The Other Mothers of Manhattan

Hi Meltingpot Readers,

Boy, did the cover image on yesterday's New York Times magazine take my breath away. The cover line reads, "The Other Mothers of Manhattan." It is a photo essay of Manhattan's nannies. It is the real-life version of my novel, Substitute Me. The accompanying essay is by Mona Simpson and it is hauntingly familiar, all of the issues it raises. But the best part is this audio slide show. Check it out and let me know what thoughts come to mind.

I know I too hate the word nanny. It sounds so elitist and not a word I am comfortable using. And yet to call a grown woman a babysitter doesn't sit well either. What do you call your child's caregiver? What do you think of this story?

I'm listening.

Peace!

FlashBack Friday: The One About Black People Adopting White Children

Hi Meltingpot Readers,

Here's another popular post I penned, that I continue to get comments on three years later. It's the one about Black people adopting White children. It doesn't happen a lot, but when it does, people notice.

I've been most impressed with the comments where people have come forward to say that when a person is in need of a family, it doesn't matter what color that family is. Sometimes that sounds naive, but coming from people who have been in the world without a place to call home, I trust their opinions. And I appreciate them sharing their stories here on the Meltingpot.

Take another look and leave a comment there or here. And if you want to read more about the trend, here's a fairly recent story from the Griot.com on Black people adopting White children.

Peace!

White Girls, Black Girls: Watch the Video

Hello Meltingpot Readers,

I'm only like ten days late to the party, but I finally watched the viral video that's gotten the whole world talking about race relations between White girls and Black girls. If you're as far removed from YouTube as I am and haven't seen the video, take a peek.



Okay, what did you think? Me? I am still laughing. I just think it's high-larious, mostly because almost everything parodied in the video, I've had someone say to me. That's what makes it funny to me, because I can totally relate. I've heard some people find the clip racist, which I think is misguided. I can understand  if people might think it's offensive, but not racist. Mostly, I hope the video simply does what Franchesca Ramsey intended, which is to get people comfortable talking about race. (Thanks This Nigerian-American Life for making me finally watch.)

So, dear readers, what's your take on the video? Is it funny or does it offend? Is it any worse than the average stand-up comedy routine? Do you think it will have any effect on race relations between Blacks and Whites? And why have four million people tuned in to watch?

I'm listening.

Peace!

Afro-Vikings? The Black-Danish Experience Invades My World

I can honestly say, before I met author, Heidi Durrow, in 2007, I'd never, ever truly contemplated the pairing of Blacks and Danes. Never. Durrow, the child of a Danish mother and an African-American father, obviously has and pointed out to me that the famed author, Nella Larsen, was also a Mixie with Black Danish ancestry. I thanked Heidi for the information but still considered the cultural mix of Danish and Black to be a coincidence and nothing else. I mean really, I reasoned, how many Afro-Vikings could there really be?

Fast forward to last week, when Heidi posted on her blog about a rather famous Afro-Viking named Casper Holstein. A patron of the arts during the Harlem Renaissance, a bit of a gambler, and a philanthropist, Holstein made Durrow's list of prominent Mixies for Mixed Experience History Month.

I tweeted about Holstein and posted on facebook that Afro-Vikings were truly a new mix for me to contemplate, and then guess what happens to me on Monday morning? Yes, just two days ago. I receive an email from a journalist in Denmark who has a Black African mother and a Danish father and wanted to write a story explaining the politics of Black hair to her mostly White countrymen. You could have slapped me silly with a feather. I mean, really. I feel the universe is trying to tell me something about opening my eyes to the Black Danish experience. By the way, I had a great conversation with the Danish journalist and she shared a lot about how she grew up feeling like she had to hide her curly hair in Denmark.

So, as the ever curious Meltingpot journalist, I am now trying to find out just where and when Blacks and Danes collide. Throughout history and today. For example, here's a link to an article on Denmark's slaving history. And here's a link to a recent story about St. Croix's ( a former Danish colony) African roots and influences.

