Kristin Davis is so low-key, I always forget that she quietly adopted a daughter back in 2011. Kristin is rarely pap-strolling with her daughter, Gemma – the photos in this post are from 2014, and that’s literally the last time I can find that Gemma was photographed. Kristin isn’t a mommy-blogger and she’s not giving constant interviews trying to brand herself with the Motherhood Industrial Complex. I like that about her. I also like and appreciate the comments Kristin made during a speech at The Greene Space a few days ago. She talked about her own white privilege and how she’s very concerned about how her African-American daughter will be treated in Donald Trump’s America.
Kristin Davis is filled “with terror” for her adopted black child.
“I am white. I have lived in white privilege. I thought I knew before adopting my daughter that I was in white privilege, that I understood what that meant,” Davis, 51, recently explained while speaking at The Greene Space in New York City. Davis adopted her now 5-year-old daughter Gemma Rose Davis in 2011. “But until you actually have a child, which is like your heart being outside you, and that heart happens to be in a brown body, and you have people who are actively working against your child, it’s hard. It fills me with terror.”
That feeling increased after Davis, who campaigned for Hillary Clinton, learned Donald Trump won the election.
“My initial thoughts on Wednesday morning was that I wanted to move to the woods and learn to shoot a gun,” Davis said. “It makes no sense. I’m fully aware. I’m 100 percent aware that it literally makes no sense … the fear of what is happening and how am I going to make sure that no one hurts my child, even in a subtle way, which was already a fear I had obviously, but it just became so, so heightened.”
Despite the fears she faces on a daily basis, Davis gives Gemma words of encouragement.
“I have to tell her your curls are beautiful, your black skin is beautiful,” she said. “You’re beautiful. You’re powerful. You’re a goddess … because she needs to know this.”
Davis also makes sure positive figures like Serena Williams are prominently displayed in her home.
I’ve listened to interviews and read pieces with white mothers who have adopted or given birth to black or mixed race children, and this is a common thread, this idea that the white women thought they knew about their own white privilege and understood racial issues. Then they become mothers to black babies and suddenly they realize that the world is still pretty racist, and that their bubble of privilege will rarely protect their children. I like how open Kristin is in this discussion too, she’s not sugarcoating it (nor should she). It’s a scary time to be anything other than white in this country. Full disclosure: I’ve also been thinking about arming myself these days. I already live in the suburbs and ever since Trump was elected, I’ve been thinking more and more about what I can do to protect my own brown body.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
Love her – what a wonderful human being. Charlotte was my favourite in SATC as well 🙂
Me too. She does so much charity work for animals and children. She just seems like a really beautiful person, inside and out.
Mine too, because of Kristin. She seems like a lovely person.
Me too. I hope that she becomes more vocal as the next few years evolve…
I was married to an African man and still didn’t get it really until my son was born. At 3 years old we were walking into a gas station and he got stares from grown people. It really sunk in how people can look at an innocent child and not see the innocence.
Damn K, that is so f*cked up. I’m sorry your family had/has to deal with that kind of behavior.
K I am so with you on this ! We have 2 mixed race little girls (7&5) and our little boy (2), and I never understood how racist this world still is , and how deep racial stereotypes are ingrained in people until I became a mother. Even more so once my son was born, and I will never forget being sat in a cafe with someone I thought was a friend when my son on my lap began playing with the cutlery, he picked up the knife and before I could take it out of his chubby fingers, my “friend” commented
“Look at that he’ll be wearing a hoodie and robbing old ladies before you know it”
WHAT!!!!! I would effing LOSE it if one of my friends said that!!!!! Please tell me you slapped her HARD!
OMG. I would have been livid.
I wish I had !!!! I was so honestly gobsmacked that I couldn’t say anything more than I ha d to leave… I was in tears by the time I got home , I was just so angry at her, at myself for not saying anything more, and angry for my son that that is what he will face for the rest of his life . The friendship was cut dead after that , and when I explained why , she thought I was making a big deal out of nothing , she was insistent she was simply making a joke which she couldn’t understand made it worse !
wow. Instead of saying “hey, chef in training” they go to “robbing old ladies”? Just wow.
