Just A Slice of this American (Meltingpot) Life

Today I went to a radio station here in Philadelphia for yet another interview about Black hair. (Yes, there really is that much to talk about.) I knew the station had an urban audience, played R&B and hip-hop music and generally kept an urban focus for their talk-radio. My publicist scheduled the interview so I really didn't know much more than the basics and assumed the radio hostess would be a Black woman.

But she wasn't. At first glance, I assumed she was Asian, but since I was mostly chasing her down a long hallway to the recording studio I didn't really get to study her features. Well, as soon as she sat down, we started to talk a bit before the interview and she told me she was actually Black and Japanese. Dad was Black (now deceased) and Mom is Japanese. So of course she had some great hair stories of her own to tell. But that wasn't the best part.

After the interview we kept chatting and I mentioned that my husband is from Spain and she kind of chuckled. "As a matter of fact," she said, "my son is adopted and both of his parents are from Spain but he was born in Newark, New Jersey." You heard me. What are the chances people? Meltingpot mama herself being interviewed by a woman who is Black and Japanese, raising her Spanish son in Philly? Did I mention her significant other is Puerto Rican? It just makes me smile. I love my American Meltingpot.

Peace.

p.s. I'll post the interview when it airs next month.