Well first, Happy New Year! Ours was uneventful and restful which lent itself to a lot of time to have the creative juices flowing. So, with a new year I have new theme.
After researching the top tips for writing a successful blog, the one that stood out to me was the idea of having a blog with theme that runs through it. Whether writing about one's business, about parenting children with special needs or making lists (apparently people just love lists) the blogger needs to know and write about their theme.
So, I went back to me. What I am interested in. What continuously weighs on my heart and mind. What I circle back to in my mind. What I discuss in small groups with my peers, with my family and without words when I sit quietly with God.
The inner conflict about being black.
There is one. How in some circles, I'm too black and in others, not black enough. And how I've coped is to murmur about it, to go around it, to bury it or attempt to assimilate into "it". Over the years, I feel I've earned the lingering shame in not knowing and sometimes not wanting to understand my blackness. It has been a life of lessons with no handbook as to how to navigate it all and somehow, I feel I've been doing it wrong.
Now, I'm a mom of four and am married - to a white man - and am ready to expand the understanding my life as a black woman and share it with our family.
This blog will be a reflection of the journey.
The posts will driven by thoughts from books I read that allow me to study and challenge the racial constructs that have been placed on our society. Posts will come after meeting and interviewing leaders in the community, after enjoying a 'new' cultural dish or learning of an artist. Excerpts of (approved) conversations with other black women in interracial marriages and their kids will make the blog. Television shows, businesses, news...it's all fair game for my road to black clarity. I also plan to use all of the social media (see the buttons under my blog description on the home page) that I know of to do so.
To be clear, with the theme and blog being my own, the terminology will be too. When I use the word black it will mean the color of my skin as well as the culture that describes African-American ways of living. As I learn more, I will clarify more. Decisions about changes in terminology will be confirmed as I read, research and adapt, so language will be a part of journey too.
My only promise to you, and to myself, is that I will try new things, challenge the status quo and have fun writing while doing it.
After researching the top tips for writing a successful blog, the one that stood out to me was the idea of having a blog with theme that runs through it. Whether writing about one's business, about parenting children with special needs or making lists (apparently people just love lists) the blogger needs to know and write about their theme.
So, I went back to me. What I am interested in. What continuously weighs on my heart and mind. What I circle back to in my mind. What I discuss in small groups with my peers, with my family and without words when I sit quietly with God.
The inner conflict about being black.
There is one. How in some circles, I'm too black and in others, not black enough. And how I've coped is to murmur about it, to go around it, to bury it or attempt to assimilate into "it". Over the years, I feel I've earned the lingering shame in not knowing and sometimes not wanting to understand my blackness. It has been a life of lessons with no handbook as to how to navigate it all and somehow, I feel I've been doing it wrong.
Now, I'm a mom of four and am married - to a white man - and am ready to expand the understanding my life as a black woman and share it with our family.
This blog will be a reflection of the journey.
The posts will driven by thoughts from books I read that allow me to study and challenge the racial constructs that have been placed on our society. Posts will come after meeting and interviewing leaders in the community, after enjoying a 'new' cultural dish or learning of an artist. Excerpts of (approved) conversations with other black women in interracial marriages and their kids will make the blog. Television shows, businesses, news...it's all fair game for my road to black clarity. I also plan to use all of the social media (see the buttons under my blog description on the home page) that I know of to do so.
To be clear, with the theme and blog being my own, the terminology will be too. When I use the word black it will mean the color of my skin as well as the culture that describes African-American ways of living. As I learn more, I will clarify more. Decisions about changes in terminology will be confirmed as I read, research and adapt, so language will be a part of journey too.
My only promise to you, and to myself, is that I will try new things, challenge the status quo and have fun writing while doing it.
