Blog mentions and the IR Community

I was very humbled and excited to learn that my blog and my previous blog post, "Don't Leave Us Out", was mentioned in Angry Black Cat's eighth podcast! ABC and JeffG discuss the survey I was ranting about plus more. It was a great piece. Check it out here. You must be registered to listen to it.

I also received some great responses to that post. ChelB and Diva(Thanks for the comments ladies!) both expressed disappointment at feeling left out of the whole black women IR community just because they married men that weren't white.

I feel the same way at times. I got into the community relatively late because I had already married my husband prior to finding the community. As I said before, it's great that a movement has started to get black women to expand their options. But, it also feels like the IR community is pushing white men at the expense of other races.

Black women need to consider and expand all their options. Should Diva, ChelB, and myself be excluded from this movement just because our husbands aren't white? Didn't this movement get started because a majority of black women were limiting themselves to black men?

Expanding our options and finding love should be the key terms for the BW IR community. If you find love with a white man, great. If you find it with another race, that's great, too. No one should be made to feel like they're on the fringes of a community that can give great support just by the race of the man she married.

Don't ignore us

I was reading Halima's blog recently where she posted some information about a doctoral candidate surveying interracial couples. It sounded interesting, so I decided to look into it a little more. I like sharing my views.

Needless to say, I was dissapointed for the survey to narrow down who they wanted to black women/men to white men/women couples.

It points out a issue I have with the interracial community at times. While I get that they want to show black women are desirable, and that white men should be considered among their dating choices, there are other choices out there.

I didn't marry a white man. I married a Dine man. We have our own unique situations that a bw/wm couple would never face. Is my opinion any less than those who married a white man?

Sometimes I feel as though I'm on the outskirts of the whole IR movement. I bucked the statistics that said a lot of black women would stay single. And I opened my options to include other people. Shouldn't that count for something?

There are other races that should be considered for black women. White men shouldn't be the the only one. There are Hispanic, Asian, Native American and others to consider as well.

We should be telling any black women not to limit her choices to white men only. Whe should be considering all people and all races. Because we did that with black men, and look what happened to us.

Maybe I should start my own community for black women who didn't marry a white man.

-DineBoo

Wait a minute...weren't you black last week?

First of all, I would like to thank all my visitors to my little corner of the web, as well as Halima and Diva for linking to me. Thank you so much!

This past Tuesday, I was watching ECW. A wrestling program. Weird I know, but I've been watching some sort of wrestling program every week for the past ten years and it's a very hard habit to break. Or maybe I like watching guys in skimpy shorts.

Anyway, there's this black looking lady called Layla that shows up at almost every show. I think she's the only black (looking ethnic) 'Diva' in WWE right now due to the fact they let go of the only other black Diva last week. In the picture here, she has curly hair and has noticeable black features.

Fast foward to this past Tuesday. She shows up as a part of this wierd entourage, and I had a hard time placing her. In fact, I thought she got replaced by someone else! But a few rewinds with with my trusty DVR confirmed it was indeed her. What was it that made her look so differnt?

She had straightened her hair.

Granted, I also chemically straighten my hair, but with her, she didn't look black at all! It was like she changed ethnicities overnight. Now, she could be of different heritages, but this one change made her completely look like a different race.

This kinda disturbed me, because I don't know why this change had to be made. Is she getting rid of one stereotype for the other? The wrestling world is built on all types of stereotypes. From the redneck, to the hoodrat, to the war chanting Indian, the wrestling world has or had these characters. Here, Layla flip flops from looking ethnic to looking white in a week!

I don't know. I guess I should be used to this by now. But Layla, please, bring back your curly hair!

-DineBoo

It's all about perspective...

Yesterday was Columbus Day. My conversation with Mr. Salt went like this:

DineBoo: Today's Columbus Day! Feel like scalping someone?
Mr. Salt: Not yet, but soon!

Prior to meeting Mr. Salt, I really didn't think about Columbus Day. All I knew it was a holiday that I didn't get off at school or at work. Now I know that it can be very insulting for some.

Imagine giving a holiday to the person that started the invasion of your homeland? That started the massacre of your people? That it is one note in history that caused your people great harm?

So we have Columbus Day. Mr. Salt doesn't celebrate it, obviously. He also doesn't really celebrate Thanksgiving, another obvious one. I mean, the Family comes together to eat, but that's it.

Because of a man, Native Americans were almost reduced to nothing. They were caricatures. And it's taken years to address that, even though some negative images remain.

A black comedian said it best: Washington N*ggers.

Puts it all into percpective.

As a side note, Mr. Salt was cheering when the Clevland Indians beat the New York Yankees. What he said, and I quote:

Mr. Salt: Screw Columbus! The Indians have won!

DineBoo

Are you red or brown or...

Last night, I posed this question to Mr. Salt:

DineBoo: Do you consider yourself brown or red?
Mr. Salt: Hmm...Brown.
DineBoo: Where did red come from?
Mr. Salt: Don't know. Always wondered about that myself.

It's funny how we perceive ourselves. A good portion of minorities can look mostly brown, but classify as brown, red, or black. Going further, if others are perceived to act too white, we're either an Oreo (as I've been called on occasion when I was younger) or an Apple for Native Americans.

Then, when it comes to Mr. Salt, there's the whole 'You don't look like an Indian!" comments that he gets, which is another blog post in and of itself.

DineBoo