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1. I need more time. « Vox ex Machina on 24 Mar 2007 at 5:22 am

   […] has bland, colorless syllables that all blur together. With some sort of hot sauce for flavor.]: Fertility clinic mixup results in “black” baby for “white” parents. (Also the Sex & Race Discussion group on LJ; if you’re a member, drop […]

2. Race as disability: an update on fertility clinic mixup case at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture on 14 Jun 2007 at 7:03 am

   […] [Note from Carmen: Racialicious covered it too.] […]

Comments

1. Kaywil wrote:

   The mother looks mixed-race to me…let’s panic about that too, because the story said “white parents”, and I’m not too sure what that’s going to do to the future of society.

   Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 11:21 am ¶

2. Daniela wrote:

   Seriously. What is the problem? It’s no secret that many Latinos have black ancestors. I lived in Washington Heights, a primarily Dominican community for two years and know that this can be a touchy subject. It’s fine to acknowledge Spanish roots, but Black? It’s the white elephant, for sure. I am Chicana and I have relatives who are Latino and Black. I suspect the husband never considered that the “risk” of marrying someone “Hispanic” could result in black looking babies. Poor him ;P Whatever. Deal with it dude.

   Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 11:29 am ¶

3. jazmin wrote:

   i dont like the way they worded this BLACK BABY BORN TO A HISPANIC WOMAN..and how the family is DEVASTATED like OMG “She isn’t getting any lighter what are we going to do”.lmao. anyway …i wonder what would happen if it turned out not to be a mix up and the child just happend to be dark because she picked her more of her mothers african genes

   Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 11:31 am ¶

4. Daniela wrote:

   … And even if it ended up not being his sperm, he still could have had “black looking” bio children. This topic and the fact it is still an issue makes me gag, but thank you for posting the story

   Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 11:32 am ¶

5. Eric Stoller wrote:

   Blackprof has an awful quote from the lawsuit: “The Andrews’ suit goes on to add ‘While we love Baby Jessica as our own, we are reminded of this terrible mistake each and every time we look at her. It is simply impossible to ignore.’”

   Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 11:59 am ¶

6. Ani wrote:

   The article certainly is written in a very inflammatory way, but when you put that aside (if you can) i think part of the issue at hand was not that she had a mixed black baby, but that the sperm belonged to someone else. They had intended to use her husbands sperm (does that make the couple wrong to want the procedure they paid for ie husbands sperm implanted into wifes egg, to be correct?) If the sperm had been mixed up with another white mans sperm they might not have known (there is totally a L&O:SVU episode about that). They do cite things like not knowing about health issues of the biological father so it makes me wary that the ONLY reason they are suing is because its a black baby.

   that being said the last part of the article does say that they are suing for possible stress and trauma that the girl might have for being different from the rest of her family. It seems like its going to be up to the family to make that alright for her.

   Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 12:07 pm ¶

7. Ananse wrote:

   Great learning opportunity, though, when the clinic introduces factoids from Biology 101 during the deposition and discovery. Let’s hope that makes the front pages for everyone who slept through that in high school as well…

   Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 12:15 pm ¶

8. Lyonside wrote:

   Wow.. there’s just too many obnoxious angles to this story, so let me choose a different one… The lawyer is quoted as saying, she “doesn’t look like them,” including the BIOLOGICAL MOTHER? What, the only was children look like their parents is skin and hair color? UGH…

   Now, I wonder how many times screwups lke this happen, and you never know it because the phenotypes turns out as expected?

   And does anyone here look at that mom and honestly think she’s completely EUROPEAN-American?

   Yeah, me neither.

   Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 12:22 pm ¶

9. Kyla wrote:

   I agree that they might be partially upset because of the wrong sperm, but the things they are saying imply that a big part of the upset is because the child is black. Like how every time they look at her, they’re reminded.

   Honestly, when I first saw this I had to read the story before I knew what the problem was. The two girls look very much alike, features-wise, and the younger girl isn’t much darker than her mom. They could easily have had her with dad’s sperm (they don’t even know the race of the actual sperm donor; they say African American in the story, but since they don’t know who the sperm came from, who’s to say that the mother doesn’t have African ancestry that just came out strongly in Jessica?).

   Besides, would they have tested to see if it was their baby if she wasn’t dark with curly hair? They might never have known if they weren’t like, “OMG BLACK BABY.”

