Who is the young, brown cutie?

I don't follow entertainment news much but I just had to read about the remake of Red Dawn. It was a film released in the 80's about a group of teens who band together to fight terrorists who invade America. The terrorists back then were Cuban and Russian. Interesting how times change. In the new film, the terrorists will be Chinese (hmmm) and Russian...I guess the Russians just can't catch a break in American's eyes. I wonder why they aren't Arabic? That would make more sense but maybe Hollywood doesn't want to stir that pot.

Truth be told, the real reason I discovered this remake is because of the young man standing next to Tom Cruise in the photo. Who is that cute drop of chocolate standing next to one of my favorite drops of vanilla? THAT is Tom Cruise's son! What??? That's what I said.

First thought, he has a black son? Where is the black mom? Did -I- ever have a chance? LOL! Well, one can dream...but seriously, where this child come from?

When Tom divorced Nicole, I often wondered what happened to their children. They adopted two children for whatever reasons. I question possibly fertility problems since Nicole now has a biological child and so does Tom. This boy is one of the children Tom and Nicole adopted.

I have to applaud Tom and Nicole for taking such a step. Not many white people will adopt a black child. I can only hope they took steps to educate him about his unique and special heritage. I do not automatically oppose whites adopting ethnic children, despite the obvious problems that can develop. I just hope they realize the child must learn of his/her heritage to be proud of their ancestry.

On the other hand, I am very offended when I hear some whites commenting that it is a 'step up' for the ethnic child to get white parents. No need to get deep into that trough, the opinion is just an insult.

So, good luck to Connor Cruise in his acting endeavors.

I was raised this way...

While watching "The Tyra Banks Show," wait, don't freak out yet. :) She's actually pretty good sometimes. So, I was watching today and she loves doing these "social experiments." The one she did today took people of various ethnic backgrounds and placed them in a room where they were shown photos or footage. After viewing the item, opinions were given.

There was a white guy who was, and probably still is, incredibly racist. Not sheet-wearing racist, but about a step or two away from that. A woman there was also this way, preferring to say she was "afraid of black people." After viewing a video of a black woman with three children, they both presumed the black woman was on welfare, had three different dads for the children, etc.

Tyra, I was glad to see, spoke up to say there was nothing in that photo that said this woman was on welfare, etc. She was wearing business clothing, had diamonds in her ears, the children were all well dressed and she was nicely manicured...by that, she looked professional. Similar footage of a white woman did not get the same response from these two...their reasoning for only seeing color and a negative stereotype was "that's how I was raised..."

I just thought, what a lame excuse. That lame excuse is what led another woman (a black woman) to eventually break down and cry. She explained that she has a college degree, professional job, has several desirable qualities, yet, men see black skin and write her off. Through all those tears, she said black men want white women, Asian men won't consider her, white men don't want a black woman and the list goes on.

Despite the fact that it appeared she was having a personal pity party, she is right. Many times men of any race -assume- because I am a black woman, I fit the negative stereotype. That is beyond annoying because that attitude deprives a black woman of even the opportunity to shine. No race of people are perfect and no race of people are all bad. It does discourage me that such a negative stereotype is attached to black women in this country. I guess this is why people who write me and say, "I thought you were white..." Don't continue the conversation once they know I am not.