I’m tired this Friday afternoon. I was supposed to do my Eaton Canyon to Mt. Wilson summit run this morning (a 19 miler, all hard trail, a mile’s worth of elevation climb) but ended up breaking off the ascent a little before the top. I still logged 16 miles, but it’s been a long time since I didn’t finish what I set out to do. Not how I wanted my first long run since turning 40 to turn out, but on the other hand, it’s evidence of wisdom that I didn’t push through my exhaustion and end up making myself sick.
I’m behind on a variety of projects, and I’m hoping to catch up this weekend. It’s my wife’s birthday tomorrow, however, and we have a variety of happy things planned. I won’t let my various other obligations stop me from honoring my most important commitment.
Speaking of my wife, someone sent me a link to this blog: Black Female Interracial Marriage. Evia hosts the blog, and describes herself and her project:
I’m an African-American woman. My blog explores my interracial marriage to a white American man and offers provocative commentary, discussions, articles, and media regarding intraracial and interracial relationships and marriage options for black women.
Evia is interested in discussing black female/white male relationships, and her blog provides an astonishing list of links to famous (and not-so-famous) marriages and relationships that fit that racial model. The discussion in her comments section gets rather heated from time to time, but her posts — and the comments — are worth the read.
My gorgeous soon-to-be-another-year-older wife is of mixed African, Colombian, and Croatian ancestry. She’s got as much claim to the title of “African-American” as, say, Barack Obama. No, folks, you don’t get a picture; I zealously and faithfully guard my wife’s privacy at her request. I briefly blogged about the racial dynamics of our marriage here.
Given that race has been a hot topic in feminist blogging circles lately, I thought linking to Evia’s blog was a good way to finish out the week.
See y’all Tuesday.
Wow.
This post has been up since Friday and the reaction has been stone silence. Nothin’. I think I saw tumbleweed bounce through this thread a few minutes ago.
Which, in and of itself, might not be that remarkable except for the link Hugo provided. It is, amazingly enough, a link that seems to propose the idea that many men are acceptable mates, companions and all around human beings. WHITE MEN, yet! And in my admittedly brief scanning of the site I see nothing that indicates that in order to achieve this state of acceptablity or even desirability men must first go through any rigorous program of Self Improvement, Change, Transformation or take a vow to, as they say on The Simpsons, “reach Vegan level three–refusing to eat anything that casts a shadow.” A program dictated by a guy with internet access and the spare time to blog and all the moral authority that comes with that.
Remainder of comment deleted.
Hugo having forbidden non-feminists from posting in the Full Frontal Feminism threads below this one probably doesn’t mean that you should come to this thread and bash Jessica Valenti here, instead.
Also, borrowing black women’s disagreements with Valenti in order to bolster your white male angst against the same person is pretty sketchy. Did you ask brownfemipower or Donna, first, before borrowing their moral standing on this issue?
Chief, your comment has been substantially edited.
It is colossal thread-drift to turn this post into an anti-feminist rant.
I am not surprised people focus on her black ancestry. She probably appears to most to be more than a “quarter” because of her mestizo heritage. I find being African American many people have questions about anything to do with “black” in general. I have grown up in predominantly white areas all my life, and were constantly asked what I would think were strange questions. People used to constantly ask if me and my brother were related because even though we look alike I am brown skinned, brown eyed, and he is of a lighter hue with green eyes. Or people ask me do I wear weave because my hair is longer and I wear it natural and it is very curly/wavy, but in what they consider a “non-ethnic” way, which I find really strange.
I think many people ask me questions about my blackness due to the fact that many times many other races are not exposed to blacks, except what they see on television, which by many standards isn’t the norm of many blacks. So when people do see someone who is black, and appears to be approachable, they seem to ask or say things that although aren’t very nice, as their curiosity gets the best of them. I could shock you with some of the questions and comments asked to me about blacks in general or about me being black, some comments and questions just plain racist, and some just plain vulgar, but I will refrain from that :)