I’m so sorry that happened to you and your baby. That’s just horrendous and even worse because it’s so casual from someone you thought was your friend. UGH. What’s wrong with the world???
What?! One of your FRIENDS said that to you?
Jesus Christ.
That’s awful, but I’m glad to hear you ended the friendship. Bad enough she would say that to begin with, but to then dismiss your feeling about it when you told her…that is not a friend.
I agree. I married a biracial hispanic man and we have a 3 year old daughter. I come from a family with money and my parents circle of friends are old white stuffy people, when my parents threw a celebration party after our daughter was born the first thing their best friends said to me was “wow you’re lucky she’s only a few shades darker than you and not as dark as your husband.” We got our coats and walked out and have not spoken to any of these people since.
Geez – we have to be rude to teach people. Where are the Brit’s on manners, here? Dignity is the ultimate value, to ourselves, and for one another.
I am astounded that you didn’t realize this would happen way before you gave birth. I would have laughed at their stupidity and stayed at the party. If you are this sensitive you, and your kids, will have are hard time in life.
I think this is put so well, and it is painful. My mother was grateful I was born “more white” looking than my brother. Our entire family invested in me as the first to enter college; it was because I passes for white, although it was rarely stated this directly. That was in the Reagan era, when we all camouflaged so to speak. My son has lived throughout the Obama administration and has had a very positive view of dark skin, etc, even wishing he looked more like my brother. I reflected the other day how – maybe it’s good my child passes for “white” as we are now moving backwards. I’d like to be proven wrong. I really hope we are all “over-reacting and this doesn’t come to pass?
Welcome to the life of every brown and black person who has to live with this understanding everyday. I’ve grown up in a bubble as well…I live in the DMV area where it’s pretty multicultural. I grew up in a upper middle class area and went to all black schools growing up. My friends and most people I knew had parents with good jobs, nice houses and nice cars. That ‘bubble’ helped me form my identity before I was treated differently for my skin color. Of course, I had my bouts of racism as a child, but I went back to my protected bubble and never experienced it on a consistent basis. Only time I knew I was ‘different’, was when I traveled outside this area. People looked at me and my family differently. It was weird, but it didn’t bother me. Fast forward to my 37 year old self and now it’s sinked in that I could be attacked – just because I’m a black woman. Very hard pill to swallow. If anything, I’ve learned to make sure my daughter is in loving, multicultural environments where she can be understood as a black child. And I love my husband even more, because I know the world is even harsher towards him.
Your story resonates with me. Few other cultures understand that there is also black privilege, to a certain extent. I grew up in a historically black upper middle class neighborhood surrounded by black schools, churches, and businesses. I didn’t experience diversity until after college, as I went to an hbcu. Even then, I moved to Chicago and was surrounded by mostly black professionals. I now live in the south in a bible belt surrounded by Trump voters and it’s an amazing experience. My eyes have been opened like never before and I’m ashamed that I used to be one of those “new” blacks that thought racism was dead.
I wish that racism was dead. It haunts me.
I’m with you on this. Went to a mixed high school in the south, traveled for the military, and made my home in the DMV for 7 years. I was in the bubble and oblivious! Moved to northern NY and I have experienced so much since I have been here. They are so blatant with it. Example: I have never had so many women snatch their purses as soon as I walk by, when I am just minding my own business at target. They are so obvious with it. I just laugh at them and keep it moving.
It’s bullying on a major scale! I can’t imagine living thru that on a daily basis, let alone teaching my children to endure it. Everyone understands a bully, but being bullied by an entire culture, is unimaginable – how do people survive this, without learning to hate those who do it to them – merely to survive?
This hit home for me too. My husband is Indian, and our daughter (and soon to be 2nd daughter) is half Indian. Both hubby and daughter are Muslim as well, as will be baby 2. Thanks to my ghostly pale Irish genes, and his lighter skin, you’d never know my daughter is half Indian – but both their names give away their religion. We live in Montreal, but all of my family lives in the States – I’m terrified for them of what it’ll be like to return to my heavily Trump-supporting hometown. 🙁
This is where we practice, dignity.
Some of my pale olive friends are seriously considering changing their Arabic sounding names through deed poll. I understand their desperation to conform and fit in. In a way, they’re luckier than us, the higher melanin types. At least, changing one’s name is not nearly as impossible as lightening one’s skin.
