Nicole Richie -- In Search of an Authentic Negro Experience?

Maybe it's because I just returned from the Loving Decision conference where I was surrounded by healthy multiracial individuals, that I just can't stop thinking about Nicole Richie.

If there was ever a mixed chick who needed help, it has to be her. Although she vehemently denies an eating disorder, Nicole clearly needs to put on some weight before a strong wind picks her up and carries her away. And the drugs and other illegal substances she likes to ingest before driving backwards on the highway, make me think she is a very troubled little girl. Duh! Right? So I did a little research and I have a theory.

Nicole apparently self-identifies as African-American, because her adopted father is Lionel Richie or because she actually has African-American ancestry, I'm not sure. But the point is, maybe Nicole is so troubled because she feels she really is a Black girl trapped in a skinny White girl's body and she doesn't know how to let her inner Shanika Jones out. Maybe, just maybe, instead of hanging with Paris Hilton, Nicole should be paling around with Queen Latifah and India Arie and they could help her get in touch with her interior authentic Black self. (Note: If Hollywood is reading this, that would be a really good reality show.)

I'm speaking from experience. I know what its like to want to be authentically Black but have nobody to turn to for lessons in Negritude. I moved to Brooklyn to learn my lessons, maybe Nicole could exit LA and try the same thing. It's just an idea. Or maybe Lionel could come down from dancing on the ceiling and be a good father and take his daughter down South and fatten up body and soul with some down home cookin' and sweet tea therapy.

With rumors now swirling that Nicole might be preggers, I just hope she finds some peace sooner rather than later.

And now back to things that really matter.

Peace!

Memories from the Loving Conference 2007

Well, the Loving Decision Conference 2007 is officially over. As expected, it was a wonderful conference attended by incredible people. Authors, activists, educators, artists and one daytime soap star came together to discuss, debate and share thier ideas about the future of the mixed-race community. Jungmiwha Bullock, conference coordinator and president of the Association of MultiEthnic Americans deserves a great big round of applause for her tireless work.

For me, the best part of the conference was seeing the many forms of artistic expression with multi-ethnic themes. Represented were artists like Laura Kina and Katrina Grigg-Saito. Writers like Janet Stickmon and Heidi Durrow. And then there were the documentary filmmakers like, Jessica Chen Drammeh and Octavio Warnock-Graham. Each of these artists brings their own creative genius and multiethnic heritage to their work and the results are truly inspiring. Check them out and prepare to be moved.

Peace!

Two Families Who Should Really Go to the Loving Decision Conference

Just four days to go before the Loving Decision Conference 2007. Registration is still open for the three-day conference dedicated to examining the "Next 40 Years of Multicultural Communities." The conference is being held at Roosevelt University in downtown Chicago and will feature authors, educators, activists, artists, and sociologists on hand to discuss (and celebrate) the issues surrounding multicultural identity.

I'll be there talking about some of my favorite subjects like, Black hair as an expression of cultural identity, multi-culti relationships and parenting SpaNegro boys. I can't wait to be in a room full of like-minded meltingpot folks!

Of course there's that element of preaching to the choir. Many of the people who have registered to attend the conference are doing so because they, like me, want to commune with Our Kind of People. On the other hand, those who would benefit most from attending the Loving Decision Conference probably have no clue that such an event exists.

For example, the two families I'd really like to see in Chicago this weekend are:

1. The Andrews Family from Long Island.
The Andrews are suing their infertility clinic for inseminating Mrs. Andrews with the sperm of (gasp!) a Black man. Their daughter, Jessica looks Black which fills Papa and Mama Andrews with unspeakable dread. Despite the fact that Mama Andrews is a Dominican woman with light brown skin. The Andrews complain, "We fear that our daughter will be the object of scorn and ridicule by other children.” Why? Because Jessica has “characteristics more typical of African or African-American descent.” (Ouch)

Of course there are so many legitimate medical malpractice issues on the table, but in the meantime, this family needs to get their act together and figure out how to live harmoniously in a multi-hued family. Move on from the bitterness. And stop giving their beautiful brown daughter a color complex. If there was a poster family in need of a trip to the Loving Conference, I'd say it was this one.

2. Britney Spears, Kevin Federline and Shar Jackson

Not that I'd personally like to spend any time with any of these people, but their lives seem to be ridiculously intertwined and just plain ridiculous. And at the end of the day, whether K-Fed ends up with Brit Brit or Shar he's got a passel of differently hued offspring that need tending to. And whether they like it or not, both Brit and Shar will probably be babysitting K-Fed's kids at some point or another so they should all attend and take notes to take back to Hollywood.