So what about you Meltingpot readers. What or whom do you think about when you hear Afro-Vikings or the Black/Danish experience? I'm so listening.

Peace.

Obama Stopped in Ireland to Pay Homage to his Roots

Hi Meltingpot Readers,

Don't you just love stories about Black and Irish relations? You know our roots go deep. Well, now they're going to go even deeper because as part of his brief European tour, the president stopped in the small town of Moneygall where his great, great, great grandfather was born and where he still has relatives. Here's a story from USA Today about the visit and here's a link to a video that shows the preparations and blatant adoration the townspeople of Moneygall have for our president. Yeah, Obama!

So, Meltingpot readers, do any of you have a Black/Irish story to share? I'm listening.

Peace.

I'm NOT an Angry Black Woman, But...

Hi Meltingpot Readers,

I'm totally a glass half-full kind of girl. Butterflies and glitter over doom and gloom any day. But I have to tell you, this round up story on The Root.com got me thinking. And then I got a little bit angry.

In the wake of Paris Hilton's recent run-in with the law where a baggie full of cocaine was found in her possession and she was allowed to go home anyway, The Root took it upon themselves to ask, "Would a Black Person Have Gotten Away with This?""

Compiling a dozen other incidents, that don't all have to do with breaking the law, The Root succeeds at showing just how unfair and deep rooted racism and/or White privilege must be in this country. Seriously, when you ask yourself, Would a Black person have gotten away with some of these situations, you just shake your head in disbelief.

Or maybe only I had that reaction.

Meltingpot readers, please take a look at the story on The Root and let me know if you think The Root makes a good point or if you think skin color has/had nothing to do with the way things worked out for the people in question. I'm really curious what other people take away from the story.

I'm listening.

Peace!

White Girl in the Big House

Have I told you that my new area of obsession is Black and Irish relations in the early days of our nation's history? I recently wrote about the influence of Black music on Irish musicians here on the Meltingpot, and that's what got me back on this issue.

Believe it or not, I was once commissioned to write a play about a Black tap dancer who travels to Ireland to discover his roots. Needless to say, the play was never produced, but I have the early drafts somewhere. Anywho, since then, I've always been curious about the shared history of American Blacks and the Irish. Other people are interested too, like the Yale research project on the subject known as Tangled Roots, which seeks to explore the shared history of Africans and Irish in early American history.

So, you can imagine my utter delight this weekend, while sitting in on a panel at the Virginia Festival of the Book to hear about a new book called, The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. The book is about race, and family and love, and betrayal, but it is mostly told from the perspective of an orphaned Irish child who is made to work in the "big house" with the slaves of the family. Very quickly the little girl becomes part of the Black family who works in the big house and as you can imagine, drama ensues. From the website:

"In 1790, Lavinia, a seven-year-old Irish orphan with no memory of her past, arrives on a tobacco plantation where she is put to work as an indentured servant with the kitchen house slaves. Though she becomes deeply bonded to her new family, Lavinia is also slowly accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. As time passes she finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds and when loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare and lives are at risk. The Kitchen House is a tragic story of page-turning suspense, exploring the meaning of family, where love and loyalty prevail."

I started the book on the train yesterday and haven't been able to put it down. I am thrilled to hear a story such as this, which offers yet another perspective on slavery and the relationships between White and Black before words like racism and civil rights and prejudice where part of the lexicon.

Did you know that poor Irish indentured servants worked alongside Black slaves? Did you know before they were slaves, Africans too were indentured servants? Not slaves. Of course most of you knew that, but a lot of Americans don't. Do you think it would change things if more people knew our true racial history in this country? Did you know that many White women, upon winning their freedom from servitude, which included being awarded a parcel of land to farm, would marry Black men because Black men were forbidden from owning land, which meant the women maintained ownership of her property? If she married a White man, he automatically took ownership of the land. Fascinating isn't it?

