Moving backward to the 19th century

I am waiting for my next set of books to come from the library so I looked up Forbidden Fruit on the web and found this summary. “Award-winning journalist Betty DeRamus has written about race riots, refugee camps and other news events around the world. But more recently she's been pursuing a different kind of story -- this one dating as far back as the 1600s and set against the backdrop of African American slavery.
Ms. DeRamus began writing Forbidden Fruit after meeting the descendants of an interracial couple who overcame huge obstacles to marry in the mid-1800s. That spurred her on to look for more love stories -- at family reunions, in court documents, census records, unpublished memoirs and old newspapers. Looking back at a time when marriages between slaves were not legally binding in the United States…and when masters could sell or move their slaves at will, she found accounts of people who risked everything to be together
Many stories in the book unfold along the “Underground Railroad,” the organized network that sheltered fugitive slaves during the decades before slavery was abolished in the 1860s. Other stories feature people who relied on more informal methods to stay together. Some couples walked across several states or waited decades to be reunited. One pair traveled in disguise from south to north, with bounty hunters in pursuit, then sailed to England. One young woman hid herself in a wooden chest and had herself shipped to the man she loved.
An 1806 Virginia law even led some people to renounce their freedom. "That was one of the surprises in my research," Betty DeRamus says. "The Virginia Assembly ruled that any newly-freed blacks would have to leave the state. And some of those newly-freed blacks petitioned the Virginia Assembly saying they would rather go back into slavery than be free without their families.”
Not all the stories in Forbidden Fruit end happily. But Betty DeRamus says most of the stories are about reunions, and she hopes they will provide a new way of looking at the history of slavery.

I decide to read this one first because it talks more about the 19th century and the struggles that interracial couples faced together and I thought that it would go well after reading Navigating Interracial Borders. I will be making compares to the world we live in today.

Working toward the Dream

At the end of her research Childs writes, “ My research is not a celebration of interracial marriage or even a suggestion that we should work to get others to marry interracially. It is, however a critique of the opposition against interracial relationships, primarily because it is based in the larger racism and racial inequality that permeates our society. Through the radicalized words and actions of others to black-white couples, it is clear that race still divides us. Rather than advocate color-blindness, ignoring race or allowing others to ignore it, and hoping it will go away…” (Childs 194). Even though it is the 21st century, people still follow the image of the past. It hard for me to understand way people feel this way. I mean know that it is impossible for everyone in the world to get along but to continue to discriminate against each other because of color is ridicules.
Childs goes on to say, “ Change should begin by interrogating ourselves, and the role each of us plays in the construction and maintenance of racial boundaries. We need to revisit the ideas that have become so customary…”(Childs 193). This statement is true because if people don’t change for themselves them how would it possible for the world to change its views on race. I noticed that I let go of the so-called “norm” of society because it not going to lead me anywhere thinking like that. “ I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”. This ways one of the many things Martin Luther King Jr., dreamed for the future because he wanted change he was tired of the out ways society treated people. It’s the 21st century and King’s dream is still not nearly achieved. “ There are many more stories to be told and any number of perspectives to be uncovered”(Childs 194). This is how Childs concluded with her research; I believe that society will become better and the future and mixed unions will be the hope for the future.

The Larger Picture

In one of Childs many discussions she talks about looking at the bigger picture presented before us. Here she says, “Couples who de-emphasized race in terms of their own identities or experiences were most likely to say that others in society also didn’t care that they were an interracial couple, drawing on common phrases such as “ love sees no color” or the “browning of America”. Though all of the couples had some experiences where others in society responded negatively to the relationship. These couples simply did not discuss the opposition in racial terms. Some couples explained it in terms of a personal choice “not to see opposition.” For these couples, opposition does not exist because they do not acknowledge it similar to the ideology of color-blindness” (Childs 39). I picked this quote because it shows how interracial couples put things behind them meaning that they did not let outside world influence their decision. They couples stay true to themselves, what feels right for them goes nothing else. Victor gives his point of view.
“I think is has changed, I’ve seen it change… we’ve seen that [the opposition] change because we’ve seen it so much [referring to interracial couples]. I mean, when you walk places that’s what you see. I can remember we went to Boston, and, I mean, they were all over the place, very interracial…it’s not going to be a big deal… but there’s probably places down there [south] that still, it’s not to be done…but we’re quite fond actually of spotting interracial couples wherever we go. We them IRCs… “ Did you see the table behind you/ oh, yeah, cool,” course she’s always checking out the kids… to see what the mix looks like. Honestly, it’s going to be the wave of the future. There’ll be more of it and people will think less of a taboo about the whole thing” (Childs 38).
Here victor talks about how the world is getting better and letting go of the norm. He says that there are some places that he can comfortably express himself and other parts that still need more work. And this is better compared to the 19th century were people had to hid because they were scared of the consequence for breaking the rules. And it is true that the world is getting more diverse. Which I think is a good thing because then racism might vanish and people wont have to be afraid anymore. I am almost done with reading Navigating Interracial Borders, then I will began reading stories about the 19th century, this is going to be very interesting because the people of those times lived in a more violent era.

Gender Troubles

In one of Childs many discussions she talks about gender troubles. She says, “At Central State University, one of the black female students also expressed these sentiments, saying “ black men are in fashion; call it the resurgence of the black male. It’s like interracial dating is a fashion statement, a token, especially when it is a black athlete… white girls are always saying, oh, black guys are so much cooler, so much cuter,’ and always asking to be hooked up with them” (Childs 157-158). The reason that I stated off with this part of the discussion was because of this common stereotype African American woman have. I feel that people cannot help who they happen to find attractive even if the opposite race. From this persons response the reader can tell that this person has a problem with society moving out of it’s norm. One of the couples made a comment about her life. Victoria says,
Oh, God, I think I have heard every negative thing about white woman, black man. I understand it more now but in school it was hard because it was like every day someone was saying something about me from all sides white guys were like, “Why throw it away on a black guy? He’s just using you” and black girls would harass me, call me names, and always act like Chris was with me because I had money or did things for him, which I didn’t, and I think I let it go to me…”(Childs 158)
Her experience reflects on the way others perceive interracial couples. The outside world assumes that they only way she could was able to get Chris were because of what they thought she had. I noticed even ever an interracial couple was in the public domain 24/7 that made the relationship even more difficult. Why do people find joy in destroying that is not the usual? Chris also talks about the relationship with Victoria. He says,
“This is a sore subject for her because we did have a lot of problems, and I think when we were younger, it’s like you do let what friends say kinds of change the way you feel, and just like Victoria said. I think for me another part of it was this perception among the guys I played with [college basketball team] that she would sleep around because that was how a lot of the white girls who liked black guys acted” (Childs158).
It a shame that the guys Chris played basketball would talk about Victoria liked that. I find that to be disrespectful because woman should never be treated like that. Chris did not take their advice because he is still with Victoria. It was difficult for Chris not to listen when to his friends. However, he picked his heart instead because it did not judge Victoria because of her race. It’s harder for woman interracial couples they have to learn to take the criticism from people who are afraid of the world changing.