It’s a weird thing, privilege. My mother is black and super dark skinned. My dad is white (Euro/Arab) and super fair. My two sisters have my mum’s colouring, while I and my brother have taken more after our father. As a family we’re treated differently to how we’re treated individually and there’s no doubt that my mum and sisters have more difficulty or hostility sometimes, especially in areas that are not mixed or predominantly white. It’s a real eye opener. It’s also heartbreaking that my mum has said she feels much less anxious for my brother as he is (pale, light hair) than she would if he was more her colour.
Wow! @lee that must be so surreal – to experience the various levels of hatred and racism all within your own family. I’m so sorry that humans are still jerks.
Have you ever seen or heard of the biracial twins I believe in britain? They’re twin girls, but one looks white as can be (very pale, red hair, freckles, light eyes) and the other black as can be (dark skin, gorgeous curly black hair). I wonder about them, and how they’re treated….I can’t imagine being a twin and my sister having a completely different experience in the world, especially if I enjoyed white privilege.
There have been several case of twins like this in the last few years in Britain.
When they appeared on an Australian talk show the host said, “…and Lucy got the fair hair and skin, good on her!” Right to their faces.
So that’s how they’re treated.
Experienced something similar. We are filipino-chinese and i have some hispanic genes thrown in for good measure. We have boy-girl twin babies, the boy being a nice mocha brown and the girl being super fair with light hair. Everyone comments its lucky that the girl got the fair skin.
Feel like punching commenters. Its like they are insinuating my lil guy isnt handsome because he is brown.
I know this is a late comment, but this whole post has been interesting and warrants a reply.
Yes, i’ve heard of them and their experience resonates. There are plenty of “mixed colour” siblings in Europe (where I’m from), although some people do treat you as an oddity (mostly white people, tbh. Black people seem to realise that POC families come in a variety of shades, something that white people can’t seem to grasp).
Growing up we used to be called the chessboard family because we were half-white looking, half black-looking. Conversely my sisters have pretty much straight hair, while myself and my brother have super tightly curled hair, so the minute people find out our heritage they suddenly go: “I could sense it!” like our mixed heritage is some sort of faint noise that their senses can just about pick up. It’s quite humiliating to be somebody’s self-congratulatory guessing game.
I used to be a model (not a successful one. I was just really tall and odd-looking rather than pretty), and in that career it did underline how different races are treated. The white models were the industry Gold Standard, booked for everything and treated as normal/aspirational. Us mixed models were the the fetishes, picked because the designer had a wet dream about how the future will be one big melting pot. And the black models were the tokens, picked as a statement by a white designer or casting agent who thought they were being provocative. They were using black and mixed ethnicities as an “artistic expression” rather than models.
There is no doubt that half my family have a tougher time. And I really hate it and wish it wasn’t that way.
I am a African American brown woman and I almost cried just now , lol. That is what life is like. You feel silly at times living like this because in your heart of hearts you know that hey buddy we are all equal, but the opposite side of that coin is legitimizing every single thing you are, have, accomplish, and came from because there is someone or some group that wants to glaze over your greatness and keep a foot on you neck. My fabulous gets exhausted ! lol
Narcissistic personality disorder – those who practice bullying and see life as a game with winners and losers…is actually a part of white culture. These are the psychopaths and sociopaths of humankind. That this could be seen is okay, breaks my heart!
Yes, some people see a zero-sum game, if someone (or group) gets ahead that is not them or theirs, that means (in their childish little minds) they are behind and have lost something. So they try to push people down or hold them back so that they will “get what’s theirs”. It is sad and petty and ridiculous. But there are people who actually live their lives like that and somehow feel justified with it. I just can’t understand it.
I’ve got relatives on my father’s side who when I was growing up would openly talk trash about people who weren’t white or were other religions. And I was just gobsmacked when I would hear it. Fortunately my mother was completely the opposite, and had her door and her heart open to every human being, in the best way. So we kids never got fully indoctrinated into the hate. But it sickens me that to this day there are racists and to this day there are people who have to deal with that sh*t simply because of the color of their skin. And it is especially upsetting now because all the white racists are off the leash now.
