Of course there are other great books out there by Black men who are challenging the Black community to get it together (Do I even have to write Tavis Smiley and Hill Harper here?) but I am particularly pleased to see this idea of Talking/Acting White and not being Authentically Black put out there in the public domain for mass discussion. It doesn't hurt that both of these authors are already public figures so they will get their message out there more readily than say I would if I just launched a blog or something and tried to preach the gospel of individuality.

As a Black woman who has always been accused of being a get-over, bourgie, wanna-be, not Black enough, bad-dancing Oreo, I say thank you to these men and more power to ya. I can't wait for the day when being Authentically Black means being yourself!

Peace Out!

Writing Across the Color Line

Yesterday (July 22) Harlem was the Spot for literary kings and queens. The Harlem Book Fair took over the streets of Harlem and despite the rain, drew jubilant crowds.

Yours truly got to moderate a panel entitled, "Writing Across the Color Line," where we discussed the world of fiction writing with some amazing authors. Kim Mclarin, Erica Simone Turnipseed, Kevin Baker and Jaime Manrique spoke of their experiences writing against type, creating unique and alluring characters that speak to a diverse audience. An audience the publishing industry often seems to forget exists. My hats off to these creative scribes for following their own truth and daring to take their work above and beyond the color line.

Killing Me Softly

We are losing our Humanity.

What is wrong with mankind that we keep killing each other? Killing innocents. Killing anyone who doesn't look like us or believe in what we believe. I am sickened by all the fighting in the middle east. In Israel. In Iraq. In Lebanon. My body shudders at the images in the newspapers. My mind rejects the words that spell out the evil that pours from men's souls. I am horrified that with all of that grand scale horror, Black people are killing each other in my new adopted hometown of Philadelphia at rates so high, they might as well be living in a war zone. Why do we care so little about life? When did violence trump negotiation, compromise and respect? And while I'm asking these questions, why is George Bush still our president? But I digress.

Yesterday on the local news here in Philly, a Lebanese Moslem man, married to an American Jewish woman was interviewed. He still practiced his faith, his wife practiced hers and their children had grown up rich in both cultures. He didn't have to beat her into submission. She did not resort to subterfuge and violence to convince her husband that her path was the chosen one. Instead, they loved each other to freedom. Amazing.

Peace and Grace.


PHOTO CREDIT INFORMATION: photographer: aeric meredith-goujon (check out his awe-inspiring and eclectic work at aericmg.com) model - mike manning, and the makeup artist - jewel whinfield

Too Dark to Pass

I just finished the book, Secret Daughter: A Mixed Race Daughter and the Mother Who Gave Her Away by June Cross (May 2006). It was a fascinating memoir written by a woman who was too dark to pass, so her White mother gave her to a Black couple to raise. She didn't walk away though. She stayed in her daughter's life, but acknowledged her only as a niece, an adopted daughter or a friend!

The book went so far beyond the tragic mulatto stories that seem to dominate the memoirs by mixed Americans. What makes the book so fascinating and unique is that Cross, an award winning journalist, doesn't use the book to simply review her own bittersweet past, but she also digs deep into the pasts of both her White mother and Black father to discover their own inner lives and why they made the choices they did regarding their "mixed-race" daughter. The book goes beyond the personal and delves into the politics of race, class and passing without losing the emotional and engaging tone of memoir. What's more, both sides of Cross's family tree are full of famous faces from Hollywood, Broadway and the so-called historical "Negro elite."

Check it out if you get a chance. www.secretdaughter.com And FYI, there's a movie version too!

Peace Out.

Is "Bourgie" a Naughty Word?

"Don't call me bourgie," the Black man said.
"But you are bourgie," I replied.
"Why," he asked, sounding hurt?
And I ticked off the parts of his life that clearly defined him as bourgie.
"You lounge around in Yves St. Laurent button-down shirts. You and your wife drive matching Mercedes. You play golf. You vacation in Europe. Often."

"But this is not an indictment against your character. These are just facts. And the fact is that you belong to an economic class that allows you to enjoy some of the finer things in life. What's more, you choose to enjoy these things and NOT, say a pimped out Hummer, clothes designed by an aging rapper, nor a trip to a Caribbean island with all your homies."
So the man thinks about this and says. "Okay. Call me bourgie then."

Ever since Black people set foot on this land we call America, there have been divisions among us. Free men vs. Slaves. House slaves vs Field slaves, The talented 10th vs. The bootstrap pullers, Good hair vs. Bad hair, Coloreds vs Negroes, Negroes vs Blacks, Blacks vs. African Americans, and Bourgie Black people vs Those who are keeping it REAL. But for some strange reason, we as a people and America as a whole, want to pretend that we are a monolithic, all for one and one for all community. When Asians talk about this, we get it. Chinese are different from Koreans. Japanese aren't the same as Thai. So don't lump all Asians together. But Black folks. We're all supposed to fit under the same rubric of hip-hop loving, Big Mama rearing, soul food eating, ghetto living, one step away from poverty, Democrat voting, ebonics talking, good dancing, gospel singing peoples.

For those of us who don't fit that mold, we question our identity. And other people question our loyalty by labeling us with terms like bourgie and Oreo. And while in my mind Oreo is a naughty word because it implies one is unhappy being Black and would rather be White, Bourgie is simply a class term defining a person's economic status. Oh and it's a term only used to describe Black people to distinguish them from "Regular" black folks. Calling White people bourgie would really just be redundant. When White people Aren't bourgie, then they get downgraded to trailer trash. It's a funny thing.

So the point of all this is simply to say that Black people should stop denying their bourgie identity. If it's who you are it's who you are. There is no shame in prosperity nor is there any reason to feel "less black" because you choose to spend your hard-earned money on things that Black people aren't supposed to understand, like opera and fine art. Denying your bourginess implies that there is only one way to Be Black (see aforementioned description) and that's just erroneous thinking. Look back through the history of our people in this country and there have always been bourgie black folks keeping it REAL. W.E.B. Dubois? Bourgie. Frederick Douglass? Bourgie. Madam C.J. Walker? Major Bourgie. If some of us can embrace the N-word until it is full of love and support, then certainly we can work with the B-word.

Think about it.