ME: Honey, do you know why all the sales people kept telling you how pretty your eyes were today? RUBY: Because I have brown skin and they don’t think brown skin is very good. ME: Well (crap), no. (Think quick.) That’s not why. (Address it or not to address it, that is the question.) I [...]
Today was the first day of the year that felt like summer. It was warm out—not hot—with a mostly cloudless sky as blue as a Popsicle®. It was quintessential Southern California, the kind of day that begs you to toss your obligations out the window and head directly for the beach with your Coppertone, a [...]
As most readers know, mine is a blended family. And while skin color is not my focus when going about my day-to-day life—when I’m praising and disciplining, wiping and nagging, feeding and doting and generally loving up on my kid—it would be a lie to say I don’t see skin color. I see it every [...]
“The impenetrable stupidity of Sarah Palin knows no boundaries. She wallows in mediocrity. Palin is the queen bee of a cult of personality where to be anti-intellectual is a trait to be rewarded. Ultimately, she presides over a confederacy of dunces.” So begins Chauncey DeVega in a short, compelling piece on white privilege. This Must Read can be found [...]
Overheard at my dentist’s office last week: Patient (white, middle-aged, male) at reception: I missed Aubrey. I was really hoping she would be cleaning my teeth today. Receptionist: I know, I know. She’s on her honeymoon. Patient: Where did she go? Receptionist: Africa. Patient: Wow! She just might come back with a bone in her [...]
When Playboy asked you whether black women “throw themselves” at you, you said: “I don’t think I open myself to it. My dick is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a fuckin’ David Duke cock. I’m going to start dating separately from my dick.” Well, jeeze. This is awkward [...]
(Originally published at The Women’s Colony on Tuesday February 2, 2010.) I had dinner and drinks last night with two friends from my adoption group. One of them has three adopted children. Her eldest, a 7-year-old son, is from Haiti. My friend went there to meet him when he was ten days old. She lived [...]
Michael Steele is a peach. The Republican Party’s chairman and blackface (double entendre, intended), is calling for Senator Harry Reid to step down as US Senate Majority Leader over a purportedly racist comment he made during the 2008 election. In the forthcoming book Game Change, Reid is quoted as having said that Barack Obama would [...]
At James Madison High School in Brooklyn a few weeks back, two teachers were busted for being naked in the classroom while students were at an assembly. And last week at Congress Elementary School in Milwaukee, a teacher lost her mind in front of her students. First grader Lamya Cammon was playing with her braids, [...]
I’m late to the party but that’s because I’ve been mulling it over and doing a little background research. Better late than never, though. So, I’ve begun over here. There will be more.