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My husband and I (AA) recently adopted a biracial (1/2 AA/ 1/2 CC) little girl. We were recently discussing how we might be able to provide her with the full spectrum of her cultural heritage. We did ask the birthmom about her families cultural traditions and her response was that the family celebrated "American" stuff and nothing specific about their English heritage. As a note she was CC but specifically requested an AA family for her child.
I have many biracial nieces and nephews and we don't ever do anything about their "other" racial identity because the parent with the "other" racial identity lives with them and we just assume they are taking care of it.
I have CC neighbors who adopted a biracial little girl and her half sister who is full AA. They really make an effort to involve them in the AA community and teach them AA history (their family beat ours in a AA trivia board game this summer).
Although I have many (YEP I AM GOING TO SAY IT) CC friends I am not exactly sure if I need to do something more to ensure my daughter knows about all her heritage. Is living in America going to be enough?
ANYONE FACE THIS ISSUE BEFORE?
THANKS FOR YOU THOUGHTS
BEACHY
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MamaS
There is no "Sweet Tea Divide". There is Sweet Tea, and then there are benighted people who do not know the blessings of Sweet Tea and who must be visited by missionaries who can share the word - and the recipe.
Also, it is called "Ice Tea" not "Iced Tea".
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Sleeplvr
Don't even mention sweet tea. We had to rehash that subject on Easter Sunday. My DH has banned us from eating at certain restaurants because they don't serve sweet tea. I go without him now. LOL It makes it kind of obvious those restaurants originated from other parts of the country.
Someone tried to pass a law. LOL We had the sweet tea debate on Sunday because DH's mom used Lipton tea mix instead of brewing the tea.
[url=http://www1.legis.ga.gov/legis/2003_04/search/hb819.htm]</TITLE> <LINK REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="http://www.legis.state.ga.us/style/sheet1.css" > <LINK href="http://www.legis.state.ga.us" rel="SHORTCUT ICON"> <META content="legislation, georgia, house, senate, laws, bills" name=keywords> </HE[/url]
[url=http://www.redandblack.com/2003/04/21/restaurants-not-sweet-on-tea-bill/]Restaurants not sweet on tea bill | The Red and Black[/url]
The south has a lot of things that are uniquely southern and cross racial lines.
Examples...
Groom's cake at weddings
Bridal portraits
I was caught off guard on these because that's what everyone does down here. When I went to a wedding in Michigan I realized everyone doesn't do it. The only difference I've ever noticed between a southern AA wedding and a CC wedding is AA's sometimes "jump the broom" immediately after the vows or when entering the reception hall.
Regional culture trumps most actual heritages if you don't have a recent immigrant experience. Many regions have racial issues but social and economic status ranks higher than race in certain circles.
Restaurants not sweet on tea bill
April 21, 2003 by JENNIFER BURK
To one Georgia lawmaker, not selling sweet tea is a crime and heגs trying to lay down the law.
When Rep. John Noel, D-Atlanta, couldnt find sweet tea on a Chicago restaurantҒs menu, he realized that he didnt want that to happen in Georgia.
Noel and four co-sponsors filed a bill that could charge restaurants that did not offer sweet tea with a misdemeanor ғof a high and aggravated nature.
The sentence for a misdemeanor can be up to 12 months in jail.
Although restaurants still will be allowed to serve unsweet tea, Athens area managers said they donԒt look upon the bill favorably.
It wouldnӒt be fair to force the business owner to carry a product that he doesnt want to carry,Ҕ said Locos general manager John Kethley after a bit of laughter.
Telling restaurants that they must offer sweet tea would be like saying you have to offer Pepsi because you serve Coke,Ӕ said Johnny Carinos manager Michael Russo.
ғYou have sugar on the table, so you can make your own sweet tea, he said.
However, under the proposed bill, putting sugar on the table wouldnԒt matter. The bill specifies that the tea must be sweetened when it is brewed.
Gumbys assistant manager, Joseph Drinson, said he finds the proposed bill humorous, especially since ғwe just started serving sweet tea about two months ago.
Although Noel wouldnԒt mind this proposed bill becoming law, he admitted that it was a humorous attempt to relax the legislature.
I donӒt think you should mix humor and law, said Matt Gierke, a senior from Rincon.
ԓRestaurants should be able to serve whatever they want, he said.
ԓI dont really find it that humorous,Ҕ said Amy Slotin, a junior from Spartanburg, S.C.
It seems pointless to me that they would bring a bill like that (to the legislature),Ӕ she said.
Chris McBrayer, a sophomore from Fayetteville, said he thinks the bill is absurd,Ӕ but in the case that the bill passes, he doesnt think that it will be enforced.
ғIt costs lots of money to put someone in jail, and it wouldnt be worth it,Ҕ he said.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Yes, I have to agree on the regional things. I remember posting pictures of homecoming mums on FB this past fall and people from other parts of the country had no idea what they were or why they are important. But, in Texas they are very important, not to mention expensive, LOL but a part of the culture.
