Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Don't put me inside that Box!!!!

Don’t put me inside that Box!!!!

Black not Hispanic
White not Hispanic
Asian, Islander Pacific
Hispanic
Mexican
Puerto Rican
Mark one only.

Stop it I can’t breathe don’t you see what this is doing to me?
Why can’t I choose to mark other since nothing identifies me?

Go on braggin bout where you from and how you mark generation number 3
I gotta be strong and hold my head up while society decides my race for me

Unable to identify as both black and white or mixed as some choose
You wouldn’t know this because you haven’t walked in my shoes

I got hair like my mother red long and curly
Dark skin like my dad and lips like Aunt Shirley

Eyes so deep but not like the ocean, more like amber in a tiger’s eye
I am the descendants of the oppressed and the oppressor which I cannot deny

So here I am with a combination of features that don’t traditionally match
How does one decide which race do I empower or which one I should un-attach?

Always asked if I am Mexican, Boricua, Cuban, Dominican, just never Black
I stand proud to be both German and African American and that’s a fact!

I am considered the outcast by all means and Now I can embrace my lot
But what ever you do, by all means please, Don’t put me inside that box!!!

By, Myrtice J. Edwards

1-15-2007

Mixed Race Kids of All Nations

Mixed Race Kids of All Nations

I was given the opportunity to live
Now I must learn how to forgive

The uncomfortable stares and comments I hear
Are not always compliments nor sincere

People may talk about what race I appear to be
But God made me in his image so don’t define me

I am proud to be biracial, mixed, or just a human being
I will not allow anyone to make me feel like fleeing

I accept me even though I may not have complete membership
Society has a tendency to include me when they see fit

They say it’s easier if I tell others that I am just Puerto Rican
So that my inclusion is possible and our friendship won’t weaken

Is it bad to be Black, German, and Native American I ask?
I hope you don’t expect me to deny who I am and wear a mask.

I see some people still have a problem with my race that I was assigned
But, I don’t roll the dice when I wake up nor do I navigate the color line

Away with the one-drop rule that defines my total essence
I will be strong and use this experience as a life lesson

Mixed Race Kids of All Nations you will always exist!!!!
Remember that God loves you and change requires resistance.

Myrtice J. Edwards
11-08-2008

Monday, February 23, 2009

John Legend: Firing Off Letter About 'New York Post' Monkey Cartoon

The cartoon in today’s New York Post is troubling at best, given the racist attacks throughout history that have made African-Americans synonymous with monkeys. This cartoon depicts that blacks are subhuman and our struggle for racial equality is teetered. In the cartoon, the police say after shooting a chimpanzee, “now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.” I like how John Legend spoke out against NY Post’s ignorance. I won’t support them that’s for sure. I agree with him, even though we have the freedom of speech, it comes with responsibility and consequences. Unfortunately, as we live through this historic presidency, there will doubtless be more of these impolitic insensitivities. First the Lafayette French Bakery, a pastry shop in New York's Greenwich Village, started selling "Drunken Negro Face" cookies on Martin Luther King Day in 'honor' of President Obama and NOW this. When will this end? Folk want to try and convince Me that racism doesn’t exist and that they ‘don’t see color’ well maybe they don’t because if they did they wouldn’t print such ignorant things…I’m just saying.

Where do I belong?

“The title of the poem is,
Vietnamese American: Where do they belong? Whom do they belong to?”
By, Myrtice J. Edwards

If I were a Vietnamese American, how would I harbor all the days of my pain
No one could understand me because I can’t seem to adjust
Searching for people like me
But I still find myself alone
I am a body of two worlds, but my spirit is not
Often I am looked upon as an illegitimate child of the war
Within the very country that I was borne
In Vietnam I’m called a “child of dust” but looked upon as an illegitimate American
When they see how I speak English fluently and flawlessly I am resented forever because of the memories of the war
Some call me an Amerasians aka a social liability
But it was never my intent to lose my tongue or culture you see
In Vietnam I am considered an American and in America I am considered Vietnamese
There are a lot of adjustment problems I experience just trying to be me……

Dirty Sally

Thank you for your support on my latest book Mixed Race Kids of All Nations, but please keep in mind that I am the author of a book entitled, “Dirty Sally….the untold stories of mixed race children, who find a new identity, love, faith and forgiveness through GOD”.. There is an interesting story behind the title. I was often taunted or teased about being biracial. Some of my family members and friends called me Dirty Sally. Dirty Sally is an old slavery term used to identify the descendants or offspring of Sally Hemings, a former slave and the late President Thomas Jefferson. Sally Hemings was biracial her mother was ½ white and ½ black and her father white. Sally Hemings could pass as white during that time, but she opted not to embrace a false racial identity invented as a stigma.The nickname dirty Sally is just one label of many used against biracial individuals who appear to pass for white. Biracial individuals have been negatively affected by stereotypes because of their unique family structures and dual racial identity. Often times, biracial children feel pressured to assume mono-racial identity, while at the same time experience guilt feelings of betrayal and deception towards the parent whom they did not identify.
www.outskirtspress.com/39446A http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A2FW62WCPZN085

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Retail price: $6.99
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My thoughts on the one-drop rule

the one-drop rule (Also known as the rule of hypodescent) is a socially constructed classification system that was initiated during slavery in America that proclaimed that any person with any known African 'black' ancestry would have the same legal status as a 'pure' African. Translation: Jim Crow established this rule to group the slaves into one category. Jim Crow made a decision to group all the slaves into one category because it was easier for white people to separate themselves from the slaves. Then Willie Lynch (slave master) separated the slaves and created racism within our own people by dividing us up—House Negro and Field Negro’s. Lynch’s idea of providing privilege to one group and zero to the next helped him in his demise. I am sure you all know the story. Now, I don’t allow people (i.e. Jim Crow or society) to decide what race I am. That is an individual’s choice to make-no one else. When you empower one race, you disempowered another, so who said you have to choose. What to make things “easier” for you? I don’t think so. I here this one-drop rule BS all the time and personally I think its BS!!! The one drop rule is only applicable when necessary. Any other time we “BIRACIAL FOLKS” gotta prove our blackness while our “complete membership” is denied…unless we are famous. Most historical figures that helped paved a way for us was mostly biracial. I embrace my African American father and my German American mother. I may appear to be racially ambiguous to others but I will let you know if you just ask. I am not confused about who or what I am. But one cannot divorce himself from himself that’s what causes confusion. We will never have complete membership with attitudes like yours. Race is socially constructed and although slavery has ended, the psychological chains are still intact. Our thought process need to change….where knowledge is duty ignorance is a crime. I’m just saying….

I want inclusion

Being biracial is not easy in America. I hope I live long enough to see “inclusion” within this society that is so divided by race. One day we will have a complete membership. Remember, until 1997, the state of SC did not allow whites and blacks to marry, including anyone with one-eighth or more of “Negro” blood. Some legislators moved to rid of it as an embarrassment and disgrace to the state. Changing the law would remove the technical illegality from the thousands of interracial marriages in South Carolina. Oftentimes, I am asked, “What is all the fuss about race and being biracial?” Well obviously we still have a long way to go. Go figure.