Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The Kurlee's, Sean And Tracy And The Durham's, Stanley and Madeline

Meet Tracy Kurlee and her husband Sean:
And now, meet Stanley and Madeline Durham:

...I was looking at this picture of Obama's grandparents and thinking how much he looks like his grandfather. And suddenly, for whatever reason, I was struck by the fact that they had made the decision to love their daughter, no matter what, and love their grandson, no matter what. I'd bet money that they never even thought of themselves as courageous, that they didn't give much thought to the broader struggles in the the world at the time. They were just doing what right, honorable people do. But the fact is that, in the 60s, you could be disowned for falling in love with a black woman or black man. There is a reason why we have a long history of publicly biracial black people, but not so much of publicly biracial white people.

We often give a pass to racists by noting that they were "of their times." Fair enough, and I know Hawaii was a different beast, but still, today, let us speak of people who were ahead of their times, who were outside of their times. Let us remember that Barack Obama learned the great lessons of life from courageous white people. Let us speak of those who do what normal, right people should always do when faced with a child--commit an act love. Here's to doing the right thing.

3 comments:

Lil Mom said...

I feel is that you can choose your religion once your an adult, but no one gets to choose their parents or what they believe. To me that is ignorance and bigotry and the God I pray to doesn't care what your name is or what color your skin.

Jackie Melton said...

It is commendable that his grandmother loves him and did the "right" thing, but don't forget...

"...he (Obama) acknowledged that his grandmother had used racial slurs."

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/5050/story?id=6073058&page=1

I'm not sure she's quite ready for sainthood, she's human, just like the rest of us, and no, this is not an attempt at excusing racism, just sharing more facts.

Anonymous said...

As did Rev. Wright.
Imagine how uncomfortable Obama felt when he heard slurs from both sides. And then imagine how stupid he thought both sides were?

Sir, from a "white" mother with interracial children; a white mother who was temporarily disowned by her morally challenged father when she gave birth to her first child, I want to thank you for understanding.

I love my children. And more than anything, I just want them to be good people. Not good colors.

peace, cas : )