“My fabulous gets exhausted!” @BeBeA, can I give you a hug?
This election has brought out so many white people and their ah-ha moments about privilege and racism. It’s like, I’ve always wished they would just listen and try to understand, but now I’m feeling very blah about it. Don’t mistake me, I want people to see reality and work to make things better, but it’s also a little self serving now that things haven’t gone their way. It always takes an affront to the majority’s life before it all really matters, kind of like the drug epidemic hitting suburbia.
To be fair to her, she makes it clear that the turning point for her wasn’t the election, but the adoption of a black child. I’m not sure it’s fair to get on her for admitting that her understanding of white privilege has morphed into something more tangible, more palpable, since she adopted a black child.
Otherwise, I agree with you though. It’s annoying to hear white people shocked at the level of racism in this country when we’ve had black people patiently schooling us about the black American experience for decades now. I guess they just weren’t listening….
This is exactly how I feel. So many white people are waking up after the horror that is 2016 and I’m sitting here like where have y’all been? But you can’t expect people who’ve never really experienced this type of hate to really get it. We (black/brown people) grow up being very aware of all this because we have to in order to survive. I feel like I’ve been “woke” since I was a little kid, but that’ s because my parents educated me on how the world treats and looks at people like me.
It’s true on many levels. I’m Jewish and I was raised in Ukraine, which was VERY VERY antisemitic (people threw rocks at me, racial slurs, we feared for our safety, etc). But I argue with Ukrainian non-Jews *all the time* about it. They tell me, “but I can’t believe it, I’ve never seen/experienced anti-semitism!” And I’m like, of course you haven’t, why would you? It wouldn’t be directed at you! The same with anti-semitism here. It exists, thankfully in a much more mild way where I live, but you wouldn’t necessarily know if it wasn’t directed at you. Same with sexism. I love it when men tell me they’ve never seen sexism. I mean, right, you’re not a woman! No one gets to tell anyone else about THEIR experience. You only get to listen. But honestly, I’m just happy that so many people are realizing it. Maybe this is the silver lining, that so many are finally kind of a little bit realizing what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes.
As a child, I witnessed racism. It might seem surprising, but I thought that “Gone With the Wind, was terribly unfair, to the big black woman/mama/nanny. That story tainted my vision of race. I remember seeing black folk being fire hosed in Alabama, on the evening news – and I asked my dad if he was racist, and he told me, Yes. The truth was that I understood that he beat young children, and animals, in real life, and I didn’t take him seriously – Poor ineffectual man. Bullying is the understanding needed for freedom. I’m not a fan of GWTW – but it deeply affected the way I see race. I loved that black woman, and wanted her to be my mama.
Because of early experience, I sought understanding, which is – there is no difference between whites, and any race, none whatsoever – even our dreams for life, are the same.
White people do not listen to their own science, They do not believe in evolution, which is basically the science of loving life. The history of the evolution of man is magnificent – and skin color plays no role.
@ wolfpup “White people do not listen to their own science” – that is a bit sweeping. I am British white and everyone I know believes in evolution. We don’t have too many “the world is only x thousand years old” believers on this side of the pond.”
Perhaps my statement is “a bit” sweeping – so tell it to the evangelicals in the deep south of America’s whiteness. White and black does not mean the same thing, on all continents – particularly to the whites of “biblical belief” in the deep south that honors it’s white ancestors (they honor my white planation beaters). The same ridiculous racist ideology, used by the colonizing whites, remains nearly untouched, after all these years, (so many years), after the Civil War. Throw in the Indians, for emphasis.
@Allie B
I’m a bit ‘blah’ about it myself. First, because Trump used all the buzzwords that are code for a racist agenda. We KNOW exactly what they mean when they say ‘law and order’ or ‘make America great again’. But I’m mostly ‘blah’ because these feelings will pass in the majority of white people. They’ll get amnesia again. Or they’ll think that wearing a pin means that’s all they’ll have to do to combat this cancer called racism. They’ll retreat back into their privilege bubble and only come out when another black person is killed. They’ll then feign surprise that their pins didn’t work. Racism is holding this country back and will ultimately be its downfall.
