Paula Patton, Brown Babies, Societal Norms and Interracial Marriage: Friday Freestyle

ITYC won't be live this Friday, but a pre-recorded Friday Freestyle is available for your listening/downloading pleasure right here or on the ITYC player here on the blog.

I talk about how a joking Paula Patton sends this mom's brain into a tizzy of examining issues of colorism among people of color and share a story of how a former colleague loudly lamented the dearth of "beautiful brown babies" as she played with my slightly melanin challenged child. 



Aside from Paula Patton, I discuss more about the The Loving Story and share some details about the film including how Richard Loving's mom felt about Mildred.  I also read a few passages from Peggy Pascoe's book What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America that really blew my mind and provided me with some additional context for what I saw in the Loving documentary.  One of the passages I read tells the story of how a Mexican American woman and an African American man run afoul of California's miscegenation laws in 1947.  I also discuss how our choice of marriage or life partner has been profoundly shaped by our country's long history of miscegenation laws. 

After the you listen to the podcast, please feel free to share your thoughts about the episode here on the blog, on Facebook or even on Twitter.  I'd love to know how ITYC listeners feel about about these issues.