We were contacted by a writer who is looking to interview interracial couples with children for a piece in a magazine. You should be willing to have your names used and photos taken. If you're interested, please email (admin@everythingiric.com) asap (hopefully no later than this Thursday, 8/11) and we'll make the introductions.
Happy 4th of July, and happy 125th birthday to Lady Liberty!
For your enjoyment, Brad Paisley's Welcome To The Future.
When I was ten years old
I remember thinking how cool it would be
When we were going on an eight-hour drive
If I could just watch TV
And I'd have given anything
To have my own Pac-Man game at home
I used to have to get a ride down to the arcade
Now I've got it on my phone
Chorus:
Hey, glory, glory, hallelujah
Welcome to the future
My grandpa was in World War 2
He fought against the Japanese
He wrote a hundred letters to my grandma
Mailed them from his base in the Philippines
I wish they could see this now
The world they saved has changed you know
'Cause I was on a video chat this morning
With a company in Tokyo
Chorus:
Hey, everyday's a revolution
Welcome to the future
Hey, look around it's all so clear
Hey, wherever we were going, well we're here
Hey, so many things I never thought I'd see
Happening right in front of me
I had a friend in school
Running back on the football team
They burned a cross in his front yard
For asking out the homecoming queen
I thought about him today
And everybody who'd seen what he'd seen
From a woman on a bus
To a man with a dream
Chorus:
Hey, wake up Martin Luther
Welcome to the future
Hey, glory, glory, hallelujah
Welcome to the future
[Thanks to Branden & Ashley Kittle, Alexandre Silva for lyrics]
[Thanks to Mike Mc Donald, Dan Kelly, Rue for corrections]
Super duper senior Shazza Zulu (Gary Dourdan) tries to call out Kim Reese (Charnele Brown) for dating white Matthew.
Start scene at 6:52
Shazza Zulu: If we as Hillman men don't treat our women right, they'll go to somebody white. Kim Reese did.
Kim Reese: You pseudo intellectual, with a pseudo African name, spouting pseudo philosophy about a whole lot of nothing. In fact, the ONLY thing that's real about you is your green eyes, my bro-tha.
I'm pretty sure my friend Ky and I are the only two black people in America who are not watching the BET awards tonight. Ky simply hates BET for its past (?) crimes of not uplifting the black race when it was in such an amazing position to do so. My reason is a bit more shallow: I just don't like award shows. Never have. However, I do like following people's commentaries on Twitter and Facebook. Go figure.
I was super excited when I saw posted that Ms. Patti LaBelle would be performing. Not going to lie, I first fell in love with her as Chipmunk's (Dwayne Wayne) mother on A Different World, and then learned what an amazing singer she is. Don't judge me! I was born in the 80s. I wasn't old enough to understand or appreciate her music way back when.
Anyway, I fell in love with this song of hers back when J.J. Kennedy hosted "New York's Favorite Love Songs" segment (8 p.m.-midnight weeknights) on 106.7 Lite FM.
For your enjoyment, the interracial duet of Ms. Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald singing On My Own.
