In Honor of #MLK50; jm prefacing this post with my wife’s status. Her politics, as I like to joke, is right of right but she admonished me that as a Man of Colour I didn’t honor MLK, who was a trailblazer for people like me.
I don’t watch TV but my habit is to binge when I fly. I saw a fair few episodes of Blackish sometime back and it’s a great show; the black Modern Family (interestingly Modern Family can be super diverse with gays & Vietnamese but like Friends & Big Bang Theory just struggles with adding black characters). The family is initially the 6 (the parents and their four kids) and the two grandparents (joint family style but the grandpa is played by Laurence Fishburn).
I like the show and I follow the stars on instagram. The show makes it clear that the mom, Bo Johnson is biracial (in real life the actress Tracee Ellis Ross is the daughter of Diana Ross and her Jewish husband).
I immediately clocked that the oldest daughter was half Persian in real life after seeing her name, Yara Shahidi. But over time I realised that three of the four kids were in fact bi-racial (the two sons have white mothers).
It just made me realise the prevalence of the colour continuum in the Afram community and that thanks to one drop rule these exotic bi-racial kids are able to claim ownership and belonging in the black community.
It’s the same view I have on Malala; it’s great to get on the gravy train but ideological positions need to have some internal consistency to them.
I remember my friend used to constantly proclaim his constant attraction to black women. When he came to visit me when I lived him in Uganda, I told him that this would be a great trip for him. He replied that when he meant black women he really meant women like Beyoncé..
*also this post is only meant for BP since I don’t want to offend the Blackish cast as I follow them on Instagram etc.