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.

Friday, August 9, 2013

Cheerios! Fashion! Racism! in brief

Today is my birthday. How old am I? Let's just say I'm turning 35 again. Not feeling the need for specificity. But as a gift to self, I am posting these three little bits. Because I really miss you, blogosphere. As I've mentioned in the recent past, I'm on this kick to work seriously on my manuscript, and it seemed like the only way I could keep the necessary focus was to stop blogging for a while. Concentrate all of my writing juju in one place. Well, it's kind of working. I bought this life-saving writing software called Scrivener, which has enabled me to assemble all 42 chapters, written over the past 16 years, in a meaningful, comprehensive way. It's a whole lot better than the dresser drawers filled with multiple versions of all those chapters, printed on this thing called paper. Thanks to Scrivener, I'm making real progress. Yes.

But it's my birthday, and I get to do whatever I want. And I want to blog, just a little.
So here's what I want to share:

1. The mixed-race family Cheerios commercial is so bloody important. Trust me. If you don't know what I'm referring to, here it is:



I am so thrilled that General Mills went this route, and that a lot of idiotic people said negative things about it. It keeps the conversation alive. And our children can see themselves represented in the media in a quiet, basic way. No Disney required.


2. According to an article in yesterday's NYTimes, racism is alive and well in the fashion industry. Well, duh. This is a fact that many of us have been sensitive to for a looooong time. Who has a cure?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/fashion/fashions-blind-spot.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0




3. Back on July 21, in the Letters department, the Times (again) printed several thoughtful notes about The Meaning of Race. A bunch of pedigreed intellectuals agreed that race is an antiquated social construct, devised by an oppressive class in order to maintain hierarchical order and power. The more we mix, the more "racial" distinctions blur, causing that oppressive power to diminish. Hm.


Ok. Back to birthday cake and booze.

I'll try to be less irregular.



Posted by BROWNGIRL at 12:52 PM 0 comments
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