Album : Winner In You
Year : 1986
On My Own
by Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonard
(Bacharach, Sager)
So many times,
Said it was forever,
Said our love would always be true,
Soimething in my heart always knew,
I'd be lying here beside you,
On my own
On my own
On my own
So many promises never should be spoken
Now I know what loving you cost
Now we're up to talking divorce
And we weren't even married
On my own
Once again now
One more time
By myself
No one said it was easy
But it once was so easy
Well I believed in love
Now here I stand
I wonder why
I'm on my own
Why did it end this way
On my own
This wasn't how it was supposed to be
OIn my own
I wish that we could do it all again
So many times
I know I should have told you
Losing you it cut like a knife
You walked out and there went my life
I don't want to live without you
On my own
On my own
On my own
Chorus Repeat
This wasn't how it was supposed to end
I wish that we could do it all again
I never dreamed I'd spend one night alone
On my own, I've got to find where I belong again
I've got to learn how to be strong again
I never dreamed I'd spend one night alone
By myself by myself
I've got to find out what was mine again
My heart is saying that it's my time again
And I have faith that I will shine again
I have faith in me
On my own
On my own
On my own
I watched TLC’s My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding tonight (6/4) and wished I hadn’t. I would have preferred to keep what little (see: nothing) I know about the Gypsy culture unspoiled. While I can’t take this one show as the final stamp on all things Gypsy, I do wish I had had an opportunity to learn about this lifestyle in another manner. ‘Why am I so disheartened by this show?’ you ask. Um… can you pipe down and let me tell my story at my own pace, please? Thank you. Now where was I? *Scratching head and tapping finger on bottom lip* Oh, of course. This introduction to the Gypsy culture left me feeling as if they are a people who oppress women by keeping them tied to the traditional, archaic role of servants. Their belief seems to be that a woman’s genetic makeup is that of serving men.
“Gypsy wives are obliged to follow their husbands” so says the show. The women are subservient and do not have an identity independent of their husbands. They exist to be at their men’s beck and call – cooking, cleaning and raising the children. What nearly did me in was hearing one of the women (a young woman) talk about how in their world there is no such thing as ambition for education and career. The only thing young women aspire to is to be a wife.
For those who know me, this pretty much shakes my reality to the core. In my mind, education is inextricably tied to providing children (especially girls) with a healthy sense of self that will help them become productive members of society. I come from a Haitian household where my mother (though modern in certain ways) held very traditional beliefs about what it means to be female. She, like the Gypsies, shared the thought that a woman’s greatest accomplishment is that of wife and mother. Growing up, I was so against everything she stood for that I outright refused to learn how to cook and did not want to do any housework so I wouldn’t turn out like her. A bit extreme now when I think of it, but it seemed perfectly sensible at the time. It was this suffocating notion of what it means to be female that for years conditioned me to steer clear of marriage and motherhood. Although I did manage to work through the marriage aspect, I’m still battling the potential motherhood bit.
Anyway, back to the Gypsies. The one story that struck a chord with me was of the 22-year-old who was giving up her independence (working outside the home, her own car, money, home, etc…) to get married even though she clearly did not seem like she wanted to. As a spinster (yep, that is what you are as a 22-year-old unmarried Gypsy), she seemed motivated more by removing the stigma than an actual desire to be married. She, with good reason, was not looking forward to conforming to her new role as her husband’s property (in his I’m-joking-but-not-really words: “I own you now.”).
It was all I could do not to snatch her from the television screen and lock her in the basement (crap! I don’t own a basement. Note to self: Find a friend with a basement) until she came to her senses. Like my mother, her mother’s sense of pride came from seeing her daughter become a wife.
If it feels like I’m bashing marriage and devaluing housewives, I’m not. This is simply a view of someone who doesn’t “get” the picture on the other side of the lens. It’s the same way that I think my mother felt (and still feels on some level) about me. Based on her emotional and mental makeup, it was simply unfathomable that any female (especially her daughter) would reject marriage and motherhood. I imagine that it would be the same for me if I had a daughter whose sole purpose in life was to get married, be a mother and keep a home. It would go against everything that’s wired in me.
This topic is one that has generated and continue to generate endless debates. Although I stand strongly on one side of the fence, I am always open to conversations that broaden my mind about the other side. Would love to hear your thoughts either way.
P.S. I don’t at all believe that to be a housewife raising children means forfeiting your education, or that you cater to your husband’s desires at his whim. The Gypsy lifestyle is the more extreme case. I understand that.
P.P.S. (ridiculous. Why isn’t it just P.S. 2, or even just P.S.?) I’m tempted to watch this show again to look at those dresses (bride, bridesmaids and guests) and scratch my head at why they would wear such hideous things, and wear them with such pride. No one on that show would escape the makeover mirrors of Clinton and Stacy.
