When Annika was a baby, I once casually mentioned to Toyin that I’d like to dress her as Snow White for Halloween. He rolled his eyes and scoffed, “You can’t dress a black child as Snow White!” He was joking, mostly. But even so, that year, I dressed her as a kitty cat, because she [...]
Categories: Bi-racial, Parenting, Race, Racial Identity, Racism, Uncategorized
| 
Tags: Bi-racial, Race, Racial Identity, Racism
Years ago, long before I met Toyin and long before Annika was a sparkle in my brain, I have this vague memory of being introduced to the idea that it’s important for people to be properly represented in the media. This notion came by way of watching an interview with a Hispanic comedian who talked [...]
Categories: Bi-racial, Racial Identity, Racism, Uncategorized
| Tags: Bi-racial, Racial Identity, Racism
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas! I hope everyone is having a great day. I got my very first Annika-hand-crafted Mother’s Day gifts this year thanks to some very special and awesome preschool teachers. On top of these awesome gifts, four years ago I also got the best gift ever, my daughter Annika. Along [...]
Categories: Blogging, Guest Post, Racial Identity, Uncategorized
| Tags: Annika, Bi-racial, Racial Identity
Racial topics. Brown skin.
Categories: Bi-racial, Motherhood, Racial Identity, Uncategorized
| Tags: Bi-racial, Motherhood, Racial Identity
I’ve come to realize that I no longer see the world in black and white (and red and yellow…. or really, dark brown, light brown, dark beige and light beige). I no longer see humans with simply one background, one skin color, one mindset, one reality. Before Annika was born, I liked to think that [...]
Categories: Bi-racial, Race, Racial Identity, Uncategorized
| Tags: Bi-racial, Racial Identity, Stereotypes
It’s Black History Month. Every year around this time (and other times) it brings up my own mental rambling about just how Annika will fit in to the world of African Americans, or more accurately, black Americans whose history includes oppression from their own culture. For all outward intents and purposes she is a black [...]
Categories: Bi-racial, Racial Identity, Uncategorized
| Tags: Bi-racial, Racial Identity
It’s time for my yearly bitch about how I can’t find black/biracial/dark-skinned-in-general dolls in general stores. My biggest complaint is with stores like HEB, Walgreens, CVS, (Wal-mart if I shopped there often enough) and Target. I”m mainly focusing on these stores because I hate to shop, I don’t go to malls, and I’m not going [...]
Categories: Bi-racial, Motherhood, Race, Racial Identity, Racism, Uncategorized
| Tags: Annika, Bi-racial, Multi-racial, Race, Racial Identity, Racism
White people are unbelievably uncomfortable talking about race or skin color. This is a fact that I have become acutely aware of in the past three years. In part, my observation of this fact came about with my becoming more accustomed to using skin color as a qualifier for myself. Annika notices and mentions often [...]
Categories: Bi-racial, Motherhood, Race, Racial Identity, Racism, Uncategorized
| Tags: Annika, Bi-racial, Inter-racial, Race, Racism, Stereotypes
When I read this story about the racist bake sale hosted by the UC Berkeley College Republicans, I was reminded of a case over University of Michigan’s law school admissions policy that went to the Supreme Court in 2003. In this case a white woman was passed over for admission. She sued the school,saying that [...]
Categories: Bi-racial, Detroit, Race, Racism
| Tags: Bi-racial, Race, Racism
Apparently, single black fathers are challenging negative stereotypes, and emerging on the scene of single fatherhood as better dads than other single dads. I woke up this Father’s Day to read this article. In general, the study quoted in the article showed that overall dads are more involved with their kids than ever before. Even [...]
Categories: Fatherhood, Life, Race, Racism
| Tags: Annika, Bi-racial, co-parenting, Holidays, Racism, Stereotypes