The fact that Kristin teaches her daughter self-empowering affirmations is so much win. Some White parents make no attempt to connect with their adopted, non-White child’s culture and it’s absolutely upsetting.
I hope Gemma grows up to be President or whatever she desires to be in a world where race or gender make no difference. This is Thanksgiving so one can only hope our world will change. Love Kristin, good mother, and she gave her daughter my twin’s name…Gemma!
My story is the same. I didn’t get it until I became Mom to adopted black sons. They are safe overseas. No way is America getting its hands on them. I spent years trying to explain to white friends here in America that their reality was different from mine. That their children did not face the same risks. They rolled their eyes. They aren’t rolling them anymore.
I’m the only person in my whole white family with a spouse and child who is not white. So many in my family are taking the “give Trump a chance” mindset (and one even voted for him, which ripped my heart out) and I realize that being able to have this mindset is total white privilege.
My younger sister is the only one who seems to understand that, as a Latino-white family, we don’t feel safe giving him a chance. A chance to what? Hire a white supremacist as his chief advisor? Because that’s the first goddam thing he did.
I was on the phone with my sister the day after the election, both of us crying and trying to speak. And I said “it’s a sad and f*cked up day in America when I wake up and think I’m glad that my son takes after me and looks fully white”. Ive never thought anything like that before! I have a baby on the way and if that baby is born looking more Puerto Rican I will be so happy because it means he or she takes after my husband. But I will also be more afraid for that baby. It’s incredibly horrible to even have to think like that. I understand what she’s saying.
My husband owns guns but I’ve never met him keep them in the house. Now I’ve asked him to bring home his shotgun and teach me how to use it. I’ve also started carrying pepper spray. I hate this new world we live in.
Also Kristen sounds like an amazing mother. I love the affirmations she gives her daughter.
Kristin seems like a kind soul, and I appreciate her speaking on this. It sounds like she is doing the best she can by her daughter.
I’m scared enough as a woman, I honestly can’t imagine what it must feel like to be non-white right now (I know this isn’t a new thing, but right now it’s especially difficult for so many), or to have a child who you worry about in this way.
While we all worry about our children growing up in this world, it is eons more difficult for non-white people. This has always been a country where you can be arrested for walking while black. Now, the president-elect has allowed the true racist, misogynist, hatred spewing underbelly of The United States to rise to the surface. And this is only the beginning. I fear for so many of the citizens of this country.
There are many good people, in the US – and all over the world, goodness is known, by Us. I am an atheist, after many years of study, but I remember the apostle Paul, here, “let us not be weary, in doing good”.
Does evolution go backwards? – Notachance.
My son is 11, is half Asian, half white, and in 5th grade. In 3rd grade ,he came home and asked me what “Chink” meant cause a little boy in his class called him it. I explained to him it was a terrible word, and to tell me if anyone else called him it. I notified his teacher, but didn’t pursue it, was just sad that my son already was experiencing it. I got a call from his teacher about a week later saying this kid’s mom was accusing my son of “bullying” her child because “she watched him not opening the door for her son to walk in before him”. I sh*t you not, she expected my son to open a door for her child to walk in before my son. Same kid also scratched the hell out of my son’s arm the day before. So when the teacher asked if I wanted a meeting with the mom that was requesting it, I sure as hell said yes. Let’s just say, after said meeting, that mom was never an issue, nor was her son. You don’t mess with mine, and think you are going to come ahead of it.
Good for you Nicole. It sickens me that your son was harassed and bullied in the third grade by a child who at that age obviously learned the slur from his family. You’re an inspiration for good parenting, don’t mess with Mama Bear!
Seriously WTF is wrong with people? It breaks my heart when little kids parrot hatespeak that they’ve obviously learned at home. Glad you were able to sort things out with the mother.
Oh the kid obviously learned it from the mother, and probably father too. When the meeting first started, the mother was acting irate and talking about my son’s lack of manners, and how my son treated her “precious boy” so poorly. She actually had the nerve to say something along the lines of, “you people can’t teach your kids anything other than nails.” Yea, she said that. That’s when I went nuts and screamed at her, “So that’s why your son called my son a Chink, huh?” And that I proceeded to shove the printed picture of the 6 inch long scratch her son had inflicted on my son the day prior. She tried to deny it, but thank god for my son’s teacher being present and confirming the “chink” comment. Her son was suspended for 3 days, and the school notified us that we could involve the police if we wanted to. I declined. I haven’t had any other incidents like this since, and I thank God for that. I know it won’t be the last time he does, but I hope it is far less than what I endured growing up.
