{"id":44586,"date":"2015-12-22T04:12:38","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T04:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=44586"},"modified":"2015-12-22T04:12:57","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T04:12:57","slug":"j-r-reynolds-say-it-loud-hes-black-and-im-proud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=44586","title":{"rendered":"J.R. Reynolds: Say it loud: He\u2019s black and I\u2019m proud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.battlecreekenquirer.com\/story\/opinion\/columnists\/2015\/12\/07\/jr-reynolds-say-loud-black-proud\/76919988\/\" target=\"_blank\">J.R. Reynolds: Say it loud: He\u2019s black and I\u2019m proud<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.battlecreekenquirer.com\" target=\"_blank\">Battle Creek Enquirer<\/a><br \/>\nBattle Creek, Michigan<br \/>\n2015-12-07<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/4humansbeing\" target=\"_blank\">J.R. Reynolds<\/a><\/strong>, Community Columnist<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.battlecreekenquirer.com\/story\/opinion\/columnists\/2015\/12\/07\/jr-reynolds-say-loud-black-proud\/76919988\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/241960ffcd4fcb6293b997688d1422fb9154f43e\/c=0-162-2052-2898&amp;r=537&amp;c=0-0-534-712\/local\/-\/media\/2015\/09\/25\/BattleCreek\/B9319010159Z.1_20150925141427_000_GLTC1T04L.1-0.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<small><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/4humansbeing\" target=\"_blank\">J.R. Reynolds<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n<p>Until my 2-year-old son is old enough to self-identify racially, I\u2019ve declared him black. I\u2019m raising him African American. Socially and legally. This, despite him being half white. Why? It\u2019s in his best interest. But it\u2019s not without serious, sometimes deadly challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Being black in America has a bad rap. This, according to media, history books, government policy and even statistics. We\u2019re the collective punching bag of mainstream society.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s open season on black youth. It\u2019s OK to shoot first and ask questions later. We\u2019re guilty until proven innocent. We\u2019re viewed as a physical threat if we raise our voices in anger. Or throw up our hands to surrender. There\u2019s more&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;So why would a black father like me enthusiastically claim \u201cAfrican American\u201d for his toddler \u2014a moniker that\u2019s historically stigmatized by so many? After all, my son\u2019s mom is white so alternatives exist. Among them: \u201cbiracial,\u201d \u201cmultiracial\u201d and \u201cother.\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.battlecreekenquirer.com\/story\/opinion\/columnists\/2015\/12\/07\/jr-reynolds-say-loud-black-proud\/76919988\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>J.R. Reynolds: Say it loud: He\u2019s black and I\u2019m proud Battle Creek Enquirer Battle Creek, Michigan 2015-12-07 J.R. Reynolds, Community Columnist J.R. Reynolds Until my 2-year-old son is old enough to self-identify racially, I\u2019ve declared him black. I\u2019m raising him African American. Socially and legally. This, despite him being half white. Why? It\u2019s in his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8,26,394,20],"tags":[22254,22256,21895,22255],"class_list":["post-44586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-socialscience","category-usa","tag-battle-creek-enquirer","tag-j-r-reynolds","tag-taye-diggs","tag-the-battle-creek-enquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44586"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44595,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44586\/revisions\/44595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}