Because She is Puerto Rican?

Yesterday, President Obama made an historic decision when he nominated/appointed Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Why? Because she is a woman and she will be the first Hispanic to ever serve on the Supreme Court.

Once again, Barack Obama has impressed me with his infinite wisdom and ability to show that diversity doesn't mean affirmative action or quotas, it means finding the best person for the job and not overlooking people of color who fit that description. If Sotomayor secures her nomination, than the Supreme Court will actually begin to look like a true representation of the United States population.

That being said, isn't it kind of irksome how the media seems to latch on to Sotomayor's humble beginnings as if that makes her some kind of special or perhaps because that's the only definition of a Puerto Rican that mainstream America understands. How many times have we heard that she was raised in the projects in the Bronx only to rise up and graduate from both Princeton and Yale? Or that she was raised by a single mother? My question is, what does any of that have to do with her ability to interpret the law? If Sotomayor were a White man, would anybody be broadcasting where he grew up and how much money his parents had and whether or not his parents were divorced? I'm guessing no. At least not in the first days of the announcement. That might come out later in the quickie bio.

The political organization, MoveOn.org sent me this list of Sotomayor's achievements today:

Ten Things To Know About Judge Sonia Sotomayor

1. Judge Sotomayor would bring more federal judicial experience to the bench than any Supreme Court justice in 100 years. Over her three-decade career, she has served in a wide variety of legal roles, including as a prosecutor, litigator, and judge.

2. Judge Sotomayor is a trailblazer. She was the first Latina to serve on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and was the youngest member of the court when appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of New York. If confirmed, she will be the first Hispanic to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.

3. While on the bench, Judge Sotomayor has consistently protected the rights of working Americans, ruling in favor of health benefits and fair wages for workers in several cases.

4. Judge Sotomayor has shown strong support for First Amendment rights, including in cases of religious expression and the rights to assembly and free speech.

5. Judge Sotomayor has a strong record on civil rights cases, ruling for plaintiffs who had been discriminated against based on disability, sex and race.

6. Judge Sotomayor embodies the American dream. Born to Puerto Rican parents, she grew up in a South Bronx housing project and was raised from age nine by a single mother, excelling in school and working her way to graduate summa cum laude from Princeton University and to become an editor of the Law Journal at Yale Law School.

7. In 1995, Judge Sotomayor "saved baseball" when she stopped the owners from illegally changing their bargaining agreement with the players, thereby ending the longest professional sports walk-out in history.

8. Judge Sotomayor ruled in favor of the environment and against business interests in 2007 in a case of protecting aquatic life in the vicinity of power plants, a decision that was overturned by the Roberts Supreme Court.

9. In 1992, Judge Sotomayor was confirmed by the Senate without opposition after being appointed to the bench by George H.W. Bush.

10. Judge Sotomayor is a widely respected legal figure, having been described as "...an outstanding colleague with a keen legal mind," "highly qualified for any position in which wisdom, intelligence, collegiality and good character would be assets," and "a role model of aspiration, discipline, commitment, intellectual prowess and integrity."

Besides her impressive college record, is the rest of item #6 relevant in her ability to serve as a Supreme Court Judge? Is it because she is Puerto Rican? What do you think? I'm listening.

Peace

Back Tomorrow with our Regular Scheduled Programming

Happy Tuesday Meltingpot readers.

I hope you enjoyed the long weekend. I did, which is why I didn't post yesterday. Please tune in tomorrow when we'll be back with our regular scheduled programming. In the meantime, just for fun, why not check out Intermix, an online publication dedicated to exploring the mixed-race experience across the pond in the UK.

Peace.

Mixed Experience? Asian Heritage? --We Got That

Since May is Mixed-Race Experience Month AND Asian Heritage Month, we at the Meltingpot would like to dedicate today's posting to our favorite Mixed-Race Asian, Mr. Kip Fulbeck.

I don't have the words to define Mr. Fulbeck, because he is truly one of those uber-talented, multi-faceted human beings with multiple modes of expression. And he's not too hard on the eyes either. But I digress. According to his official bio, he is described this way:

" Kip Fulbeck is an American artist, slam poet and filmmaker. He is the author of Permanence: Tattoo Portraits; Part Asian, 100% Hapa; Paper Bullets: A Fictional Autobiography; and the upcoming Mixed: Portraits of Multiracial Children, as well as the director of a dozen short films including Banana Split and Lilo & Me."

