More black history - What does black love look like?
by
Tiffanee Johnson | 02.28.2009
March 2009 - BINGHAMTON, NY – When I was about seven years old, my
dad was caught by my mom kissing another woman - a woman of the
‘caucasion persuasion’. So, I am, in case you haven’t guessed it, an
African-American. From the point of the ‘kiss’ and on, there were
problems, followed by an eventual separation. Being as young as I was,
I couldn’t grasp what was happening, and didn’t know enough about
either of my parents to blame the other person. So, it just was what
it was.
My mother, a very dark-skinned woman, would tell me about how other
black people would call her names like “darkie,” and similiar things.
She was and is a beautiful woman so I’m sure that guys that liked her
teased her too, picking at her dark complexion. Her skin color was her
most predominant feature until she smiled. My dad, a bi-racial man,
did not really associate himself with any one race, being raised by a
white mother and black father. Because of this, I don’t think that
many of his peers associated him with one race either. His most
predominant features were his height (short in stature) and his curly
hair.
My parents separated and eventually divorced over money issues, but to
this day, they spend money together, borrow from each other, and buy
things for one another. So, I’m lead to believe that money was not the
true cause of their separation. I also would like to put the blame on
racial influences, ideas, or opinions, but, I don’t believe my dad
kissing a white woman was the main cause either. I now know they were
people dealing with and responding to life’s problems in different
ways. Still I ask the question, what does black love look like?
I recently read a book, it was a true love story about a black couple
- “RC and her ‘claude robert’.” This book was so rich in its courtship
between a man and a woman, that the fact that they were a black couple
disappeared somewhere in the middle for me. It was so lucid in its
telling that I could not and did not associate myself with any one
character. It was amazing! For the first time I really understood what
it meant just to be a person, not black or white, not male or female,
just a person; a human being capable of loving whomever. Wow! I
thought: this is what black love looks like. It looks like…love.
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‘RC and her claude robert’ (1-4010-5091-3, Trade paperback, 107 pp,
5-1/2 x 8 1/2, Price: $16.95) is written by author and artist, Claude
Robert Sheffield of My Willies Press and published in association with
Xlibris. This book is available at www.mywilliespress.com.
Listen to ‘claude robert’ on the radio this Tuesday, March 3rd, live
at 1 p.m. and re-airing at 7 p.m. discussing his book and history on
WSKG’s Off the Page with Bill Jaker. Visit
http://www.wskg.com/radio/off-the-page/2009-3-3.aspx
for details.
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