And that's all I have to say for now.

Peace.

What Age Do You Introduce Race?

Not so long ago I was having a conversation with an Asian friend of mine about when and how we should start talking about Race with our children. We didn’t want to “burden” them with this heavy concept, yet we didn’t want them to get their information from outside sources in a way that might make them feel embarrassed or ashamed of their ethnic background either. We finished the conversation when one of our kids poured a bowl of cheerios on their head, promising to get back to the discussion at a later date.

That later date happened for me last week.

I was lurking around the hallways at my son’s adorable Quaker School when I heard there was some presentation going on in the first grade classes. Since my son is going to be in first grade next year, I decided to go take a peek. Turns out it was a Race, Ethnicity and Identity extravaganza presented by the first and second graders.

Using a carefully selected collection of picture books (Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester, The Color of Us by Karen Katz) as their launch pad, the faculty created a curriculum to have the children explore the concept of identity. Rather than teaching the children about static racial categories, they gave the children the tools to define their own identity and share their personal true-life stories with their classmates. As the headmaster said to me as he witnessed parents, teachers and students gushing over the tremendous work these young people had created, “We’ve made it so the children want to learn about diversity because it’s fun, not because they’re supposed to.”

The kids made self-portraits, mixed paint colors to match their skin tones, wrote mini-biographies and of course had many enlightening discussions. Best of all was the aura of celebration and excitement around this theme instead of the weariness and dread usually associated with race-based curricula. I applaud the teaching team at Greene Street Friends School for taking the time and energy to infuse “diversity awareness education” with so much positive energy and excitement.

And I learned that if the story begins with a celebration of identity instead of a history lesson of oppression and other people’s perceptions, it’s never too early to begin the discussion of “race.”

Peace.

Say Goodbye Mr. Washington

According to the New York Times, Grey's Anatomy star, Isaiah Washington will not be coming back to the hit show next season. Reportedly, Washington's contract is not being renewed because of his usage of an anti-gay slur to describe a fellow cast member some eight months back. We wrote about the whole brouhaha here on the Meltingpot.

How does this fit into our theme of celebrating interracial relationships for the Loving Conference 2007 Countdown? Well, it means television's most celebrated -- and perhaps only -- good looking, African-American, Korean-American, upper-middle class, professional couple will be no more. Light a candle, watch the reruns and remember the good times between Dr. Preston Burke and Dr. Cristina Yang. They helped bring an alternate vision of interracial love into the mainstream.

But here's a thought. What is the likelihood of Grey producers finding a Korean male star to be Dr. Yang's newest love interest? If you ask me, there's a heck of a good chance the next person she gets involved with will not be Asian. So the titilating, multi-culti love fest should continue at Seattle Grace.

Peace!

Speaking of Interracial Loving

As I begin the countdown for the Loving Decision Conference 2007, I thought why not write about some groovy, important, interracial relationships, past and present, that deserve celebration. Because really, how often does that happen in real life?

It's ironic really that there ever even existed anti-miscegenation laws since it never stopped people of different races from falling in love or even marrying for that matter. History is full of romance and relationships across color lines, but many historians would like to conveniently delete them from our collective memory.

This weekend, while strolling through the Philadelphia Museum of Art I discovered the artwork of William H. Johnson. Johnson was an artistic genius, born in South Carolina in 1901. I'd known of Johnson only as a painter of the Harlem Renaissance who grew frustrated with America's hostile racial climate and so he escaped to Europe.

Indeed Johnson did find the freedom he longed for in Europe to pursue his art as an artist instead of the suffocating label of Black artist. He ended up living for sometime in Denmark where he met his wife, Holcha Krake, a textile artist more than a decade older than himself.

In Denmark, in the tiny fishing village Johnson and Krake called home, the locals were more surprised that Krake had married at age 44. The fact that her husband was a Black man was inconsequential in their eyes. Johnson and Krake supported and influenced each other's work, sometimes they collaborated on pieces and eventually the couple moved to New York City. Krake, reportedly faced far more criticism in the US for being a Black man's wife than Johnson ever did in Europe. Still, their passionate love for one another seemed to sustain them and their art in the face of America's "race problem."

The end of their romance is tragic. Holcha Krake died of breast cancer, circa 1944. Soon after, around 1946 Johnson was diagnosed with "syphilis-induced paresis," which basically meant his brain turned to mush over the next 20 years, leaving him completely without memory of his former life or loves.

If you get a chance, look into the art of William H. Johnson, not because he married a White woman, but because he was a man who refused to allow the color of his skin to limit his passions.

Peace Out and keep Loving!

(illustration by William H. Johnson titled "Cafe" )