That speech is heartbreaking! I hope more people like her speak up so that other white middle class and privileged women can see what damaged they have done by voting for Trump.
Great piece, glad you reported about this, it’s important to not sink into blissful ignorance. A friend of mine has a mixed race child and the other day I looked at the kid and commented for the upteenth time how the kid looks just like daddy (it’s Ava Philippe level of uncanny, so I can’t stop being amazed by it) and people thought I meant the skin color and race and tried discussing that, in front of the child no less! Made me CRINGE. I meant the facial features!!!
I find it so sad that so many POC have these enormous victim complexes these days. (And before anyone jumps down my throat and clutches their pearls I’m a Hispanic woman.) I wasn’t a trump or a Hillary supporter but I do have to wonder why you all feel as though everyone is out to get you. Most people are just trying to live their own lives and are too busy to pay attention to anyone else. Yes racism exists and it always will but some of you make it seem like the world is ending and that white people are going to try to harm you at any given point which in my opinion is just plain silly. Black peoole and even my own people seem so obsessed with skin color. That’s all you talk about now is the color of your skin and the color of other peoples skin and how evil white people are. It seems to me that you all need to get a grip, stop focusing so much on petty things like skin color, and you’ll be happier. As a Hispanic woman I’ve experienced racism (mostly from blacks people ironically enough) and I am in no way saying that racism is dead. But it’s not as prevelant as some of you desperately want it to be
It’s white people who are obsessed with race, even though they don’t want to talk about it. It’s because of white people that black and brown people are so aware of their skin color. Because they get stares when they walk into a room, they get called nigger, the current First Lady is nonchalantly compared to an ape. The first non white President was forced to produce his birth certificate because a not so small segment of white Americans to this day refuse to believe he is American. The list goes on and on. My suggestion to you would be go to your local library and check out a few books.
Your patience is amazing.
there is always a turd in the punchbowl… and so here you are.. also as a fellow born and raised Latina, your “ive only experienced racism from black people” bit is S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G and patently laughable , truly Stop Modeling minoriting it up for the White Proximity benefits sis..
+1000 QQ
+1000 Patty
+1000 Jo Mama
All of ya’lls patience is admirable. Truly.
Honestly… I had to screen cap this sh*t for my sister so she too, another black girl raised in a majority mestizo mixed/white passing sorta country could get her cackles on at “never any racism except from black people” I Mean .. COME ON I could do horror stories on our first years of schooling and how hard on the case my parents had to be for teachers to treat us halfway decent AND MY MOM WAS A F*CKING INTERNIST/GP DOCTOR FFS!.. Some of the stuff that has been seen to us on our face from grown people I can’t even speak about TODAY, but Latinos in this country sometimes love to do this thing where they thing they are “better than them” and this is both shameful and something that needs to stop and certainly im not letting it cook on my watch
QQ, love the ‘modeling minoriting/white proximity benefits’ -sums up so much in a pithy phrase.
The one thing I always wonder about white people who adopt poc kids, do they actually have other poc relationships in their lives? If Kristen had significant relationships with poc friends, she may have been aware of racism in all its subtle and soul destroying forms.
I hope that Kristen has meaningful connections to the black community, actual people rather than just posters and images. If her daughter is surrounded mostly white people, she may feel a sense of alienation from her physical form and appearance. The best role models are the ones that are alive and present in your life. I say all this because in the 5 years I’ve lived in the US, I’ve been struck by how racially segregated people’s lives are. It is very easy to go into your own ethnic silo.
Yesss to everything you wrote Sanders it’s super important, salient to that I recently read about black adoptees experience in white homes and it reminds me of what you’ve just said
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/01/_3_black_adoptees_speak_about_growing_up_with_white_parents/
Great article. So true what the young man said about how your child should not be your first black friend!
I’ve read some excellent articles and interviews about transnational adoption, particularly from the Korean perspective. Racism and identity comes up a lot.
Bless your heart.