I had the honor of meeting Kip Fulbeck at last year's Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival, where he won an award for being so prolific with all of his work exploring and documenting the Mixed experience. Since his mother is Chinese, much of his work is about other Hapas, but by no means is he only interested in Asian identity. He is definitely an equal-opportunity Mixie artist.

To find out more about Kip Fulbeck and his latest projects, including the exhibit, "Race: Are We So Different?," check out his website.

And now you know a little bit more about the Mixed and Asian experience. Now go and enjoy your weekend.

Peace!

Meltingpot Book Review--"Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"

I read Danzy Senna's first book, Caucasia and fell in love. With the story. With the characters. With the book. I finished reading and immediately wanted a sequel, or at least another novel written by Senna that would explore issues of race and identity in such a moving, creative and unique way.

Caucasia tells the tragic story of what happens when an interracial family-- mom is White and dad is Black-- self destructs. Mom takes the lighter daughter and flees East, Dad takes the darker daughter and goes West. And never the four shall meet. The story is narrated by the lighter sister as she is forced to pass as White and reinvent herself as the single daughter of a single White mother. Knowing that Senna herself is a very light child of a White mother and a Black father, I assumed that some parts of Caucasia were autobiographical. And judging from her new memoir, Where Did You Sleep Last Night?, my assumption was very correct.

It almost feels wrong enjoying this book because it is so rife with pain -- Senna's as yet extinguished pain over her upbringing with her warring parents. Mom is a descendant of some of Boston's most distinguished Blue blood families. Dad grew up in the South shuttling between orphanages, dirt-poor relatives and a mother who struggled to provide for her children. But the story isn't a woe-is-me tell all. Even though there seems to be a lot to tell in that vein i.e. Dad's violent alcoholic past, mom's racist relatives.

Instead, Senna spends the majority of the book looking into her father's mysterious past, with the idea that if she understood better where he came from, perhaps she could forgive him for his failures as a parent. Similar to the quest Bliss Broyard went on in her book, One Drop, where she looked for her father's hidden "negro past" in New Orleans, Senna makes a similar trip to the South. But unlike Broyard who began her mission after her father's death, Danzy Senna's father comes along with her for part of the journey.

So, even though Where Did You Sleep Last Night? is very much a memoir, the book almost reads like a racial thriller as we try to find out if Senna's father is really the child of a Black mother and a Mexican boxer or if that was a story invented by the women who raised him. Senna is a one-woman genealogy detective and takes the reader along with her, interspersing flashbacks of memory from her difficult childhood. And it all comes together really well. What's more, the characters hanging on Senna's family tree include such a range of famous names, beginning with her parents, both well-known writers in their own right, and leading all the way back to one of America's most powerful slave trading families, the DeWolfes of Rhode Island.

Final thoughts? You should read this book if you loved Caucasia and want to know the real story behind the story. Read this book if you enjoy great memoirs told in exquisitely rendered voices. Read this book if you want to understand a little bit more about America's torturous racial past and how it manifested in the lives of real people. Just read the book. You won't be disappointed. And then please tell me what you think.

Peace!

Spike's Miracle

Do I need to apologize for always coming late to the table with my discoveries of great meltingpot movies? I think I've already explained that I allowed my Netflix subscription to run out and that the public library is my video store, which explains why I'm always a couple of months...okay, years behind the eight ball.

But I choose to believe that some of you out there have lives like mine and you don't make it to the cineplex as often as you'd like, which is why I continue to post my movie recommendations. So, without further ado (drum roll please)...

You must rent, borrow or buy, Spike Lee'sMiracle at St. Anna. The movie, based on the book by James McBride, is about four Black soldiers who get separated from their regiment in WWII Italy. They end up in a small Tuscan village, surrounded by Nazis soldiers, where they hole up with an Italian family until they can plan their next move.

That's actually only part of the story. The movie is really a thriller/mystery infused with much grander themes, like racism and the human cost of war, and religion and love and revenge. It feels like a real departure for a Spike Lee film, and yet I feel only Spike Lee could have successfully woven the complexities of the Black experience into a "war movie." And yet this is not a movie about Black soldiers. It really is a war movie, where the soldiers happen to be Black. My husband and I stayed up to watch it on Saturday night, woke up still talking about it Sunday morning, and re-watched a few pivotal scenes on Sunday night. And I may watch it again.

