Adult
Letters
November through December, 1996
My Shoes is a forum where we can meet other multiracial individuals with a white appearance and express our thoughts and feelings.
Adult
Letters
November through December, 1996
My Shoes is a forum where we can meet other multiracial individuals with a white appearance and express our thoughts and feelings.
This page allows members and non-members to ask questions or comment on anything they wish related to the mission of the support group.
Remember, My Shoes just came on line on November 1, 1996. Help the support group grow by talking to group members, by contributing to discussion topics, by sending your personal story, and by posting announcements on the bulletin board. Join us!
To send your questions or comments press 
Letters:
Name: Eryn A Dolan, corona@ng.netgate.net
Subject: Raised by a white parent but looking
more black than white!
Date: 31 Dec 1996
I see a lot of discussion about looking white and being raised by those who are predominantly darker than yourself - I am wondering if there are others like myself that have been raised under the opposite conditions. My black father disserted my white mother and left me to be raised by my mother. I had no contact with my relatives on my father's side (the black half) - and only knew the white half of my family. My mother also had a daughter - my sister, who I love dearly - and who is all white! I never knew the color distinction between myself and my mother or my sister until I began public school at the age of 5. After it was pointed out to me in not such a nice way- it was always difficult for me to fit in - because I was black - well at least I look more black than I do white - but my speech and mannerisms and even the neighborhoods I grew up in and the schools I went to were predominantly white...
I was never really accepted on either side ... I am 18 years old ... and though I pretend that it doesn't bother me anymore - it still does ...
Name: Deb Brown,wordshop@agate.net
Date: December 8, 1996
Beginning this month, and monthly hereafter, I will be featuring sites of interest to the intercultural community on the main page of my web site (INTERracial). I would like to feature yours in my January edition.
Name: Deb Brown,wordshop@agate.net
Date: December 8, 1996
I congratulate you, Juanita, and totally support your efforts in your practice and with your web site. I wish you much continued success. I welcome futher, continued, dialog pertaining to all elements of the intercultural experience. The dialog is important . . . and needed.
Sincerely,
Deb Brown
Name: Jeff Hitchcock, jeffhitchcock@gorgon.com
Date: Wednesday, November 27, 1996
We met at the Washington march this summer. We are the wm/bf couple who were talking with you before the march.
Juanita, I'm glad to see you got your web site going. I have just started looking around Interracial Voice after a hiatus and found your letter in the November Letters to the Editor section. MyShoes looks real nice, with thoughtful content. I know it's hard building a following on the web, but you look as if you are off to a good start. The technical aspects look good as well.
I am interested in racial identity issues, particularly those surrounding whiteness. The dialogue that can emerge from this site is very important. It forces issues in whiteness and white American culture by having a claim on inclusion along with a grounding to develop an outsider's critique of the same culture.
Maybe we will meet again at the Multiracial Solidarity March II. I have just learned about this event, also from Interracial Voice, and I am planning to attend.
Jeff Hitchcock, Director
Center for the Study of White American Culture
Name: A.D. Powell, powell@danenet.wicip.org
Date: 11/24/96
Subject: Response to discussion topic "Lucky Not to be Black" submission on November 6
People are telling Jana that she's not "black" - and they're right! Despite the myth that the hypodescent myth is endorsed by American society as a whole, most ordinary Americans (even ordinary blacks) expect a "white" to look white and a "black" to look black. That's how it should be.
"White" is not a synonym for racial purity.
Name: A.D. Powell, powell@danenet,wicip.org
Date: 11/24/96
Subject: "White People of Color" discussion topic
I consider "white" a physical description and I despise the term "people of color." The false division of the world into "whites" and "people of color" sounds too much like "Aryans" versus "non-Aryans" mythology of Nazi Germany.
Name: A.D. Powell, powell@danenet,wicip.org
Date: 11/24/96
Subject: "Being a Minority" discussion topic
You're not a "minority" as you're defining it.
Name: Cynthia M. Dagnal-Myron, CDM@azstarnet.com
Date: 11/23/96
Subject: Children
My daughter, half African American and half Native American, is coded, for tribal and other "official" purposes, as Native American. She is a fully enrolled member of the Hopi Nation, and her upbringing, for the most part, has been Hopi, due to the circumstances of her birth.
Her father and I also decided to do that, especially once she started school to force those who cannot"see" her other culture to deal with it just the same. She comes of two proud bloodlines, and we wanted both stories told, and known, by all who meet her. Her Hopi family requested that we do this, as well, so that people would know she was loved and "claimed" by them.
As for my daughter, now 9, she tells people she is "Afrindian," ! African and Hopi Indian. She never identifies herself as just one or the other. And the reaction to this varies from fascination--usually from "Anglos"--to consternation--usually from people of color, who insist that she's "skirting" the issue of her Blackness.
We have taught her that since she has been raised in mostly a Native Am. environment, she shouldn't stifle that part of herself, no matter what people say to her about it. She is what she's most comfortable being, and as she's fully accepted by Hopis, as well as her African American family back East, she's truly a child of two worlds.
We are aware that the world-at-large may not agree with this, but she truly CAN go from Hopi to Chicago to just about anywhere else with complete con- fidence. To those who can't deal with her, she offers a smile, a prayer, and something very important to ponder, once! they've had a chance to cool down.
SHE knows who she is, that's the main thing. And she's proud of her dual cultures, and the richness they provide. Add to that the fact that she's about to have a Lakota stepdad, and you have a kid with LOTS of challenges to face! But we're all fierce about keeping her centered, and so far, so good!
Doksha!
Cyn
Name: Jennifer Ewing, zjme12@access.etsu-tn.edu
Date: Wednesday, November 20, 1996
Thank you for this web site!! I am white and my husband has always identified himself as black (although he is actually 1/2 black, 1/4 white, and 1/4 American Indian) As a result, our three children have a very white appearance and I have been very concerned about many things in raising them. I am asked on a regular basis, very rude questions such as: "what happened to your first husband?" (Assuming that these kids couldn't possibly be his) My children have no problem have no problem identifying with the African American community because we belong to a predominantly black church and we are close to my husband's family. Most African Americans they encounter assume they are white, and treat them as such.
Again, thanks for the site- I hope it will be a resource to us.
Name: Juanita Brooks, jbrooks@myshoes.com
Date: Monday, November 11, 1996
In a very interesting presentation aired on C SPAN November 9, author Gregory Williams ( Life On The Color Line) indicated that he identifies himself as black although he is the product of an interracial marriage. I disagree with Mr. Williams' assessment in that an offspring of an interracial marriage IS biracial according to Webster's dictionary. However, a biracial individual can identify with one or more sides of his or her heritage. Therefore, it would be more accurate for Mr. Williams to advocate that he is a biracial individual who identifies more or soley with his black heritage. Semantics ARE important