God had spoken. Instantly, a sense of calm and confidence enveloped her. In times like these, when she feels anxious, afraid or unsure, Dickson relies on her faith.

So, too, do nearly nine in 10 African American women,

If you look at the condition of the black woman in America, it would appear that we do not have much to show for it. Consider Whitney’s tragic life. She was a church girl who did not fail to mention that Jesus was her Lord and Savior. I won’t argue yay or nay on that point. I will point out that she turned to drugs instead of “her Lord” and the price she paid was death. It appears that most black women are choosing a master other than the one they claim. Just look at our numbers. We lead the pack among women when it comes to obesity and poor nutritional habits, both indicators that we are not engaging in self care,  etc.  One would think that such a dependence on faith would produce better results than that. What is it that draws black women towards religion? Is it tradition or desperation? Many black women feel so defeated by society that we are desperate for anything that feeds us a notion of a better place. We desire a paradise instead of the hell in which we currently reside.  After all, it is this hell (society) that tells black women that we are worthless and responsible for all the ills of our race. That leads me to a possible conclusion: Black women generally have a superficial attachment to religion. Could that be why it didn’t save Whitney and other black women like her?

To top it all off, he wanted her just as much as she wanted him. So they hooked up a few times until she learned about the first of two dangerous secrets. He was  married.  In fact, Mr. Nicosia finally “introduced” Dion to Mrs. Nicosia after, I presume, she almost broke the bedroom door down and found them together. To make a long story short, Nicosia and his wife divorced. He  moved Dion into a cozy townhouse and gave her the world including  expensive clothes, bags, a jaguar, and a wedding ring. Yup, they married and eventually had a daughter named Gia. They were living large but how did his fellow mobsters feel about the new black mob wife? Surprisingly, the mobsters themselves didn’t give Angelo any problems. NOT SURPRISINGLY, the mob wives weren’t happy AT ALL.

Speaking of his mob life…

Angelo wasn’t just a body guard or sidekick. He was a hit man for the Genovese crime family. Their world came crashing down when Angelo finally had to face his day in court. He spent some time in jail and has supposedly been released. As of 2011, He and Dion were still together and trying to stay away from organized crime. I say all the best to them.

“I think he dated some of these black girls because they didn’t idolise him. They were real down to earth, and they didn’t worship him. They are strong women who would just say, cut your bullshit.”

The author said Dylan’s music was not popular in the African-American community. “While women from his own, white middle-class background, often saw him as an overawing presence, he was just another guy to African-American women and this was refreshing to him.”

He liked black girls so much that he married his black back-up singer Carolyn Dennis and had a daughter with her. BUT, he kept them hidden from the media. Let’s be fair, though. Both he and his black ex-wife are believed to have wanted to keep their relationship and daughter out of the spotlight. Were his relationships/marriages with white women hidden from the media? That’s a fair question to ask. It is suggested that he tried to hide his marriage to his first wife, a white woman named Sara Lownes:

 Until now, it has been thought that he was married only once, to Sara Lownes, in November 1965, in a low-key ceremony on Long Island. Even then he shied away from publicity, inviting only two guests, his manager Albert Grossman and a bridesmaid.

What if race had everything to do with the hiding the mystery marriage to Dennis? Can we blame them for wanting to hide their union from racist fans that may have hurt their pocket book? Maybe, just maybe Dylan wanted the media to mind their own business. Only the couple knows for sure.

Would you be willing to hide?

Christelyn barging in here–sort of rings true, based on the recent news that Michael Ealy secretly courted and married a non-black woman (presumably) for fear of upsetting his black female fans?

^{Deuteronomy 23:2} A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord.

A lot of people look at the passage and think, a child born out of wedlock. That’s because we are looking at the word through the eyes of the English language.  The original word, mamzer,  was a lot more damning than simply being born OOW.  It referred to the offspring of a “couple” that could never be recognized or legitimized under Jewish law, even if they wanted to marry. That would include a child of incest, adultery, and yes, a mixed marriage.  But like a lot of concepts in the bible, you have to consider the whole picture and not the isolated verse.  When we think of  mixed marriages in the biblical sense, the image of an Israelite and a pagan should come to mind rather than people of different races per se. If you consider verse 3 within the same chapter, the Moabites are similarly rejected:

3: An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever:

As mentioned in my first Biblical Swirling post, Ruth was a Moabitess.

People make the racial argument focusing on the word “generations.” As crazy as it sounds, some actually believe that there is a racial element to the word generation. Racists maintain that it takes ten generations for mixed blood to be erased from the genes of a population. So once the genes are ten generations away from race mixing, they are racially acceptable to the Abrahamic God. So in a sense, segregation did exist but not in the same way that is familiar to us.

If being mixed was an abomination, why would a person of mixed heritage become a recognized inspired figure of the New Testement (Acts 16)?

Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek:

² Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.

³ Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek.

That’s right! Timothy (of I and II Timothy) was the child of a mixed marriage.  So, are mixed children an abomination? Probably to someone truly ignorant.

^{Song of Solomon 1:5} I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

Notice she says black BUT comely. She’s basically telling Solomon that even though she’s black, she’s still beautiful…as if she wasn’t supposed to be. That might suggest to a reader that dark skin probably wasn’t considered to be the most attractive feature.