Of course, it seems Spike Lee can't go to the bathroom without courting controversy, so just so you feel like I'm being honest here, here is an article
from The Guardian, which details the response some Italians had regarding the "truthiness" of the film. Of course, the film was based on a novel, which doesn't claim to be a true story, so...I'm just saying maybe they were really mad about something else?

And speaking of that novel, I am a big James McBride fan and purchased The Miracle at St. Anna at a book store blow out sale a few weeks ago. I actually forgot I bought it until watching the movie. Can you guess what's on my nightstand now? This is probably the first time I've ever watched a film and then turned to the book.

So has anybody already seen this movie? Did you enjoy it? As a Black woman married to a European man, who has an obsession with noting the Black experience in Europe, I guess I really appreciated seeing another piece of that history. Does anybody have any other books or movies that examine this part of the Black American experience in Europe to recommend? I'm listening.

Peace!

More Burning Questions from the Meltingpot

It's Friday, so that means I have a week's worth of burning questions tearing through my mind. Maybe you can help me answer some of them.

1. Is anyone else secretly following the tabloid rumors of the impending break-up of TV's favorite multi-racial couple, Jon & Kate, of Jon & Kate + 8 fame? I don't spend a lot of time thinking about those two, but it seems like the media is just waiting for them to fall to pieces. I'm just hoping that whatever happens, Jon & Kate figure out how to slink under the radar of their adoring public and deal with their eight kids, who probably feel pretty crappy right now. And in the meantime, if TLC is looking for a new multi-racial family to shine their reality lights on, how about Seal and Heidi Klum. I might get cable just to watch.

2. Are there any other Black people out there who felt that Oprah should have just said 'no, thank you,' to the people at Kentucky Fried Chicken? And does that make me a racist for thinking that?

3. Did anybody else watch Adam Sandler's movie, You Don't Mess with the Zohan and think he deserved a bit of credit for trying to make a point about Israeli, Palestinian relations, even if it was silly and kind of gross? And why didn't anybody tell me Mariah Carey was in that movie? In case you didn't know, the Meltingpot loves Mariah.

4. Does anyone else with mixed-race children believe in the Mongolian spot? I was told that the bluish/purple spot on my son's butt cheek was a result of his mixed-race heritage. And this has been confirmed anecdotally by friends. So is the Mongolian spot fact or fiction, and why is it called that anyway?

5. Finally, May is almost half over and I just realized (thanks Jenny) that May is Asian Heritage Month. So I'm wondering, do Asian people care about this month and if so, how is it celebrated? What would be a good way for non-Asian people to celebrate or at least recognize Asian heritage month? Suggestions welcome.

Peace.

Tyra, Me and 'Good Hair'

Yesterday my Hair Story co-author, Ayana Byrd and I were on the Tyra Banks Show to talk about the significance of hair in the African-American community. We taped the show a couple of months ago, and I actually forgot to watch it yesterday, but scrolling around the internet, I've found that many other folks did manage to tune in and then post about their own hair stories.

Almost ten year after the book debuted, the most common question people want to ask us is, 'Is Black hair still such a big deal for Black people?' And the answer is always yes. If you don't believe me, try to catch Tyra on rerun. Women and girls as young as four got on the stage and proclaimed their hatred and disgust for their hair (please note, I think the producers found the most outrageous individuals to get on stage, but believe me that their issues are not unusual or made-up.). But that's not the whole story. Black hair is complicated for non-Black people as well. From adoptive parents of Black children, to White mothers of biracial children, from mainstream advertisers to corporate America, Black hair issues infiltrate so many facets of this American life.

But I don't really have anything new to add to the discussion, I just wanted to point out that when you bring up the topic of Black hair, people always have something to say. Here's a sample of how people are talking about Black hair in cyberspace:

From Black Girl with Long Hair, Recap and Reax from the Tyra Banks show.

From Hello Negro, Black Women and the Fear of Natural Nappy Hair. Note the 51 comments posted on this one.

From Anti-Racist Parent, Hair...Again by ARP editor, Tami Harris. A personal story and plea for parents and society to stop teaching young Black girls to hate their hair.

From, a White adoptive mother of two Ethiopian daughters, a blog post about her lack of knowledge about the significance of Black hair and her attempts to learn how to braid.

Do you have any thoughts to add to this discussion? I'd really like to hear from non-Black people who have questions about Black people and their hair. That's one of the reasons why we wrote Hair Story in the first place. So fire away or go read the book.

Peace and Hair Grease!

Dressing Up for Jesus?