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CC "culture"...isn't America pretty much the pinnacle of CC "culture"? *Tongue firmly planted in cheek.* :eyebrows:
As a CC mom of a CC/Hispanic/Moroccan beauty, I have found that my whiteness IS it's own culture. Because of the melting pot that is America, white folks from all over Europe have just "assimilated" into each other. White people have been running the show for so long, we tend to dominate culturally. Now, you can definitely break it down regionally. I am in a state that is considered Northern by the South, but is UNDER the Mason-Dixon line. I have been on both sides of that Sweet Tea argument, and have been swayed over to the Sweet side. :p Unfortunately, my Type 2 diabetes precludes me from partaking now. And no, it is not the same with that nasty artificial stuff!
My heritage is all Irish. My people came over many generations ago, and weren't the most welcome. Most Irish were looked down on as ignorant peasants. A lot of Irish changed their names, or just tried to fit in, and leave the old country behind. In my family all Irish pride was stamped out a few generations ago. For that I am sad, because we had no traditions that got handed down, when I was a kid. So, our traditions are, I suppose regional.
I am thrilled beyond words that we get to investigate NEW traditions for our family. What I have learned about Morocco has been fascinating.
I'd say if you live in an area where the white folks predominate, you kid will be fine. You can't escape the ever-present white influence, except in a few areas that have chosen to.
I'm as Dutch as you can be on both sides of my family. They are from the same area (A 10 block radius) in the Netherlands and I can trace them back until about 1450 (hello church records).
Any way that being said, I'm in the USA for the last 13 years (minus 5 years stationed overseas) and I've noticed there isn't really a CC culture, there is a Nothern versus Southern culture. If there was a prodominant CC European culture, we wouldn't have time to go to work, with all the holidays that needed to be celebrated one way or another.
See Link
[url=http://www.feiertagskalender.ch/index.php?geo=0&jahr=2011&hl=en&klasse=5&hidepast=0]Holidays Europe 2011[/url]
The Northern culture has more of a Northern European feel to it, while the South has much more of a African/Caribean flair. Which in turn makes sense history wise.
As for the "Tea" discussion-- Yes it has to be sweet, made with real sugar and not that nasty other stuff they call sugar.
Not only is there North/South US culture, there's West and ...all those people back East. Seriously! LOL Rural, urban, too. That being said, though, there IS American cultural norms, different and set apart from other English speaking country cultural norms. It might be interesting to see some of the differences between UK, Canada, US, and Australia, for instance. I often forget our cultural norms because we live them, so I don't notice. When we have foreign friends visit is when I figure out that we (US, CC) are different in some ways, do things differently, etc. Then there are the heritage cultural observances (Irish, Polish, Scottish, etc.) I know my Western European roots, but we don't really do much about them - other than to point out during history research, "Your great grandmother immigrated from here, and your great grandfather immigrated from there." For some of my adopted kids we don't know their cultural heritage. One is a South American native, but we don't know anything about tribal affiliation or anything. Another has red hair, blue eyes, and freckles. I'm guessing Celtic in there somewhere, but...Irish? Scots? Welsh? so we talk about all the Celts.
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I am an AA mom to 2 biracial boys (AA/CC). They know they are biracial. We have genuine relationships with CC and other non AA people. I do purposely live in an area that has many races/ethnicities represented and I purposely chose a private school that has many races/ethnicities, as I personally didn't want my kids to go to an all one race OR majority one race school or live in a predominantly (any race) neighborhood. But I do this moreso, because it is important to me that they learn from, have experiences and relationships with people of different races, ethnicities, socioeconomic "classes" etc... Not so much so they can learn exclusively about CC heritage or culture.I honestly don't do anything above and beyond that to incorporate their CC heritage as I really don''t know what is is other than "American" and they get exposed to CC American culture everyday. Also their CC birth mother identifies more with AA culture. She does not even hang around her own CC family (As they disowned her for dating AA men) and most of all her friends are AA.
That is kind of a broad brush to paint Native American's with. Most Oklahomans are at least partly Native American. Dh and one of my dd's are legally Cherokee. Most of my family falls into the category of Native American, but not offically. I haven't met anyone who, as a Native American, doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving or Independence Day. The one holiday that tends to give pause is 89ers Day aka Land Run Day. This is a state holiday in Oklahoma that celebrates the opening of Oklahoma Territory to white settlement. Schools make a big deal of this, and do reenactments. We try and make sure our kids see this from a wide lense, recognizing the losses Native Americans.
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Millie
Are you a member of the tribe? If not are you planning to join? I'm part NA too. Chickasaw and Creek. My maternal grandmother lived on an Indian land grant with her parents. The weird thing is they are not recorded as being NA on any records that I've found. They are always listed as mulatto. I'm genetically 1/4 NA so I've got some really close NA relatives I need to shake out the tree.
We didn't celebrate Thanksgiving when I lived with my grandparents. When we became adults we went every year during Thanksgiving but never had dinner at their home. We always had to go to someone else's house.