I just came across a bad review of Mulatto Diaries: The Movie on a blog http://www.losangelista.com/2009/06/black-biracial-mixed-white-other.html. Here’s an excerpt…
Her film is called the Mulatto Diaries, and sadly…Tiffany rubbed me the wrong way. She, and a few of the other biracial folks she interviewed in her film, came across like she believes on some level that being black means being ghetto, stupid, uneducated, lazy,uncultured, not being able to speak correct English and not having class or manners.
I am shocked that one could come away from the film with this impression. Yes, there are clips of me and the interviewees saying that at one time or another a black person/some black people have called us out for not being black enough. What does this mean if not that to some degree, which they find unsatisfactory, we do not ascribe to some stereotypical idea of being black? I’d really like to know. There is also a clip of me saying that for me the shame of this biracialness was heightened at the times when I was uncomfortable with my blackness. That discomfort was shameful. Not the blackness.
I think my point often is that I know firsthand that blackness indeed is not about donning the stereotypical garb of rap music and ebonics, but embracing the rich and difficult history that led to my being alive. Here in this country. Today. Blessed with so much. It is only because I am proud of my blackness and secure in my blackness, that I am able to say without shame and in a loud voice that I am also white. I am proud of who I am and who I am is equal parts both. It may seem like I go on and on about this. To an extreme. Beating a dead horse. Protesting too much this one drop rule. But I am trying to make up for hundreds of years of silence. This silence which I believe has contributed somehow to these negative depictions of blackness and to some illusory idea of the grandeur of whiteness. I may not always find the way to say exactly what I mean. I do not know what I am doing. I only know that I am doing. I am doing with good intentions. I am trying to free us all (black, white, mixed, whatever) from the boxes which I believe hold us back from reaching the great heights intended for us.
Pack. Without Indy seeing me. He’ll get upset and actually get into my suitcase so that I don’t forget to bring him. I really wish that I could…
Pray
mulatto diaries 