Bethany,

 

So great to hear from you! To answer your question...yes, all the time!  I have people say to me on a constant basis "If we stop bringing attention to IR couples they will just be like any other couple."  Really?!  The comments come from couples or people that are in same race relationships and don't experience what we do on a very frequent basis.  We will be just like any other couple when we stop having to experience things based on our race.  Until then, it's all about opening minds, educating, and showing everyone that we are just a couple in love.  Nothing more, nothing less. 

Hi Bethany.  Welcome to Global Writers!  So sorry for the delay responding to your join request! I was traveling and offline for much of the last 3 weeks.  It's great to have you with us, though, so please post a self-intro on the wall if you like and let us know about you and your writing. And I see you are in Montreal.  LOVE that city. Looking forward to staying connected!

 

Warmly,

 

Tracy

Bethany,

Loved your story! I am still amazed and confused as to why this goes on. I want to read a book based on merit not on skin color. Why oh why would there be an African American section? Sense? None! I don't go to a bookstore and say I would like to see the books by white authors....it's ridiculousness! Is that a word!? If we keep talking about it and keep moving the books...(shelf elves a la Lori Tharps) then maybe we can get rid of this tired way of shelving! Have a beautiful week Bethany......Amy

What is Write On Con?? Inquiring minds want to know!

Bethany;

Girl, thanks so much for that post about Bill Cosby! I LOVE him, but never considered him handsome. That's because I never saw this clip, or him at this age. He's a hunk. And he has charisma. Now, he's no longer a father figure. Okay, so, really, out of respect for his age now, he is a father figure (lost mine when I was two) but now I'm wishing my mother really had married him. Funny, intelligent, and hot!

Dear Book Lover:

You may not know me or my work, but I am the national bestselling, award winning novelist of six critically acclaimed novels who has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

On Jan 9th, 2010 my debut novel, SUGAR will celebrate its 10th anniversary and in order to commemorate this milestone I am campaigning to sell 10,000 copies between now and that date.

“Bernice L. McFadden's first novel begins with the brief, poetic description of a crime so startling that the reader is helplessly drawn in, as if a bright red door stood ajar on a bleak and forbidding house. Pearl Taylor's daughter, Jude, has been found murdered and mutilated near a field at the edge of town. "The murder had white man written all over it," writes McFadden. "But no one would say it above a whisper. It was 1940. It was Bigelow, Arkansas. It was a black child. Need any more be said?" In the years that follow, Pearl catches sight of Jude in so many strangers that when Sugar Lacey comes to town and sets up her unwholesome "business" in the house next door, she doesn't know whether to believe what she sees in Sugar's face: a striking similarity to Jude, dead 15 years. In her sedate but supple prose--rising at times to a light, unforced lyricism in the description of landscape or character--the author perfectly renders the closed and protective society of a small Southern town, the superstitions, gossip, and prying.”


I’m asking that you purchase a copy of SUGAR for yourself, a friend or family member. And yes, KINDLE purchases count.

If you could help spread the word by blogging, twittering ad Face-booking my campaign, it would mean the world to me.


Peace & Light,

Bernice L. McFadden
www.bernicemcfadden.com
www.firstborngirl.blogspot.com
www.amazon.com
www.B&N.com

Ciao Bethany;
Thanks for accepting my friend request. I viewed some of your blogs on myspace.wordpress, and my goodness! you blog alot, about everything! I couldn't get through more than a small portion, as I'm not much of a night owl, and got sleepy, but will revisit. Seriously, anyone reading these post can know you as well as can be expected without actually meeting you.

I think you have a great sense of humor, which always helps in life, regardless of the situation. And you have an adorable son.

Take care. I'm procrastinanting right now. My brain is usually so full after 9am in the morning that I find it difficult to write. Which is one of the reasons I get up at around 4am-5am to do serious work. When the rest of the world is awake, my brain shuts down and watch them!

Cheers from the Bahamas.

my friends tell me that all the time, but my husband would probably prefer that I not jeopardize his gainful employment by my random musings. My FB activity along w/my incessant letter riding & campaigning & responding to things during the Presidential campaign were bad enough (Mrs. Obama & i were classmates, so I was extremely biased). I'll definitely check out yours, however. But, never say never.

No worries. The site I'm thinking of wasn't really an attempt @ self-identification, but more so a resource & info-sharing site for folks who are so identified by the outside world - kind of like women, Catholics, Jews, S/E Asians, Americans, Texans, whomever, might find it useful to get info from and connect with folks who have had similar experiences in a particular situation, despite their inner differences. Your comment provided a good writing prompt/food for thought. I started thinking - Sarah Palin and I are night and day, literally and figuratively, but we've both had children and could possibly (OK, maybe this analogy is a stretch) have a shared experience. It's interesting that almost all Af-Americans are some conglomeration of several identities & ethnicities @ some point along their family tree, though we only focus on those who have a direct relationship with their relatives of varied heritage - a categorization created from an attempt to stop being categorized by those who had a choice not to be categorized. Wow, it's endless, isn't it? Both my grandmother's grandfathers were Caucasian, but she was born @ the turn of the last century in TX, and most of our ancestors were descendants of slaves, so they were placed in boxes by law. Like most everyone else, we concentrated on who we were and were neither bothered nor defined by others' classifications, though we often found support and advice from people walking the same path and facing the same things. OK, back from my writer-ly digression (thanks for the food for thought) - the info's there if you need it - as women in the world, we often have to take support where we can find it, b/c it's not always easy, despite our best efforts to make the world what it should be. But I hear you on the internet distractions. I only tune in to Facebook and other sites in spurts, otherwise I wouldn't get anything else done. I can barely comb my hair and brush my teeth as it is. The technology that was supposed to make our lives easier just made us on call 24/7/365 - again, it's endless, isn't it? Just so you know, the info's out there if you decide you need or want it at some point.