   The fact of the matter is, they wanted a baby and they got an absolutely adorable, healthy, happy baby. Yeah, it’s a bummer that it wasn’t biologically the father’s, but they’re acting like children about it, and the only one who’s going to suffer is Jessica. Because you know she’s going to someday run across stuff like this: “While we love Baby Jessica as our own, we are reminded of this terrible mistake each and every time we look at her … We underwent a difficult and complex medical procedure for the sole purpose of bearing a child of our own.” (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/03/22/2007-03-22_what_a_mess_baby-1.html)

   She is their own child in that they had her and are raising her, and she’s biologically her mother’s own, but this implies that they don’t see Jessica as really their daughter. That poor child.

   Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 1:01 pm ¶

10. The Stranger wrote:

    Hmmm… The coverage is definitely playing up the racial angle, but from the parent’s perspective, I’d be upset if I learned the fertility clinic screwed up this royally. That’d hold true with less-society-pressured parents have recessive, child has dominant traits, too.

    I’m adopted, so I don’t even mean “omfg it’s not my blood child I can’t love really it” crap. I mean it could be a stressful curveball expecting your birthchild and getting someone else’s genetic material.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 1:04 pm ¶

11. Rob wrote:

    “Obnoxious?”

    This *is* the New York Post we’re talking about.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 1:07 pm ¶

12. berrybrowne wrote:

    1) let’s take the baby from them. she’s adorable, i’d happily raise her, and they clearly will SUCK at the whole giving their child healthy self-esteem part of parenting

    2) don’t these people know about “passing”? many african americans who “passed” for white - my great-aunt included, never had children or endured pregnancy in great fear (nella larsen’s novel “passing” describes this in detail) because you never know what color the baby will be! my grandparents and aunt are extremely fair and my father is extremely dark, even though he looks in all other respects exactly like his father.

    so, so, so sickening.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 1:11 pm ¶

13. dawn wrote:

    Eric, that quote was in the news story I read, too, and it made my head hurt.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 1:41 pm ¶

14. kim wrote:

    Kyla and berrybrowne:

    When can we get together?

    If anyone, ANYONE out there has a chance to make contact with this family please forward them to Anti-Racist Parent, and birthproject.wordpress.com.

    And have them contact me.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 2:18 pm ¶

15. kim wrote:

    Is it just me or does he look dazed and confused?

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 2:19 pm ¶

16. Rachel S. wrote:

    “Wonder how Jessica is going to feel when she grows up knowing that her darker skin caused such panic for her parents, and landed her family on front-page news.”

    My thoughts exactly. I saw this last night, and from the picture I thought the woman was black, if she wants to pretend there ain’t any black folks in her family tree. I’d like to seel them some ocean front property in Kansas.

    It also realy bothers me that they make these statements and now they are going to raise this girl. That pisses me off!!

    My husband said we should adopt Jessica, so she doesn’t have to be raised by people who dont want her.

    Did they DNA test the other child too? Or just the darker child?

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 2:37 pm ¶

17. Rachel S. wrote:

    Sorry for all those typos…I hate these stories.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 2:38 pm ¶

18. sunsail wrote:

    1. ROTFLMAO!! Oooooh, what a frakking tragedy.

    2. I cosign with Ani. If I were a parent in this situation, that is what would distress me, too.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 2:40 pm ¶

19. Rachel S. wrote:

    That second to the last sentence is the Post article is awful. This one, “she may be subjected to physical and emotional illness as a result of not being the same race as her parents and siblings,”

    Yeah, I guess all mixe race families are fucked up.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 2:44 pm ¶

20. deb wrote:

    Well, the family can always do what author Shirlee Taylor Haizlip’s family did. The author’s mother, who happened to be a wee bit darker than her lighter-skinned siblings and parents was left behind with relatives when the family practically said, screw this, and decided to pass for white. *snark*

    Anyway, even if there was no mix-up, just looking at Nancy Andrews, is it unfathomable that the couple could produce a child Jessica’s complexion? Heck, had the child had been born blond-haired and blue-eyed, would they have bothered filing a lawsuit?

