White wife. Black husband.
I'm honestly not a fan of the terms "white" and "black" when referring to skin color. My skin is not white and my husband's skin is not black.
I am a light cream complexion and my husband is a beautiful chocolate brown color. My children are a gorgeous peachy tan color in the winter and a luscious deep gold color in the summer. It's not just black and white.
Yet, I understand that we use those as descriptive words. I just don't like the feelings and assumptions that accommodate those adjectives.
I also do not like when people say, "I don't see color." Of course, we see color. We SHOULD see color. It's a beautiful thing. And in that, the color of our skin should not affect how we see others. We should embrace and unite no matter the color of our skin. Let's stop the stereotypes and tear down the walls of division.
"... He himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself ONE NEW HUMANITY out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household."
Ephesians 2:14-19
My issue is then when labels and stereotypes overshadow the beauty of our differences.
Let me tell you a tale. A tale about when I realized that there is still so much separation in this world.
A few weeks ago, I posted a picture on my Facebook and Instagram. A picture of my family in our cheesy matching Christmas pajamas. (My husband is such a rockstar for agreeing to take it!)
You can check out the picture here.
In the next 2 days after that post I kept getting people notifying me of this picture being reposted on other large IG accounts. The posts were getting over 40,000 likes and hundreds and hundreds of comments. I made the mistake of reading some of those comments.
Let me preface this with the fact that 95% of the comments were super sweet and kind.
And the other 5% were not.
I won't even mention the sexually innapropriate comments that were made. Or the comments about how we have "too many kids' and if we knew how to use condoms. Or all the comments about finances and we must have 5 jobs to be able to live.
I think my biggest shock came from the intense anger centered around our different skin color.
I was honestly caught back.
It is a picture of our family in super corny matching Christmas pajamas. Why on earth would race issues need to be involved in it?
I'm going to share with you just a few of the comments. After seeing a few, I stopped reading. I stopped looking. And I just prayed and moved on.
Let this be a peek into the culture we still live in:
"I wish he was happy with a black wife, we need more of that..."
"He would have knocked the black woman up then ran off. They cater to the 'others.' "
"For that man to have any number of children with that beast is disgusting."
"Show me a black woman with a light guy and then I'll think it's cute."
"I wish it was a way I could block any and all interracial anything out of my sight."
"I don't know how ni**** go out and WILLINGLY have babies by these white devils."
"Sad black man and the white lady look crazy."
"What a sell out."
This is my family. My beautiful rainbow display of colors family. I am so grateful for them.
And my love for them, and God's love for us surpasses all the hate tenfold.
It's a wake up call to the place of this world right now though.
So please, pray. And please, love.
Find ways to be united. Find ways to love others. Find ways to break the mold and show God's love to all.
[ God Is Love ] My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
*I wanted to state a few facts about this.
1. I have no problem with my photos being shared on social media. My concern does not lie there. I found this picture reposted on multiple Facebook and Instagram pages and many of which I was not tagged in. Meaning, we were a nameless family in most peoples eyes. This was not a personal attack on us.
2. Please do not feel sorry for me or us in any way, shape or form. We are not hurt or offended in any way. Like I said, all those comments are from people who didn't even know us. What I do ask, is that you pray for people and the world.
3. I want to reiterate that 95% of the comments were absolutely LOVING and KIND comments. Which is a HUGE percentage! I would write a blog about all the lovely things that were said, but I think that would just seem boastful (:P) No, really though, I just wanted to give some insight into the unity that we need to pray into for our nation.