Yesterday I wore blue jeans to church. I could feel 10 generations of my ancestors rolling over in their graves. But it was a Unitarian church and the (mostly White) congregation comes to church wearing everyday clothes, not "church clothes." I've seen people come to church in jeans, track suits, and (gasp) even shorts. And it always seems a little bit wrong. Wrong to come into God's house without fixing yourself up a little or at least putting a ribbon in your hair. That's the way I was raised. Actually to the extreme.

In the Baptist church I attended as a child, we dressed to go to church. Girls in pretty dresses, hair neat and pressed, boys in suits. Yes, suits! Women weren't allowed to wear pants, not even fancy, dress pants. And it wasn't unusual to see fine hats adorning the heads of all of the women above a certain age. I thought that's how everybody dressed for church. For a long time I thought that.

A White Quaker friend of mine recently took her children to a service at a Black, mega church here in Philadelphia. She had to send her kids back upstairs to change outfits because when they heard they were going to church, they just put on jeans and t-shirts, like they always do to attend Quaker meeting and the "hippie dippie" Catholic church they also attend sometimes (Hippie dippie is her adjective not mine.). "Why do we have to change?" they asked. And my friend answered, "Because Black people dress nicer for church than White people."

She said she felt horrible for explaining the situation that way, and yet, she felt confident that what she was saying was more fact than stereotype.

Her story stayed in my mind on Sunday, when I wore jeans to church. It felt so wrong, and yet it was a relief not to have to get dressed up to go to church. Needless to say, I still wore a fancy shirt, high-heel shoes and brand-new earrings to offset the jeans, but I felt more like myself.

And so I began to wonder is it true that Black people feel the need to dress for church and White people don't? Why is that? Is it really about race or is it more about particular congregations, denominations, and regions of the country?

Do southern White Baptists dress for church, but White Unitarians don't? My mother had a sister who converted to Catholicism and faster than you can say, Jesus wept, she started wearing her favorite clam diggers and t-shirts to church. And we should broaden the discussion to include Asians and Latinos and every other ethnic category because certainly every cultural group has their own take on the issue. So the phone lines are open people.

How does race impact what you put on on Sunday mornings? But more importantly, does God even care? Let's try to figure this out. Please share your Sunday morning experiences.

Peace!

Star Trek, Updates and Mixed-Experience History Month

People, did you remember that May is Mixed-Experience History month? This is a national "holiday" started by the always fabulous Heidi Durrow, also known as The Light Skinned-ed Girl. Ms. Durrow, one of the creative forces behind the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival, posts a new entry every day on her blog about a significant person or event pertaining to Mixed Race people the world over. She does this every year with no repeats and it is so fascinating who she comes up with. It also further illustrates the point that the Mixed experience is not a novelty or an invention of modern society. Human beings have always cross-pollinated, often with life-altering results.

Earlier this week I posted about the dearth of multicultural magazines and then coincidentally I received this link to iCelebrateDiversity.com's listing of multicultural magazines. Most of them are on-line and many of them are no longer in business, but some of them seem to be interesting reads. Take a look and see for yourself.

Finally, Star Trek the movie hit theaters yesterday. Why should you care, even if, like me, you're not a sci-fi fan? Because Star Trek the original television series, broke some serious meltingpot ground by airing the first interracial kiss on television in 1968. That was a kiss between Commander Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Capt. Kirk (William Shatner). Here's how it went down:

"Many stations in America's south refused to broadcast the episode, and it was banned in England for almost 25 years. But it wasn't even a romantic moment -- space aliens were using mind control to force the characters to kiss, against their will. The network was so nervous that two versions of the scene were filmed: one with the kiss, and one without it, where Kirk instead dramatically fought off the impulse. "When the camera zoomed in", says Nichols, "Bill crossed his eyes and the director didn't notice it until the next day in dailies. Of course the last scene was unusable and they had to go with the kiss scene, which became history as the first interracial kiss on TV."

Cool, huh? But returning to Wednesday's post about England banning racists, it kind of rings hollow when you find out the British government also banned filmed displays of interracial affection until 1993. Ouch! So if anybody does go see the movie this weekend, let us know if the love is allowed to grow between Black and White in this modern day Star Trek. And if you want to see the original kiss, check it out here on YouTube. It's quite funny.

Peace!

