Snippets

Tonight, Friday night, I sank into my usual routine of watching What Would You Do? on ABC. Prior to the episode airing, I saw a commercial for the latest season of The Bachelorette. While I can't stand to watch shows like that to begin with, they irk me to an even higher level by the sheer fact that TV execs seem to believe that the only people looking for (fake) love are young, White singles. Has there ever been a black, Asian, Latin or Arab Bachelor or Bachelorette? Do execs think America won't watch romance and intimacy between brown people?

Then, What Would You Do? came on, and I was interested to see that the show had been filmed in a small, conservative town in central Texas not far from where we lived last year. The first scenario was that of a young interracial couple in a diner being harassed by a white customer who didn't approve of their relationship. Surprisingly, fellow patrons in this diner stepped up to protect and support the couple and made several attempts to remove the hateful bigot. That was reassuring, but comments he made (even though they were scripted) hit home for me, and hard. He told the couple, "Thank goodness you guys didn't have any kids...you would've muddied our White race." At that moment, I looked at my beautiful daughter and considered that a comment like that would be the last thing either Adam or I would think of when we think of her. It hurt to know that there are people in the world who will only ever see Bryony as someone who dilutes the purity of their race. It hurts to think that there are people who will never consider her--no matter how intelligent, successful or beautiful she is--for a stupid reality dating show, because she's too brown.

Snippets of thoughts tonight.