Category Archives: biracial

i was like, ‘are you serious!?’

Posted on by
2

Yet another disheartening story of hatred in the form of racism.  Maybe instead of naivety it’s because of who and what I am that I find it shocking that so-called “racial purity” is an obsession for some.  A crusade.  A cause to kill and die for.

Harrowing Story of Racism

Staff
Charleston

http://www.wvmetronews.com/index.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=32733

Meredith Harris is white.  Her husband is black.  She has white friends and black friends.  She says the color of their skin has never really mattered to her, but she says it does to some… Harris, 22, has what some may call an unbelievable story about racism. But it is true,  and it happened in Charleston, WV. The story ended with a man named Darrell Fierce pleading guilty to violating Harris’ civil rights.  Fierce was never sentenced because he died after shooting himself on the day of  his sentencing hearing.

It began in late June 2007 when Harris found a house to rent. Next door was Fierce and his partner, both older white men.  After signing a lease with Fierce’s partner, it was move in day for Meredith. Her white friends were there to help.

“That was actually the first day I met Darrell. I was carryin’ stuff in and out of the house.  He came up and walked over in the yard and introduced himself. He actually gave me a bottle of champagne with like a red ribbon and everything. (He) told me ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ (and) if there was anything I need to let him know…  He was just really friendly to me the first day….he was very friendly. Ben had always been friendly. Darrel was friendly. So, I thought everything was going to be fine.”

But everything wasn’t fine.  Two days after moving in Meredtih Harris brought a young mixed-race girl to the house along with who is now her father-in-law, a black man.

“My goddaughter…she’s mixed.  And she was over there and as soon as they saw her the next chance they got they confronted me in the front yard.  (They) called my goddaughter some very inappropriate things.  (They) said that they weren’t having a day care for ‘mixed monkeys.’  (They) said they didn’t like my kind and that I was going to have to leave. (They) pretty much called me white trash. At that point, that was when they tried to evict me. ”

Harris says that after a wonderful initial reception things had changed suddenly.

“When they first said it I didn’t believe them. I was like ‘are you serious?’  But once it like clicked to me that they were being serious -that they were really that racist and this wasn’t like a joke- that’s when I called my dad. He came over and he confronted them. Once he got there they pretty much said the same thing to him. ‘We know why you don’t want her. She’s white trash. We know you’re probably ashamed of her. I’d be ashamed of her too.’  (They) just said things like that that were really inapproriate.  At this point i didn’t want to live there anymore.”

usa-00567

Having been given an eviction notice by the men for what they called “incapability” Meredith began looking for a new place to live. Then came the night of July 15th, 2007. As she often did, Meredith went to bed late. Her wake up call on July 16th was scary.

“It was about five o’clock in the morning when I woke up and my dog woke me up. By the time she did, the smoke was so thick in my room I could hardly see,” Harris said. “I usually sleep with my door closed, but it was actually open that night. As soon as I woke up I knew it was him (Fierce) that did it.”

“He made like a little brush pile with trash and flammable stuff,” she remembered. “They started the fire right outside my bedroom and at the front and backdoor, I guess, to try and trap me in there.”

Harris would later find her and her boyfriend’s cars had slashed tires and sugar-filled gasoline tanks.

That was her last night in the house, but she kept her belongings there as she looked for a new place to live. She says within a week the house was empty and when she returned she says Fierce reminded her what he had said before that he was going to evict her.

“I walked inside the house and everything that I owned was gone. Everything from by shower curtain, to my toothbrush, to my hairdryer, everything was gone,” Harris said.

“After he said those things about me and my goddaughter I knew he was crazy, but I never thought my life would be in danger for staying there until I found another place,” Harris recently said in an exclusive interview with MetroNews.

Harris was waiting for Fierce to go to trial and she admits today she was surprised when he agreed to plead guilty to the charges. He did so earlier this year, although when the plea hearing began before a federal judge he made up a story about why he set the house on fire. Before the hearing was over, Harris says Fierce told the truth, but she could tell he wasn’t sorry.

“Even after the fact he felt no remorse,” Harris said. “He didn’t think there was anything wrong with what he did.”

The 69-year-old Fierce was scheduled to be sentenced in late July, but he didn’t show up for his hearing. Federal marshals soon discovered he had shot himself in the stomach in a Kanawha City motel room. Fierce was hospitalized for several days, before passing away.

“I didn’t want him to die. I would have much rather seen him go to jail to be honest,” Harris said. “I guess everybody else thought I would feel safer. I just felt bad and it made me feel worse.”

01_Hands12-748063


marriage license refused

Posted on by
10

I guess it’s not really a big deal seeing as he’s let a black person use his bathroom and all.  Of course I do not mean that at all and I am appalled by this.  Especially because his reason is to prevent the creation of miserable people like me.  Good God!  I think when this man sees and interracial couple he sees (in his mind) something like this:

white woman black horse

rather than this:

2100800164_a84aecde84

No Marriage License for Interracial Couple

By MARY FOSTER, AP

HAMMOND, La. (Oct. 15) – A white Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.

Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

“I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.”

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

“There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage,” Bardwell said. “I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it.”

If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.

“I try to treat everyone equally,” he said.

Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career, all in the past 2 1/2 years.

Beth Humphrey, 30, and 32-year-old Terence McKay, both of Hammond, say they will consult the U.S. Justice Department about filing a discrimination complaint.

Humphrey, an account manager for a marketing firm, said she and McKay, a welder, just returned to Louisiana. She is white and he is black. She plans to enroll in the University of New Orleans to pursue a masters degree in minority politics.

“That was one thing that made this so unbelievable,” she said. “It’s not something you expect in this day and age.”

…”It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009,” said American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana attorney Katie Schwartzmann. She said the Supreme Court ruled in 1967 “that the government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry.”

The ACLU sent a letter to the Louisiana Judiciary Committee, which oversees the state justices of the peace, asking them to investigate Bardwell and recommending “the most severe sanctions available, because such blatant bigotry poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the administration of justice.”

“He knew he was breaking the law, but continued to do it,” Schwartzmann said.

…”I’ve been a justice of the peace for 34 years and I don’t think I’ve mistreated anybody,” Bardwell said. “I’ve made some mistakes, but you have too. I didn’t tell this couple they couldn’t get married. I just told them I wouldn’t do it.”

yay, corbin bleu

Posted on by
3

and his dad!

Emmy_Suite-3

Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith – Oct 12th, 2009

via

Twenty-year-old “High School Musical” cutie Corbin Bleu is more than glad that his character’s family in his new “Free Style” movie is biracial, just like his own family. He made a point of seeing to it that casting was done that way.

He tells us that, with himself and his father two of the producers on the feature, opening tomorrow (10/9), “It was one thing we definitely wanted to play to. So many times in films, you’ll have interracial kids, but they’ll still have two black parents. At this time, right now, where we are now, you’re seeing many more interracial families. So many people are mixing and it’s wonderful and that needs to be portrayed more in our films.”

Corbin notes that, being a producer, “This is the first time I got to take hold of some of the reins and I’d like to do more. I was involved in locations and casting and wardrobe and all that.”

free_style03

Synopsis: (via)

In the film, Bleu takes center stage as Cale Bryant, a biracial, Pacific Northwest teen whose father left his mom, Jeanette (Penelope Ann Miller), years ago when Cale’s young sister Bailey (Madison Pettis) was born. Regardless, Cale’s a polite, well-raised young man who, when not busy at the electronics store, delivers pizzas, takes care of sis while Mom waitresses, and races alongside his bud Justin (Jesse Moss), dreaming of turning pro.

Cale briefly gets angry with his mom, who turns out to have known the whereabouts of the kids’ deserter dad (David Reivers, Bleu’s real-life father and a producer of this film), and suffers taunts from rich-boy rider Derek (Matt Bellefleur).

91125489

i admit it

Posted on by
1

While I’m on the topic of childhood fun, I’d like to take this time to admit to you all that I still watch Sesame Street sometimes.  Most recently, I’ve been watching in lieu of Good Morning America.  I was so saddened by the news that Diane Sawyer will be leaving GMA, that I jumped ship before she did.  There’s no team like Diane and Robin in the morning.  Honestly, I don’t know why she is doing this to us.  I understand that it’s a big deal for a woman to anchor network nightly news, and I’m happy for her to have gotten the offer…. but to ACCEPT it!?  Mornings will never be the same.

robin-roberts-whitney-houston-diane-sawyer-2009-9-1-14-40-9

Sawyer%20roberts2

I digress.  Now, I don’t have the attention span to watch an entire Sesame Street, but I do like to check in and can be certain that it will make me smile.  I know I already went on and on about how much I love Jim Henson and all of his creative contributions to society.  It’s definitely the Henson characters that pull me in to the show.  I’ve noticed that as soon as they cut away to clips of “real life,” I tune out.  Groups of kids playing games, learning things, making crafts just doesn’t do it for me.  Never did. Looking back I think this reflects the social anxiety I suffered from as a child.  I was good one on one.  I was good using my imagination and pretending to be something other than I was.  But “threaten” me with a group of kids, and the butterflies in my stomach would begin to flutter like crazy.  That’s something I realized about myself while recently watching Sesame Street.  I’m sure it has something to do with the biracial.

sesame

cookie monster and cookies

sesame street guys

sesame street typewriter

grover doctor

re: heidi and seal

Posted on by
3

Congratulations!!

58426967

ea34f6578801ef5d_heidi

Supermodel Heidi Klum and husband Seal have welcomed a new addition to their family.

According to a report from RadarOnline.com, Klum gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Lou Samuel, early Friday morning.

Labor was induced shortly after midnight and by 1 a.m., the baby was born.

Klum, who recently filed a petition to change her last name to her married name Samuel, has a daughter, Leni, and two sons, Henry, 3, and Johan, 2, with Seal.

via

barack like me

Posted on by
Reply

BarackLikeMe.small

David Alan Grier: Is beige the new black?

Comedian writes about how Obama has made being multiracial cool

excerpt from chapter 2

Every pundit from Larry King to Atlantic magazine agrees: black is in. All shades of black. Which is good for most people, because so many of us are of mixed race. Myself included. It’s mind-boggling that we have ended up here, at this point in our history. There was a time, only a few generations ago, that being of mixed race was not so cool. In fact, it was illegal to try to pass yourself off as a different race. If the authorities found out, you lost everything — your position, your home, and all your possessions. You’d be separated from your family and often lynched.

President Barack Obama has changed all that. People now want to be mixed. Bi-racial, tri- racial, quad- and quinti-racial, how many you got? The more the better. Multiracial is the hot new facial, the best look in the book. Mixed race is the new superrace. If you look too black, people seem disappointed. They look at you and say, “You’re just black. Oh. That’s too bad. Are you sure? Anything else in there?”

They’re looking for the Obama mix. It’s like a new kind of coffee. “We just came up with it. Try this. The new Obama roast. It’s the perfect blend. Strong, but not sharp. Seductive. Bold. Sweet. Smooth. And not too dark. Not like that Dikembe Mutombo roast they’re brewing across the street.”

And why not be black like Barack? He’s the coolest guy on the planet right now. He’s bigger than any rapper, more popular than any rock star. He’s huge. We admire him and kids aspire to be like him.

…It’s still hard to get my head around this, though, the idea of acceptance that comes with the Barack Obama presidency. There is a part of me that acknowledges — and remembers, historically — that people of color who tried to deny any part of themselves were suspect. They would have to make a decision and stick with it. If it was found out that they were denying a part of themselves, they would be accused of running away from themselves and be rejected by their own. We’re looking at a whole new playing field as of right now. You can embrace all the parts of you. You can say, forthrightly, “I am who I am. I am all my parts,” or even, “I am all my parts, but I am embracing this particular one. This is who I am.” And we, as a people, will embrace it as well.

Excerpted from “Barack Like Me” by David Alan Grier with Alan Eisenstock. Copyright (c) by David Alan Grier.

i like my coffee like my presidents'

speaking of ben harper

Posted on by
2

He’s so cute… but anyway,  I found this little piece on The Insider website…

Ben Harper & Family In Sardinia

80731j1_harper_b_b_gr_01.0.0.0x0.432x285

Ben Harper and Laura Dern vacation with their children, Ellery, 7, and Jaya, 3 1/2, and friends in Porto Cervo (Sardinia).

Source : Bauer Griffin

Thank God “anonymous” posted this comment:

Those two other children are *NOT* friends they are Ben’s kids from his first marriage. His son is named after Ben’s grandfather Charles Chase who owned a folk music store and instrument museum who exposed him and fueled his love for music.

It may seem trivial, but as the only brown person traveling with my white family I was often mistaken for a “friend,” and that just doesn’t feel good.  I don’t know exactly how to describe how it feels, but it’s not good.  Especially when that’s your dad and the circumstances lead you to think, “I was his family before these other people.”  So, thank you Anonymous for clearing that up.

i “needs to talk” to obama about this too

Posted on by
9

Mariah Carey: in a frank interview, the singer tells all

Mariah_Carey_mother

…Carey’s own parents divorced when she was little, and although her father materialised occasionally to take her on trips – hiking or to the races – she didn’t get to know him properly until she was an adult… He was tough. He’d been in the military. I do miss him. At the end of his life we spent a lot of time together. And I learned a lot about his side of the family.”

Her mother grew up in the midwest. “She came from – er –?” Carey frowns. “Middle of America?” She brightens –”Illinois!” – and as such, she says wryly, “is among the whitest people I know”. Her father was half-African American, half-Venezuelan. “I’m a black woman who is very light skinned.” As a child, she was self-conscious of her mixed race, and it is still enough of an issue, in the US and elsewhere, that Carey is routinely accused of “trying too hard” in one racial direction or another.

“White people have a difficult time with [mixed race]. It’s like, my mother’s white – she’s so Irish, she loves Ireland, she’s like, yay, Ireland! Waving the flag and singing When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. And that’s great. I appreciate that and respect it. But there’s a whole other side of me that makes me who I am and makes people uncomfortable. My father identified as a black man. No one asked him because he was clearly black. But people always ask me. If we were together, people would look at us in a really strange way. It sucked. As a little girl I had blond hair and they’d look at me, look at him, and be disgusted.”

She says she “needs to talk” to Obama about this. When he became president, she was overwhelmed and delighted, “but for years we never believed it would happen. There’s a group who will never get it, never want to get it. Because you have to lose the purity of both races and there are certain people who really don’t want that to happen. I think it starts with people teaching their children that it’s not OK, because they don’t want their kid to come home with someone of another race. I understand people want to hold on to their roots. But for me, I was a complete nonentity because of it. Maybe that was part of my drive to succeed. I’ll become accepted.”

And now? Oh, she says, sarcastically, “it’s in vogue now. So I’m sitting here thinking, now it’s cool, great.”

mariah-carey-cover-md