Racist Americans banned from Britain

So the UK is taking a stand against extreme right wing shock jocks by banning them from the country. They also will not allow terrorists, Neo-Nazis and former KKK members in country either. Yesterday, British Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith made public her list of people banned from entering the UK because of their extremist views and/or deplorable behavior. On the list is an American radio talk show host named Michael Savage. I'd never heard of him, but apparently he has the third largest radio audience in the United States thanks to his unrepentant stance towards being a very ugly American. I heard a clip of his show this morning where he basically advocated for deportation of all Muslims.

Jacqui Smith said this about her decision to include Savage on her list of banned individuals, "[Savage is] someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country."

In response, Savage plans to sue Britain for defamation. And of course the issue of free speech starts cropping up in the discussion too.

Now I'm going to say something here which may get me in trouble with my First Amendment friends, which is, Rock on UK. I'm glad they are taking a stand. I am glad they are able to say we don't want those kind of people in our country. Of course there is a slippery slope to be wary of if one person is in charge of defining morality. But come on people, why can't somebody take a stand and say, 'you're disgusting opinions and disdain for the the diversity of the human experience has no place in our country.'

I wish we could ban these people too. Or at least exile them to a small island where they wouldn't have to deal with colored folks or people who worship a different God, or who speak a different language. Is that an option?

What do you think? Is the UK wrong for banning Michael Savage from entering their country? To read more about the situation, check out this article from The Independent. Then tell me what you think.

Peace.

Multiracial Magazines

I love magazines. I love the glossy pictures, the variety of information, and the conversational tone that makes me think whoever wrote that article was totally thinking about me. I love that in a magazine, I might find someone exactly my age who was having the exact same crisis about, having children, how to style their hair, what to make for dinner, and/or how to pay back thousands of dollars in credit card debt and still manage a trip to Europe over the summer.

The only problem is, someone forgot to tell the publishing industry that 1964 has passed and integration is hot. Why, dear readers is there still not a mainstream consumer magazine that really gets diversity of experience? Why is there not a women's magazine or a parenting magazine that really aims to attract women and families who look like us? Us with many hues and hair textures living under one roof. Where two languages are more common than one?

Over the years there have been some independent attempts at a multicultural magazine, like HUES (Hear Us Emerging Sisters), Honey which is now an online magazine with an obviously Black/urban appeal and the travel magazine for upscale travelers of color, Oddysey Couleur. But where's the Glamour or Marie Claire in color? I want a Parenting in color too.

Of course there are magazines like Essence and Latina but they too are content to be monoracially focused. My world, my Kinky Gazpacho family is still not covered.

What magazines do you read that you feel reflect your meltingpot lives? Have I missed one?

Peace!

When Black People Adopt White Children

Newsweek magazine recently ran this article about a Black family who "adopted" a White child. The family structure is a bit unconventional but for all intents and purposes a little White girl is now calling Black people mommy and daddy.

The purpose of the Newsweek article, as far as I can tell, is to reflect on the fact that despite the large number of transracial adoptions in this country, namely where White people adopt children of color, society at large, cannot wrap their minds around Black people raising White children. It makes White people uncomfortable, and suspicious. It makes Black people angry and frustrated. From the article:

"Decades after the racial integration of offices, buses and water fountains, persistent double standards mean that African-American parents are still largely viewed with unease as caretakers of any children other than their own—or those they are paid to look after. As Yale historian Matthew Frye Jacobson has asked: "Why is it that in the United States, a white woman can have black children but a black woman cannot have white children?"

In my opinion the article doesn't break any new ground, but of course it opens up an interesting topic of discussion, as evidenced by the almost 500 posted comments to the article.

And really, when it comes down to numbers and economics, this isn't going to be a new trend. I don't foresee a future of Black people scrambling to adopt White children, but if they wanted to, would that be okay? Is there any reason Black people should consider adopting White children? Indeed if more Black people got in line to raise White people, would that be a surefire way to dismantle racism in this country? You think I'm kidding, but Megachurch minister, the Reverend Creflo Dollar and his wife adopted a White child for just that reason. "It was God's solution for my racist attitude," Dollar told AOL. That's why he adopted his son. Of course, that child is now a man and about to publish a tell-all about growing up in the Dollar household. So stay tuned on that one.

What do you think? Is there a reason Black people should or should not adopt White children? I would love to hear from any White people out there who were raised by Black parents. What was your experience like? And finally, does anyone else feel like the Newsweek author was out of line by printing the fact that the adopted White child's mother was the town prostitute? Isn't that private information? Thoughts?

Peace!
(Photo of Creflo Dollar and family)