Category Archives: famixed

famous mixies or couples that make them

barack like me

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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

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

Ben Harper & Family In Sardinia

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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

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

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…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.”

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speaking of amy grant

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For me, this is long overdue.  I’m not sure why I’ve been keeping my love for Amy Grant a secret on this blog.  Maybe I thought it unnecessary what with the mulatto diaries vlog #72 thanking God for Amy Grant through tears and laughter.  It just doesn’t seem right though. The obsession has faded, the nostalgia and admiration remain.  The blog seems incomplete without some sort of acknowledgement.  So here it is.

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Finding one’s way, learning to value the truth as a nonnegotiable plumb line, experiencing the consequences of violating the laws of nature or the laws of the Spirit, exercising free will, and realizing one’s own impact on and in the world- these are all included in the sometimes painful lessons of life, and most of these must be learned firsthand.- Amy Grant

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This is trust:  doing what you believe you are called to do and trusting that God will provide.  But here’s where it gets personal:  God provides through people.  Am I willing to be connected to the people in my world, the people at work, the people in my house, the people I encounter in everyday patterns of living?  Am I open to the possibility of my life, my gifts, touching another life?  My life touching another, the domino effect of God’s goodness rippling through so many other lives, is a powerful, far-reaching concept.

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You can still cut loose and have a great time, but part of you has to say, “I will take life with open eyes and a thinking mind, and not as self-centered as I was as a child”. When you start looking at life that way you realize that issues on every level on every continent do have an effect on your life.

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If you went to your closet today, would you pull out the same outfit you wore 10 or 15 years ago? You wear feelings and faith differently as well.

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But my experience is that people who have been through painful, difficult times are filled with compassion.

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You do your best, you do all this stuff, but the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

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I think that if my kids are completely convinced of God`s unfailing love for them, whether they fail or not, they`ll have confidence to persevere in life.

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To me, the human experience does involve a great deal of anguish.  It’s joyful, but it’s bittersweet.  I just think that’s life.

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Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there`s shadow – no, not just shadow, but fullness. You`ve got to be willing to mix black into your palette if you want to create something that`s real.

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There’s a beauty to wisdom and experience that cannot be faked. It`s impossible to be mature without having lived.
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Ok, so I spent a LOT of time looking at pictures of Amy Grant on the internet for this.  Unfortunately most of my old favs were taken before the days of digital photography, so most of them could not be found.  Those that I did find were scanned or photos of photos.  I just have to put a few up anyway because most of my wardrobe in the early 90’s was purchased in an attempt to be just like Amy Grant.  Looking at these pics answered a few personal “what was I thinking!”‘s.
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I remember the day this People magazine came out!  I nearly burned a hole in this picture which hung in my locker(s) for the next 2 years.  And yes, I managed to find myself a sweater like that.  If only I’d known I had curly hair…

kimora on growing up mixed

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Kimora Lee Simmons: "My Kids Make My World Go 'Round"

New mom to 2 1/2-month-old baby boy Kenzo Lee Hounsou, Kimora Lee Simmons found the time to write an article for Working Mother. The 34-year-old Baby Phat CEO and Style Network star addresses the racism she faced as a young girl, how her mom always encouraged her to believe in herself and work hard, and how she plans to instill these same values in her three children.

“My friends are surprised to learn that, outgoing as I am today, I was a loner growing up. I was a mixed-race girl with a Korean-Japanese mother and an African-American father, and none of the other kids at my school were like me. I was nearly six feet tall by the time I was 11 years old. And I was an only child being raised by a single mother.

At school in the St. Louis suburb of Florissant, MO, everything about me seemed to be a source of ridicule to other kids: my face, my height, the texture of my hair, my body shape. I was a real fish out of water. And because I had so many growth spurts, it took time for me to grow into my body. The popular kids were into sports, but I was awkward and gawky. I was super clumsy—I still am. Kids can be cruel. They called me “chinky giraffe.” I cried all the time. But my mother wanted me to turn my tears into something else, something positive.

…As my mom did for me, I’m helping my own girls, Ming Lee, 9, and Aoki Lee, 7, learn about tolerance—to respect differences in culture, religion and even the way we look. I also try to set boundaries, let them know what’s expected and give them room to develop and grow. I will do the same with my infant son, Kenzo Lee Hounsou. I recently married his father, Djimon Hounsou. He’s an actor and a model, and he speaks five languages. We learn a lot from him.

Read the rest of the article here