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 2:48 pm ¶

21. Nina wrote:

    I thought they were talking about a third child that was not pictured. I was expecting a very dark skinned child. Turns out it is the light skinned little baby girl with the curly hair. Cannnot say that her appearance stands out so starkly from her sibling nor her mother. At least nothing that a little hair straightening won’t fix to ease their pain and suffering. I jest of course! Among black families, skin shades can vary so greatly even among siblings of the same two black parents. So when one of them is mixed and the other is white, well possibilities are endless. I am surprised that the couple found Jessica’s skin color so alarming that they did DNA tests.

    Of course the bigger issue is the mix-up by the fertility clinic. As Carmen said, because it was a mix-up that involved race, it is headline news. The sad thing is that it seems that the parents “struggle” with Jessica’s skin tone everyday. Would they not be as upset if the annonymous sperm was from a white man? Would they forget about the mix-up and drop the lawsuit?

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 3:08 pm ¶

22. justin wrote:

    I think people shouldn’t judge the mother by her appearance. People see race with their minds eye, like those tests where the word blue is written in the colour red. Maybe she stinks of cookies and apple pie, or has a thick European-American accent, . . . maybe she self identified (?). Perhaps the father is behind the lawsuit and has some weird need to see himself in the face of his daughters. Some times I think that people who choose artificial insemination are cold rationalists that just want to have a spare set of organs on hand. Their issues can be solved by a science textbook.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 4:12 pm ¶

23. yousername wrote:

    Since this is from the New York Post, I’ve decided to dismiss the story. They’re the type of people who will write absolutely anything in the headline. That woman isn’t white; I don’t know if that’s misleading journalism or what.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 4:40 pm ¶

24. susanc wrote:

    What really stood out to me was that the doctor told them that she’d “get lighter over time.”

    Reminds me of that joke on Are You Being Served? where they would always say the clothing would “ride up with wear” whenever the sleeves or pants were too long.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 4:43 pm ¶

25. Tessa wrote:

    Oh lord - I can’t believe they describe the couple as “devastated”. I guess if anything that was actually tragic every happened to them, their heads would explode.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 4:44 pm ¶

26. bertie wrote:

    I don’t know–I think I would be “devasted” finding out that a clinic had mistakenly given my wife someone else’s sperm regardless of their race.

    I know the news story played up the race angle–but this family probably is legitimately distressed. Do they know the “real father’s” medical history, do they have the right to find out in case their child gets sick in the future? These are real questions and concerns this family has to face. I think its too easy for us to take pot shots at them when were not in their shoes.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 6:07 pm ¶

27. Lyonside wrote:

    >Maybe she stinks of cookies and apple pie, or has a thick European-American accent, . . . maybe she self identified (?).

    The article IDs the mother as DOMINICAN. I’ve never met a Dominican who IDs as non-Latino white, have you?

    >Some times I think that people who choose artificial insemination are cold rationalists that just want to have a spare set of organs on hand

    Sorry, this makes no sense to me or in context - it doesn’t seem that the second child was conceived to aid an older sibling (with bone marrow, etc. - we’re thankfully NOT living the “spare organs” scenario) - please don’t confuse cloning issues w/ artificial insemination issues.

    Couples who choose AI usually do so because of secondary infertility (just because you were able to conceive once doesn’t mean you will again) - usually low sperm count, an unpredictable ovulation cycle, hormonal issues, or physical aftereffects of a difficult pregnancy or labor. Not to mention the possibility of blocked fallopian tubes, or repeated miscarriages that affect fertilization…

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 6:17 pm ¶

28. Mrs. J wrote:

    I don’t get these people.

    One moment, they wanted desperately to conceive, the next moment, they’re complaining that their healthy babies don’t “match”. Isn’t part of the risk of invitro that a woman might not even conceive at all? Here they were fortunate enough to give birth to not one, but two healthy babies and they’re upset that one is too brown?!

    It almost makes me wonder if this woman married her white husband to ensure that her babies would look either “mestizo” or (even better to her, probably) white. Because she knows full well that Africans were dropped off all over The New World, that the Dominican Republic is right next to Haiti and the exact temperature of that ceramic iron she uses on her hair.

    I can understand the dad’s disappointment (that one was actually fathered by another man), but I really hope that the mother realizes that both daughters are 100% hers and treats them that way.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 6:23 pm ¶

29. Koko wrote:

    How did I know that this story would be hear.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 7:01 pm ¶

30. mtevc wrote:

    There are so many issues on the Latino race side. Everyone is pure Spanish blood, though you know the history and the ancestry. No one is Indian or part Black. