RACE|CULTURE
Putting A Spotlight On What It’s Like To Live As A Biracial Or Multiracial Person
Inside or outside of Amerikka, racism affects everyone everywhere all the time (regardless of whether you believe that to be true)
Today I received, and happened to have time to read and respond, a comment from a reader that pierced my innermost being which affects me strongly as a human, writer and woman.
It feels like coming full circle since the original story to which she responded is one that I wrote last October 2021.
It’s the first story of mine that did extremely well here on Medium in terms of views and comments.
There have been many responses that have touched me deeply since I published that story.
At one point, I decided that I would start a publication that focused on stories related to the topic of biracial or multiracial people, including those of family and friends who are involved with us.
However, the holiday season hit, winter came and went and still no new publication.
I did not even create the new public email that I wanted to create for people to contact me privately about such matters — until today.
I want to hear your stories in whatever way/s you feel most comfortable sharing them.
The publication is coming soon (within a few days).
Here is the comment thread that finally gave me the perfect push at the right time:
Jeanne Yacoubou, MS on Feb 8th, 2022:
You raise the tough questions and provide insights to answering them. As a white mom of three biracial children, thanks for your views. They help me understand life better from my children’s points of view. Looking forward to more writing from you!
(I replied the same day)
Thank you Jeanne! You reminded me that I want to start a publication that is geared towards helping people connect with others and their stories around being biracial or multiracial. It can be quite challenging to find good resources on this topic.
Yesterday, 6 months later, Elizabeth Silleck La Rue responded to the above comment:
KL, thanks so much for writing this, you raise such important questions. I am writing a book about Black/white interracial families and relationships in the US, based in my own experience of being a white mother to a Black biracial (now grown) daughter, and being married to a Black man; I'm grappling with whether/how to include the varied gender dynamic, as well, based on interviews with Black women, Black men, and white men in interracial relationships. Would love to connect at some point.
My response an hour later:
Your project sounds intriguing and much needed. Feel free to contact me in the future with any questions you might have. I plan to create another email account that I will share publicly as well.
MUCH-needed! Honestly, one of the primary reasons it occurred to me to write it is that my husband and I often read books together that help us make sense of the world, and have been unable to find any sort of genre-spanning publication that really speaks to our experience FROM the perspective of someone with the experience.
I see a lot of writing ABOUT interracial relationships and families, but it's often criticism by people not in them and/or anthropological sort of analysis by people with very little lived experience. The research thus far has been painful, in that there are so many "think-pieces" spinning their logical wheels to make the case against Black/white love. I was prompted to start researching based on my experience that interracial relationships still face a lot of hostility, and the small amount of research I've done thus far has confirmed it beyond what I even imagined. Such vitriol, which is clearly rooted in white supremacy, both projected and internalized. And to think, people could just mind their business (but that's not how systemic oppression works, I know).
Please do send me your public email when you have it!
My response:
You have inspired me to finally go ahead and create my new email: [email protected]
You also have reignited my desire to write more stories here on Medium, as well as start a publication on this topic for other people to share their stories, and eventually publish a book about it. I have over 250 journals that I plan to have published after my death in order for many people to learn about what it has been like for me to live the life that I have as a biracial woman raised by a single Black mother during these specific years I was alive. I think that there is MUCH to be gained from them, but I don't want to tackle that particular project in my lifetime. However, there is a lot more I can and want to do to help this cause. It has been one of the wonderful and awful experiences of my life and you're right, it isn't talked about enough, especially by those of us who are biracial. I think, in part, it's because we have thought and dealt with it to such a large degree privately (in our own thoughts and feelings) that we want and need mental and emotional breaks from it.
Better later than never.
We are all in this difficult, sometimes crazy, yet magical and awe-inspiring world together — and have the power to make it more harmonious.
Dialogues like the one I shared above help me remember this. I want to help others to remember more often as well.
If you are interested in contributing your stories to my new publication, please leave your Medium handle (for example: @klsimmons) in the comments.
Here are some stories that I have already written and published along these lines (more to come sooner than later):
