Month: January 2012

Music [Interracial]: “I Believe” by Blessid Union of Souls

Walk blindly to the light and reach out for his hand
Don’t ask any questions and don’t try to understand
Open up your mind and then open up your heart
And you will see that you and me aren’t very far apart

‘Cause I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way

Violence is spread worldwide and theres families on the street
We sell drugs to children now, oh why can’t we just see?
That all we do is eliminate our future with the things we do today
Money is our incentive now so that makes it okay

But I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way
I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way

I’ve been seeing Lisa now, for a little over a year
She says she’s never been so happy, but Lisa lives in fear
That one day Daddy’s gonna find out that she’s in love
With a Nigger from the streets
Oh how he would lose it then, but she’s still here with me
Cuz she believes that love will see it through
One day he’ll understand
He’ll see me as a person, not just a black man

‘Cause I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find the way
I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe that love is the answer
I believe that love will find a way
Love will find the way
Love will find the way
Love will find the way

Music [Interracial]: “Brother Louie” by Stories

She was black as the night
Louie was whiter than white
Danger, danger when you taste brown sugar
Louie fell in love overnight

Nothing bad, it was good
Louie had the best girl he could
When he took her home
To meet his mama and papa
Louie knew just where he stood

Louie Louie Louie, Louie
Louie Louie Lou-I
Louie Louie Louie
Louie Louie you’re gonna cry

[Instrumental Interlude]

There he stood in the night
Knowing what’s wrong from what’s right
He took her home to meet his mama and papa
Man, he had a terrible fright

Louie nearly caused a scene
Wishin’ it was a dream
Ain’t no diff’rence if you’re black or white
Brothers, you know what I mean

Louie Louie Louie, Louie
Louie Louie Lou-I
Louie Louie Louie
Louie Louie you’re gonna cry

[Instrumental Interlude]

Louie Louie Louie, Louie
Louie Louie Lou-I
Louie Louie Louie
Louie Louie you’re gonna cry

Louie Louie Louie, Louie
Louie Louie Louie Louie Lou-I
Louie Louie Louie
Louie Louie you’re gonna cry

Music: “Heartspark Dollarsign” by Everclear

Time stops when the whispers blare
The voices drop hard, but the eyes still stare
The world resolves into a death’s head grin
Because i walk with pride with a black girlfriend

My mom said not to bring her around
Cause she’s black
My family would put her down
I’ll break the white-trash ties that bind
Trade a love so pure for a hate so blind

She said — she said
Forget the fact that i don’t look like you
She said — she said
You’re possessed with a power
Bigger than the pain

Time stops when we lie so close
In my room where we share
What no one knows

From the day that we start
Until the day that we end
I know i know i know now
We will never find a place where we can just fit in

Me and my black girlfriend

She said — she said
Fend for yourself — you’re alone
She said — she said
You are possessed with a power
Bigger than the pain
A power bigger than the pain
Heartspark dollarsign

Definition: Microinvalidations

Microinvalidations: Communications that subtly exclude, negate or nullify the thoughts, feelings or experiential reality of a person of color. For instance, white people often ask Asian-Americans where they were born, conveying the message that they are perpetual foreigners in their own land.

Definition: Microinsults

Microinsults: Verbal and nonverbal communications that subtly convey rudeness and insensitivity and demean a person’s racial heritage or identity. An example is an employee who asks a colleague of color how she got her job, implying she may have landed it through an affirmative action or quota system.

Quote: “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound…”

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Music: “Half-Breed” by Cher

Love the song and the performance from The Sonny & Cher Show!

From Wikipedia:

The single was the first international release from Cher’s album Half-Breed. The song tells the story of a young woman who is half white and half Cherokee. The song describes the troubles she faced, and the racism she experienced. White people often called her “Indian squaw” and the Native Americans never accepted her as one of their own, telling her that she was “white by law”.

In 1973, “Half-Breed” topped the United States Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, becoming Cher’s second number one hit and second Gold single. The song was a number one hit in Canada, a Top 10 hit in Sweden, and a Top 20 hit in Norway. In Germany and the United Kingdom, the song did not chart.

Interracial Song: “Talk of the Town” by Bruce Hornsby

Talk of the Town by Bruce Hornsby (link to video)

I’ve been riding around with the top down

Like I always do

My love at my side, but only this time

My friends say something’s changed you

They said you’re running with the wrong set

The girl is someone you should never have met

Let her go on her own, son

Everyone else has just come undone

The old town fathers are up in arms

The city council is very alarmed

Cousins and uncles are having fits

Predictors of doom think this is it

Everybody else just stand around

Me and my baby, we’re the talk of the town

The old statue there in the town square

Seems to stare at me

Walking around with my head down

They say can’t we make you see

I said, Son, you know we’re really color blind

But everybody else seems to really mind

Lose her now, I think you’ll find

Everyone else will just fall in line?

The chamber of commerce are up in arms

The city council is very alarmed

Cousins and uncles are having fits

Predictors of doom think this is it

Everyone else is just thinking out loud

Me and my baby, we’re the talk of the town

Probably not the first but surely not the last

Shouldn’t throw stones out from your house of glass

‘Round here lots of crackers and cheese

Stay away from those my daddy said to me

You’ll get in trouble if you mess with these

Well, the old town fathers are up in arms

The city council is very alarmed

The cousins and uncles are having fits

Predictors of doom think this is it

Everybody else is just hanging around

Me and my baby, we’re the talk of the town

Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage

Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage

I have the right:

-not to justify my existence in this world

-not to keep the races separate within me

-not to be responsible for people’s discomfort with my physical ambiguity

-not to justify my ethnic legitimacy

I have the right:

-to identify myself differently than strangers expect me to identify

-to identify myself differently than how my parents identify me

-to identify myself differently than my brothers and sisters

-to identify myself different in different situations

I have the right:

-to create a vocabulary to communicate about being multiracial

-to change my identity over my lifetime – and more than once

-to have loyalties and identify with more than one group of people

-to freely choose whom I befriend and love

© Maria P. P. Root, PhD, 1993, 1994

(also see “A Transracially-Adopted Child’s Bill of Rights“)

Resource: 10 Ways to Fight Hate – A Community Response Guide

10 Ways to Fight Hate

Another great resource created by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Download your free copy here.

This is an image that’s in the book that breaks my heart but reminds me of the quote by Nelson Mandela, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” (we have the colorsheet)