I have no words for this post. Well, I have words, but they’re not good ones. All of you are infinitely patient.
Some days we’re patient, and some days we’re not.
OK, so the huge increase in things like swastikas painted on the doors of Jewish Americans, violating synagogues and mosques with threatening graffiti, harassing Muslim and oriental women and children in public, going on twitter rants calling the First Lady an ape, insisting that Obama created ISIS, I could go on an on…is merely a blip in the current racial radar? What drugs are you on? It is the ‘petty people’ as you call them who are in the majority now and have been given license by none other than the president elect and his coterie of racists, misogynists and otherwise intolerant rich white men to act like fascists.
How is ignoring race any better? Like when Tom Cruise says he doesn’t see color, but he has a black son. How is ignoring his black son’s experiences any better than sweeping race under the rug? It’s like saying George Zimmerman didn’t shoot Travyon Martin because the victim was black. I’m sure Travyon Martin wanted to avoid the race issue because his life actually depended on it, but he didn’t have that privilege. Sometimes, people are out to get you solely because of your race– not because of your aggressive looking hoodie.
I agree with everything this post says. So why is “white privilege” in scare quotes?
It IS a thing. This isn’t the Daily Fail. Who is going to sue? Maybe, just own it?
Sorry. I feel guilty making critical comments (usually I just shut my gob). But in this case I think it is really important to acknowledge the reality.
I think it is in quotes because Kristin used those words directly, so the title is quoting her.
I don’t get it, why do people have to stare at a different skin color. Does not make sense. Why? What is it? I am Indian with fair skin so get mistaken for non-Indian all the time. My husband is Indian and brown. One of my boys is fair the other light brown. I do see them get treated differently. In their swim class with a white girl the girl always got treated like a princess while my boys were just there. I left the class. So insulting!!
I was on rounds once with a surgeon friend who was born and raised in Haiti before emigrating to the US as a teenager (I was tagging along waiting to go to lunch and we had one patient in common). We were both in our little doctor coats. Leondra (my friend) was following up with a patient when the patient’s wife piped up: “well, what does the REAL doctor have to say about that?” looking right at me. I shrugged and said “I have no idea, I’m a psychiatrist. Dr. X is the surgeon.” I mean, come on now. It’s THERE. And anyone who says it isn’t is delusional.
Of course it is – and it is bullying – plain and simple.
I’m so sorry, for all the men who say, after this election , that I’m glad that I’m a man, and white. That is what both male children of mine, said. They are right! Good to male and white in the US.
She’s 51????!!!!!! Dang.
Dumb ass white people (especially “celebrities), like to adopt “Black Trophy Children” to increase their visual image and boost their careers. Then they physically carry the “trophy” around, usually until the child is five years old, and fullyy capable of walking on their own, just to garner more attention, as if to say: “Look how nice I am, I adopted a Black kid”. STFU!
Most despicable post I have ever read on this blog. Why don’t you take your own advice?
I’m a white mom of a beautiful, smart, black adopted son. Having POC as friends prior to his arrival really opened my eyes to racism. Having the love of my life, my child, subjected to racism since he was a baby, is scary in a whole new way. Yup, having his cultural art in every room, eating his cultural foods is not enough to have him rooted in his racial and ethnic identity . I keep him close to racial and cultural groups so he feel that sense of belonging. Adoptive family is not enough in transracial situations. We are in Canada and will not travel to the US for a very long time. It’s bad enough racism up here for POC especially indigenous folks. Difference in the USA is a lot more guns. Stay safe my friends and come visit anytime.
THIS WAS VERY INTERESTING READING ALL THE DIFFERENT POST.
MY DAUGHTER IS HALF BLACK AND HALF PUERTO RICAN WITH A LITTLE MEXICAN MIXED IN. SHE ABSOLUTLEY DOES NOT IDENTIFY WITH HER BLACK SIDE OF HER FAMILY. SHE HAS STOPPED SPEAKING TO ANY OF US. ANYTIME SHE POST ANYTHING IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT BEING HISPANIC. SHE HAS DARK SKIN COLOR AND THE BEAUTIFUL LONG SILKY HAIR. CAN ANYONE GIVE ME SOME INSIGHT ON THIS?