⁶ Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.

Some will say, based on the above, that she was actually tanned from working in the sun. That seems plausible but the sun can only make someone “but so dark.” If you consider Strong’s Concordance, the original word suggests more than just a tan. Consider the contrast with the way Solomon’s skin color is described:

^{Song of Solomon 5:10}  My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.

¹¹ His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.

One thing clear to me is that the Jews of the bible were a light-skinned people. The fact that the Shulamite maiden is enamored with his light skin suggests that lighter men were preferred as well.  Solomon’s light or ruddy complexion  is closer to a reddish color. His bushy hair was actually wavy (according to Strongs Concordance) That is not to imply that the “chosen” were white European types or that the maiden in the first chapter was a black African.

The Song of Solomon is considered by many Christians to be a prophetic/spiritual book illustrating God’s love for the Christian Church. The fair-skinned Solomon represents God while the dark-skinned maiden represents the church. Why do you think Solomon’s love for a dark-skinned woman was considered important enough to illustrate the Abrahamic God’s love?

It is clear that light skin was the more favorable color to possess during biblical days.  That mattered little to the Abrahamic God. The woman considered last by her society was placed first in the grand scheme of things. That seems to be a recurrent theme in the Bible; the rejected woman ends up the winner.

Genesis 27:46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?

Genesis 28:1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

The apparent biblical racism seems to get worse. Check out Nehemiah 13:23:

In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:

24 And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.

25 And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.

So clearly, these men sinned when they married outside of their ethnic/racial tribe. But why? If you look at verse 23, Moabite women were included in that marriage ban. It’s no secret that Ruth, on whom the Book of Ruth is based, was a Moabite woman. That union was blessed by the Abrahamic God. There appears to be a contradiction, right? Let’s not forget that Canaanite women were off limits. But lo and behold, the genealogy of Christ includes a Canaanite woman and other racially forbidden women. Should we assume that the Abrahamic God couldn’t make up his mind? Christians these days will often remind us to read entire passages before forming opinions:

Nehemiah 13:26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.

The real problem, according to many Christians and Jews, was not race in and of itself but faith. The foreign women caused the men to forget about their God and serve idols. That’s why a lot of Christians limit their dating pool to other Christians, Muslims with Muslims, and Jews with Jews, etc. In the words they might marry outside their race, but not outside their faith. Still, many Christians, black and white alike, use these passages to deter people from finding love among the rainbow…especially women.

What does the Bible say about colorism and your darling little mamzers…erm…mixed children? Stay tuned!

So what’s the point? The very nature of this blog is to show black women that we should place character above color. It is a safe place for black women to talk about and celebrate interracial relationships. From those relationships come children. These children, the girls especially, are the subjects many of us lament over because their beauty is celebrated at the expense of African beauty. When we have mixed children, we cannot solely celebrate natural hair, dark skin, and other African features, We must also help our daughters feel good about themselves. How will we handle boosting our light-skinned mixed daughters’ self-esteem while being honest about their privileged status?

It isn’t that my friend isn’t smart, beautiful, funny, charming, and a great cook. She’s all those things and a bag of sea salt-flavored chips. What man, regardless of race, wouldn’t find her attractive? But I felt my friend was overlooking a big issue that would be the difference between date night disaster and romantic success.

“Have you ever had a white female friend?” I asked

So now a black woman should have a white female friend before she dates white men? Excuse me while I yawn. To be fair, the motive behind the suggestion was pure. Her friend had a silly angst against white women but lo and behold wants “their brother.” But let’s flip the script a little bit.I Here goes:

Trisha: I met this really cool white girl who I’m going to start hangin with.

Paulette: Have you ever dated a white guy?

Trisha: Hell no. I aint down with the Swirl!

Paulette: Then you can’t have a white female friend.

I doubt very seriously if we would hear that type of “correction” as it isn’t prudent or necessary. Then again, neither is the former. If a black woman wants to date a white guy, it’s good if she has white female friends and it’s also good if she doesn’t.  In other words, it makes absolutely no difference. Yes, she should get over her bias against white women but who is to say that her dating a white man won’t be the catalyst for change? He might have a cool sister or mother that she might click with.

I rarely if ever see these lectures directed at black men, white women, Asian women, or anyone else. It’s time to leave black women alone.

Black woman, you are free to “be” just like everyone else!

He’s either going to be dead or in jail once Obama is elected again! Those are the words of Ted Nugent, not mine. What exactly does he feel will lead to his death or incarceration? Let’s see, people go to jail for things like robbery, rape, murder and other horrors. Is he admitting to the world that he regularly engages in those vices? Or is he simply asserting Second Amendment rights for all American citizens? Well, figuratively, perhaps. I’m inclined to believe the latter but that really isn’t the point here. Nugent made statements that can be viewed as threats against the president in the literal sense.  His words warranted the Secret Service sobering up and paying him a visit. But are we being a bit unfair to Nugent? Rapper Common pulled a similar stunt but got invited to the White House. Guess what he says at 1:58 into the video:

Nugent’s “threat” was implied while Common’s ” Burn a Bush threat” was explicit.  Both were declared not to be credible but we already knew that. Didn’t we??? Then again, Nugent did suggest chopping off heads at 2:40. Yikes!