Here are two radio treats. The first is from the Brian Lehrer show, and the second is from StoryCorps Griot.
The number of mixed race kids has risen by 50 percent in 10 years. Interracial relationships are also on the rise. Terry Zealand and Faye Zealand, co-founders of the AIDS Resource Foundation for Children, discuss their interracial relationship and how things have changed since they got together in the 60s. Listeners of the Brian Lehrer Show offer their experiences about growing up as a mixed race child or raising a mixed race child. Enjoy!
Click on the link to hear Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni share her feelings about self-identity and a story from childhood where she learned the power of a word in a profound way. Enjoy!
Simone and Nadia watch me. They watch my cues. They watch how I interact with people. They are always watching. Sometimes I forget how much they watch.
When I see naturals on the street, I pay them a compliment.
“I like your hair,” I often say.
I do this because I admire natural hair. Women with natural hair are comfortable with who they are, at least in my eyes. It feels good to give and receive compliments, and I’m probably a little loose with mine.
Paying a compliment is a way to open a conversation. Most of the time, the conversation doesn’t go any farther than the compliment and a thank you. Sometimes, we exchange hair knowledge, start dropping names of natural hair web sites and gurus.
I hadn’t given much thought to this habit of mine, until Simone and Nadia started complimenting black women all over town.
At the drive-thru. At the post office. At the grocery store.
This has been going on for months, and I just realized I started it. I compliment women with natural hair. Simone and Nadia compliment any black woman with hair.
Colored hair. Curly hair. Straight hair. Doesn’t look like it has been combed hair. Bed head hair. Mind of its own hair.
That’s why I didn’t get it at first.
Just the other day Nadia complimented a woman at the drive-thru window at a fast-food restaurant. Well, I relayed the message, because Nadia sits in the back seat.
“My daughter says she likes your hair,” I said.
“My hair is a mess, but okay,” the young woman replied.
Then Simone complimented an older woman as we walked in the post office.
“I like your hair.”
“Thank you!” she said, a smile spreading across her face.
Why should we stop there? I suggest women everywhere start giving each other compliments on their hair. Hey, we could change the world. If your girlfriends, mothers and sisterfriends ask what’s going on, tell them it’s all my fault.
I smell bacon.
Nadia, resident meathead, letting me know she’d like a piece of bacon for breakfast.
School has ended, and I am sad about it.
Best I can tell, I am sad there will be less learning in the summer. We will teach. It just won’t be in a such a structured environment.
I am sad our routine will change. There’s something very comfortable about a child going to school five days a week.
I am sad one-thirteenth of Simone’s education is over. Twelve more years seems like such a small number.
I am sad Simone’s going to day camp. How can she be old enough for day camp?
I am sad Simone is growing up. Proud but sad.
Black is beautiful, Mom told me when I was little.
I don’t know why she said it. I don’t know whether she was part of the movement or simply repeating something she had heard. All I know is I believed her – and I still do.
I believed before and after a researcher wrote a Psychology Today blog post and tried to prove that black women are less attractive than other women.
I believed as I watched how friends and strangers digested the information. Some refused to post the article or any links to it. Others urged their friends to call the magazine and complain. At least one of my Facebook friends provided updates on her cuteness throughout the day. I wish I had thought of that.
Some people may think I am unattractive. They are free believe it. They are free to say it. Here’s the catch: I don’t have to believe them.
Was the Psychology Today article interesting? Yes. Was it worth discussing? Sure. Did it hurt my feelings? Nope.
Maybe Mom was telling me not to seek validation from others, because it comes from within. With any luck, I can pass on that lesson to Simone and Nadia.
ETA: Psychology Today editors apologized for publishing evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa’s blog post “Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women?” Kanazawa is also under investigation by the London School of Economics.
I see beautiful people. A lot of them in this video. A number of curlies, including a gorgeous young curly. Men, women, children of different races and backgrounds, singing the same positive message. Enjoy Kirk Franklin’s I smile.
That’s when Daddy lost his temperature.
Simone, recounting her father’s reaction when she decided to decorate the bathroom mirror with soap while he was napping.
