This Rant Had To Happen From This TikTok Creator About People Questioning Her Parentage

I hard relate to this rant since this woman and I have a few things in common. Both of us have a lighter complexion and are descendants of interracial couples where we have Caucasian dads and African-American moms. What really grinds my gears is when I see people questioning people like us when it comes to talking about racism or specifically Black issues. Give this woman a freaking medal for calling that nonsense out. Not every person from a mixed family acts like a sellout or is (god forbid) a “tragic mulatto”. That is one term I will not tolerate being addressed as such. She was on point by talking about how she deals with racism even with the so-called “light skin privilege” and how even Black people with two Black parents question her experiences. Don’t get it twisted, I don’t lie about the fact that I have a white parent, but I sure as heck have NEVER been treated like I was white and it’s not just because I have a noticeable amount of melanin despite having a lighter skin tone. That didn’t stop me from getting called the N-word, getting profiled at some stores, people low-key and overtly discriminating against me, and so on. Also, not everyone from a mixed family has lighter skin such as Jordan Peele, for example. One’s parentage isn’t their fault! I’m also glad that Phil called out those people as well and also mentioned how some people who would be considered biracial have been harder on white supremacy and racism compared to some people with two Black parents (the footage of Candace Owens during that part of the video to prove his point was too hilarious even if she’s an easy punchline). You can even throw Larry Elder, Herschel Walker, and Whoopi Goldberg (yeah, I said it!) to that portfolio, but that’s a story for another day. Don’t these trolls know that this categorization and name-calling about “not being Black [enough]” only adds to the division and discord even when those who could be considered biracial/multiracial are genuine in fighting against bigotry?

I’m just sick of this litmus test imposed on people like me and it needs to stop. Just because you have some people from mixed-race families who act like sellouts doesn’t mean everyone else is. So what? Are you going to bash Colin Kaepernick or even the late Frederick Douglass because they have white parents? Those haters deserve to be ignored. This woman should keep on speaking the truth. Seriously, I’ve been frustrated like her whenever I was bashed just because of my parentage when I’m not even being confrontational or rude. It disgusts me whenever I get excoriated just because I have a white dad, but actual racist jerks don’t get that kind of energy from those same people.

My Heritage Confessional Pt. I

I didn’t feel judged at first since I grew up in a multiethnic area. My neighborhood had people of all races represented and everyone got along. No one had an issue with an interracial married couple moving in with my sister and I during my childhood. Having parents of differing ethnic stock was normal to me and I didn’t think that much about it. Sure, I was darker than my dad and lighter than my mom, but I didn’t had any issues with it when it came to my family.

During this time, I read a ton of books, yet I also watched a lot of TV shows (balances it out, right?). I didn’t think too much about the heroes at my young age. I wanted to see the coolest and unique characters. Maybe in hindsight, I should’ve paid more attention like how it was a bad idea for Zach to be the Black Ranger or even how Trini was the Yellow Ranger way back when. I collected action figures of various superheroes of different ethnic groups, but to be honest…most of the heroes were Caucasian that got attention for the toy marketers and whatnot. I know they’re inanimate objects, but maybe Bishop, Sunfire, and Warpath felt like tokens and I didn’t realize it (can’t you tell I was big into X-Men?). Deep in my mind though, I wondered why not many heroes looked like me. I certainly didn’t see that many superheroes who did and certainly not Disney protagonists.

I was fortunate not to deal with as much racism (that I know of) during my elementary school years. Sure, I had my own issues growing up, but nothing too severe as far as bigotry was concerned. With that being said, they slowly became more obvious as I was in my teenage years. Life wasn’t as innocent as I thought even with the history they did teach me in school. When my family moved to a majority-white suburb because of my dad’s job, that’s when it became more apparent as I didn’t see that many Black let alone other POC groups with the exception of a few people of Asian or Indian descent living there. People didn’t believe my mom and dad were married to each other. There were some neighbors who only saw my dad and said to him “At least you’re not part of a Black family moving in”. I didn’t know about that conversation until years later and it broke my heart that anyone would say that. I’m glad my dad called them out on their bigotry and we didn’t associate with them during our time in this town.

Besides that history, there was some dualism in the perception of me existing. There were people who were curious about my heritage which I wasn’t offended by them asking as long as they didn’t say “What are you?” or “Are you American?”. I’ve been mistaken for Indian, Arab, Polynesian, and Native American before (Side note: I’ve had two people directly from India ask if I was Indian and two people of MENA descent [Egyptian and Iranian respectively] wonder if I was a Middle-Easterner). There were people who didn’t have an issue with having both African and European ancestry which is awesome. Unfortunately, there were others who did low-key digs at my ethnic background or considered me worthless. I certainly had enough melanin to not look Caucasian which made me a racial bullying target for some white people and there have been been a couple of Black people who assumed I thought I was better than them because of my mixed heritage while also claiming that I didn’t know anything about being a victim of racism. Those assumptions made me so furious even though I kept quiet since I was bullied into silence back then. Even now, my self-esteem is low enough that I don’t believe I’m better than anyone and I could do an entire post listing all the times others said or did racist crap around me or to me.

I wasn’t the most cognizant of some of these factors when I was far younger, but I certainly got my wakeup call ages ago. Granted, I’m still learning and I can’t stand being put under a microscope by so many people including those that should know better. It’s due to all these jerks that I sadly have to prove my humanity or competence to anyone and everyone.

Belgium “apologizes” to the DRC even if it wasn’t for a reason I expected

As soon as I saw this video from Dr. Mumbi drop, I really really had to talk about it.

Some of you might remember me talking about the sins committed by Belgium to the Democratic Republic of Congo not too long ago. This issue is mentioned again although there was something I legitimately didn’t know about the colonial atrocities. Belgium is saying sorry because that country STOLE biracial Congolese/Belgium babies from the DRC (then known as the Belgian Congo), separated them from their parents, and subjected them in horrific conditions. Not only that, these Belgian poor excuses of fathers who impregnated the Congolese women backed off and didn’t want to be in their children’s lives. Come on, if the races were reversed, Bill O’Reilly would scream “Where are the fathers?!”. So these kids had to grow up bouncing around from orphanage or foster home while their baby daddies didn’t want to own up to what they did (although I really doubt all of those so-called fathers had consensual relationships with the moms given historical patterns).

This was new information for me, but I wasn’t shocked at all. This only made me angrier about everything that happened to the DRC. That country lived through that genocidal maniac King Leopold II who took over the Congo which is 5 times the size of his own home country and his people slaughtered 10 MILLION people and never got punished. Leopold and his regime shot, raped, maimed, and starved out millions and no historical institution is ever calling this a genocide. One form of punishment that he did was to chop off Congolese hands if they were disobedient or couldn’t make quotas for the natural resources. You see that picture in the thumbnail with the chocolate hands? That’s how they got the idea for that demonic dessert and it’s still sold in Belgium to this day! Seriously, Belgium needs to pay big reparations for all the atrocities they committed against the Congolese.

Before any of you say that the people of the DRC should “just move on” or “forgive”, let me ask you something. Are you going to say the same thing to the families of those related to the Holocaust victims/survivors? Are you going to say the same thing to the 9/11 families? If you’re not going to say those things to the families of those afflicted by those tragedies, then you’re a freaking racist hypocrite.

I hope justice happens.

Video courtesy of Dr. Mumbi Seraki.