From: SHARIA JENKINS
Well, I agree that you should have a category of your own. I am a black,and have a fairly well-round education. However, I have never been convinced by my culture that biracial children were indeed black people. I think it is slave-mentality thinking, myself. Morevoer, I have never considered a person who went outside the culture as producing a black family. Oh, I am quite aware of the views that “love saves the day” and “people cannot help who they fall in love with,” in which all such notions are based on less than well-reasoned assumptions. The bottom line is: Those who assimilate are doing nothing for the black community that another culture could not do, hence, they really do not need to “act” as if they are part of it. Interesting, how can you be a part of something you contribute nothing to, which goes for interracial children. Biologically,they are not part of any particular culture. So, I think you should have your own culture, and not be labaled as one or the other. But more importantly, I will be happy to know that those who have never had a blackparent in their home in their life, and who are mixed, will not be called black anymore. That is a relief. And oh, please don’t say a person is racist. That has become rather tired and played out, especially considering it is not my community who has the burden of showing non-racism. I am simply tired of other cultures pushing their “rejected”children off on us. If they don’t want them, then hell, why are we forced to take them. Of course, they are human beings, but the subject matter goes much further than that, which is why I think you all need your little own group. Thank goodness.
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 02:56:44 -0500
From: SHARIA JENKINS
And by the way, you said “love sees no color.” Sorry to burst your bubble, but love is what you make of it. So it sees whatever the eye of the beholder chooses it to see. Geesh, if you would stop with the lying and ignorant perceptions, then we could probably solve some of the problems today. Surely, being ignorant of something as simple as love will not increase the awareness that we need for the future respect.
However, “love sees no color” sounds good, just as “I love all people” sounds good. But that is about it. It sounds good. Understand what you are dealing with before talking. Moreover, WHY ARE YOU ALL ON THE BLACK NETWORK? I don’t think it is our job to promote you all; nothing against you. But I think this space could be used for our community. I don’t see you all on white networks. I’m getting rather tired of the usury.
This is really one big ole stream of conscious hate screed. Cute. Bless your heart.
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 23:39:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kim B.
Subject: Letter to the Editor Re: Sharia Jenkins
This is in response to Sharia Jenkins dissertation on “blacks can be hate mongers too.” For a person who claims to have a well rounded education you seem to be oblivious to the fact that not all multiracial people are the product of two monoracial parents belonging to different races, “that live their lives by some catchy cliche,” but,–and watchout I know this is going to knock you off your self righteous claim of “PURE BLACK ONLY” MARTYRDOM but the vast majority of us can trace our mixed beginnings back to the pain and suffering of OUR BLACK female ancestors in bondage, as slaves. That had the common sense to know that their mixed heritage children were as much a part of themselves and their culture as would be any child they had by a black man. These same multiracial children fought along side blacks for black rights and equality throughout history on up to the famed light skinned red headed Malcom X- and oh yeah I wonder where he got that coloring from – let me help you out on this one sista it wasn’t from one of his pure black off the coast of Africa ancestors. It has only been overtime from the fictitious concoctions of those blacks like yourself suffering from a massive inferiority complex that the absolute lie of multiracial assimulators, multiracial passivists and “a different black experience” for multiracial people has been contrived and we are so tired of being the object of your impotent ability to fight back at the REAL people in issue that we are rejecting you because of your hatred toward us not the other way around as you suggested. We are claiming our own “biological,” as you put it heritage which like it or not, not only includes that which you would like to pretend is yours exclusively but also the heritage of our white, hispanic, native american, asian or whatever else is in our ancestry and all your denial or hatred cannot change that fact. But I do have to hand it to you, your piece was good for something: exemplifying EXACTLY why we do need our own category.
Thank goodness.
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 12:06:21 -0800 (PST)
From: CONNIE
Subject: Letter to the Editor
FOR SHARIA JENKINS:
YOU ARE NOT RACIST? BUT JUST NARROW MINDED – YOU AND YOUR OPION ARE PART OF THE REASON WHY PEOPLE ARE IN INTERACIAL RELATIONSHIPS – I WOULD NOT WANT TO HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH SOMEONE WHO COULD NOT VIEW THE WORLDS PEOPLE WITH AN OPEN MIND. READING YOUR LETTER HERE – YOUR WORDS DO NOT SOUND AS THOUGH YOU HAVE A WELL ROUNDED EDUCATION “YOU ALL” – I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU – BECAUSE YOU WILL MISS SO VERY MUCH IN THIS LIFE OF MANY DIFFERENT PEOPLE. YOU HAVE LIMITED YOURSELF -SO BLAME NO ONE FOR MISSING OUT.
CONNIE
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 15:24:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: lola
Subject: Letter to the Editor
re the letter from sharia jenkins: (i tried to write her but her address failed) I don’t know how you’ll react to my letter or how you’d react to me as a person, but I want to thank you for writing there. My mother is what and my dad nigerian. He did not help raise me (he was deported so it wasn’t voluntary), I was raised by my mother and her mother, brought up in white places and was socialized white. I think it’s ridiculous that people try to call me black, because I am not accepted by the black community. The white community will accept me because I’ve been socialized to appear as “one of the good ones”. I’m just now waking up, accepting my past, and moving on. I thought I was supposed to gravitate to the black community because that’s how I look. But one conversation with me and you know I’m differrent, that I’ve been socialized in a way that doesn’t fit with you, etc. I know who I am and I know I don’t fit with just my mothers side, or just my fathers side. I need people like you who will tell the truth about what’s really going on. You’re exactly right, a lot of things sound good, but when we come down to it and I walk into a room with a group of white folks and a group of black folks, all I can do is stand off by myself. And hope that somebody that looks like me will walk in, too.
now, i’m not trying to be negative, but i just had a crazy experience. i met a black man who got really close to me, emotionally, very quickly. he saw all my issues and my pain in being somewhere in between the race lines. he understood me and accepted me, in turn helping me accept myself, which is what we ALL NEED TO DO. in my life, i’ve tried to live as an individual and to see other people as individuals. it’s difficult. we all have friends, we all have our emotional support, but i think most of us can say that we still don’t believe that we “fit”. and that’s a horrible, horrible feeling. for me it was a feeling of shame that i couldn’t accept myself cause nobody else would either. most minorities have been raised by their respective communities, therefore growning up and identifying with a culture. cultural identity. i don’t have that. and i know many of you can feel me in that respect. i am accepted at some points in time, but i also know the pain of feeling so alone in this world. this man that i met, he broke it down to me from a like, extremely proud black american’s perspective. being black is not a race, an identity, it’s a culture, with all of it’s own intricate cultural eccentricities, ways of communication, body language, beliefs, etc. there’s a million things that set me apart when i walk into a room full of black people. i am something different. now, i’m an extremely positive person, i get a kick out of discovering a person’s spirit, no matter who that person is. i have some healing to do, but i think i will end up in a wonderful place where i accept all people. i have that kind of positive attitude in general. i think we need to move forward to seeing people as individuals, or at least to giving them space to be what they are. i know that a lot of my pain came from not living up to what i was “supposed to be”: black. i’m not black. i’m certainly not white. i’m in the middle and it feels like a huge void sometimes. i’m glad there is a place where we can come together and be honest about what’s going on. keep your heads up, everybody.