I'll let you know how the book turns out. Or maybe you might want to go out and buy a copy for yourself. If so, try buying from an indie bookstore in your neighborhood.

Let me know what you decide.

Peace.

Blackface vs Whiteface

Happy Monday Meltingpot Readers,

Once again I spent my weekend watching a video that I thought was fairly recent, only to find out it was released in 2006. Oops. It's that library thing again.

Actually, it wasn't a movie I watched, it was a television seriesthat appeared on the FX network. The series was called Black.White. and it featured two families, one Black and one White who were transformed through the magic of make-up to look like the opposite race. The Black family became White and the White family became Black. Oh, and through the course of this five-week racial experiment, the two families were forced to live together in the same house to try to help each other navigate the opposite culture.

I actually enjoyed the first six episodes as the families began to try out their new identities and are placed in different environments to see how the "other half" lives. I have to admit the "special effects" of transforming Black to White and vice versa were pretty cool. But then I got frustrated with the show and actually had to fast forward through several scenes because the family members, both the Black ones and the White ones, seemed so one dimensional and stereotypical themselves, I couldn't take it. Where, I began to wonder, did they find these racial guinea pigs?


My biggest beef with the whole set up is that the producers chose such stereotypical "Black" situations to throw the White people into as if poor Black teens who come from broken homes and Black men smoking weed and playing dominoes are representative of THE Black experience in America. Which of course made the middle class White people conclude that 'Gee, Black people are really different and no wonder they're so angry and I guess we'll never, ever really be able to have find common ground.'

Considering the rapper/actor Ice-Cube was one of the producers, I'm particularly disappointed with the show, because he's a pretty smart and savvy dude with a lot of great ideas and initiatives to tackle racial issues. Of course, as producer he was probably more instead in gripping television drama than true learning, so what are you going to do? (sigh)

Be that as it may, I still enjoyed many parts of the experience and think it could make an excellent teaching tool for high school and college educators who want to dissect race and identity with their students. And the video does come with a discussion guide.

I'm curious if anybody else out there watched this series and what they thought about it. Also, if anyone has heard any follow up about where the families are now, I'd love to hear it. Please share.

*******************

And speaking of sharing. The winners of the two autographed copies of Kinky Gazpacho in paperback are: Arienne and Beth. Ladies please send me your mailing address to myamericanmeltingpot@gmail.com and I'll put those books in the mail. Thanks to everyone who posted. Stay tuned for more giveaways this summer.

Peace!

Racism on the Dance Floor

I'd heard about segregated proms in the deep South. But I could have sworn that was yeaaars ago. But apparently I'm wrong. Last year, yes 2008, was the first year that Charleston High School, in Charleston, Mississippi dared to have their first integrated prom, and only then because the actor Morgan Freeman offered to foot the bill.

If that seems as unbelievable to you as it does to me, then you too should try to see the documentary film, Prom Night in Missippi, that tells the story behind the tuxedos and taffeta. The film screened at Sundance this year and has won a handful of awards. More importantly though, it has people talking about race and racism. Listen here for an interview with director Paul Saltzman.

Sometimes here at the Meltingpot, we start to believe that everyone is living mixie, blended, colorful lives. Look who lives in the White House, right? But then we are confronted with the truth. Do you think Charleston High School and the people of the town represent the majority of Americans in the South? Or are they the exception? And mind you, this wasn't only a case of Whites not wanting to be with Blacks. Bad feelings flowed both ways.

What do YOU do when you hear about towns like Charleston? Do you pledge to avoid the entire state of Mississippi for like another decade? Do you make jokes and thank God you live Up North? In another country? On Mars? Or do you do something else? I think Mr. Saltzman had the right idea in exposing the truth through film. Sometimes that's all we can do is tell the rest of the world what's happening and watch humanity change itself.

What do you think?

Peace!