My mother is white and my father was black. I am not alone in this. I grew up in the Bronx, New York City. Born in 1967. A relatively safe time and place for a brown girl of ambiguous ethnicity. As the mother of two little brown girls, I like to believe that race doesn't matter much. But the election of Barack Obama woke me up. Ignorance is everywhere. Race labels ring in my ears. They stick and they stain. Even when they fade. This is my rant, from “post-racial America”. Hoping to shed some light.

Monday, December 10, 2012

November Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

November was crazy, and so was I.
The whole election thing had a lot to do with it. Everyone around me seemed to believe that Romney was going to steal it. And Super Storm Sandy - that bitch was fierce. All in the throes of Halloween. Halloween is always a bit frantic around our house, since we like to make our own costumes, and we often have a bit of trouble (i.e. anxiety) deciding who/what we're going to be. This year, I was Miss Piggy. Our eldest was a made up character named Miss Kiss, who doled out Hershey's kisses to adoring friends and strangers alike. Our youngest was Animal, from the Muppets. For whom I crocheted a wig worth $47 in fancy yarn. Cos that's how we roll at Halloween time.

As for Super Storm Sandy, everyone in New York was effected. Rich and poor, black, white, yellow and brown. It's been one of those "great equalizer" moments. Everybody living without the services we all take for granted… It put a bit of mind-blowing perspective on things. Lots of things.

As for election day, I felt like I was the only person alive who believed Obama would win. Maybe because Halle Berry was on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine sitting on our kitchen counter. 
Her pretty brown face, so confident and lovely, was like a wink to the rest of us: He's gonna do it again. Don't you worry.
I woke up on election day expecting Obama to win. I just had faith. Which is unusual for me. But there it was. A powerful feeling that enough democrats would get out and vote, to prove the pundits wrong. We did. And we won.

Three days after the big victory, we went to our good friend's out-of-state wedding. At fifty, it was his first time under the huppah. With his lovely bride of forty-something. They're eager to start a family, statistics be damned. So that gave us something fresh to talk about - something outside of Halloween, and hurricanes, and the presidential election, and writing, and blogging, and... and... ourselves.

Before crazy November began, my husband and I took a music-for-hire job. We haven’t worked together since the kids arrived. Now we finally understand the value of regular childcare help. But we have yet to secure any of our own, and our deadline is right before Christmas.  That, my friends, is the icing on the crazy cake.

So I'm looking forward to January... when I plan to get back to the old rant. I'm hoping my kids will have a few full weeks of school, for a change, and I can back to writing on more meaty matters. Motherhood is kicking my ass, and is expected to continue to do so from now thru the holidays. Whoopee!
Have a Happy!


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