Reading More in 2008

Every year I do my New Year's resolutions. I sort of look at it as my outline for the coming year. I am proud to say that most years I did the majority of things on my list---that was until motherhood struck more than 3 years ago. It suffices to say that plans often go awry and things that were meant to be done, remain undone. It took a lot of adjustment---but I have no complaints. The little man in my life is healthy, happy and loved...that's priceless. Until there are more hours in the day, I will have to prioritize my time. That means everything ain't going to get done, or it can only get done after my family and my work are straight.

I am a committing to at least one thing this year...I need to read more. People who know me well are howling at this statement. Yes, I read alot, but not always the things that I want to read. I do research, I read countless newspapers, magazines, books, blogs and web site...and while they are all interesting, it's not the same as that vacation reading. I am not talking about Harold Robbins or Judith Kranz---that's not my style, but I am the reading that you do simply for pleasure.

So I am going to Jamaica for MLK, Jr. weekend and will definitely get in some pleasure reading. For the New Year I am also committed to reading more books from the African diaspora. I get to travel and listening to different music has helped to amplify and explain what I think that I have come to know about other countries. I just think that it's time to step that up a notch. There so much more out there than just Colin Channer or Zadie Smith---although they will stay in the rotation.

One domestic book that is on my reading list is One Drop by Bliss Broyard. Broyard's father was a successful cultural critic at the New York Times. After living a comfortably WASP existence in Connecticut, as an adult she learns that her father was not "White," at least under the "one drop" of Black blood rule. As the story goes, the elder Broyard decided to "pass" as White---perhaps like other members of his family. The author finds out that there are "Black" Broyards and "White" Broyards. Part of my interest has to do with how the author's identity has changed, if at all, after this revelation.

I am interested in the story because it makes us have to examine our thoughts about race. Is race biological, cultural, a malleable social construct or what? It seems like a really dumb question until you go to other countries...or you look at someone in the US whom you presume to be "White" who says she is Black. Or meet a darker skinned person who recites his familial lineage---including slavemasters and undercover lovers, so that you are clear that he are not "Black." Americans have a very fixed notion of race, but that is not the case else where in the world. I am not the lightest light, but abroad there have been times when I was not considered "Black." In these instances the presumption was that one of my parents was White. People will say, "Black people are much darker." It's an odd space, since I never think of myself as anything but Black. My own experiences have made me wonder how a person's world view changes if he has the capacity to inhabit another identity. I wonder whether the burden of "passing" was the secrecy, rather than joining another race. It seem that the paradox about race may that one can be more flexible to define oneselves, the lighter one's skin is.