"Multi-Colored Families"- Tamala Edwards (pgs 270-276)

     This weekend we had to read a short reading in the Prose Reader from pages 270-276. "Multi-Colored Families", by Tamala Edwards was about interracial families. Interracial families are families that are do not consist of the same ethnicity. For example, if I were to adopt an African American boy, my family would be considered interracial because I am Mexican and my adoptive son is African American. This does not only apply to adopted family members. For instance, if I were to marry a Chinese man, than my family would be an interracial family because my family would consist of two completely different cultures and ethnicities. Because interracial families are so difficult to deal with, the author provides the reader with advise on raising an interracial family. Edwards tells us that within a mixed house hold, you can't be flexible when choosing schools and neighborhoods (271). When dealing with an interracial family, it's best to move to a neighborhood where there is a mixture of different ethnicities. Susan Weiss is a member of an interracial family and moved to a neighborhood where diversity exists, she says, " 'There are so many parents and kids that don't 'match' that no one notices'" (272).  In this short reading, we also read that teenagers raised in an interracial family happen to "stray" away from their parent's teachings. Being an interracial teenager in hard to cope with; therefore, so that teenagers don't feel different for being an interracial son/daughter, they tend to choose only one side of their ethnicity and completely abandon there other culture. " 'Love is not enough', a child needs a sense of cultural identity and racial history", says Simons (275). By this Simons means that interracial kids need to be surrounded with people that look like them so that they do not feel intimidated by another race and so that they can see that they can truly achieve more than what they think.
     In my opinion, this short reading was a little boring in some parts. However, it was interesting to see how difficult it is to raise interracial children. I found it interesting to see how "families formed by adoption have to take special steps to make a child feel secure" (275) and how when a person adopts a child, they actually come with a manual on how to raise the interracial child. It must be extremely difficult raising and interracial child because you have to feed them more than one culture and tradition. Imagine if you adopted a Chinese boy and you had to learn the Chinese culture to show to your child, and still having to teach him/her your culture. It must be difficult growing up in a single ethnicity neighborhood where you are looked at all the time because your black and your parents are white. Thats why it is important to move to a neighborhood with a lot of diversity so that these circumstances won't be abnormal and to avoid all the rude questioning. The most difficult part, however, must be when the children turn to teenagers. Teenagers (for some reason) always tend to rebel against their parents because of peer pressure in schools and because they want to fit in. It must be difficult to be white and have an African American daughter who grows up to refusing your culture and only accepting the dad's culture because she thinks its more cool or whatever the case may be. Or if they become embarrassed to be seen with you because you guys are different skin tones. I don't know why teenagers tend to get so difficult at a certain age, but there are teenagers that have difficulties accepting their true roots because they are embarrassed of them.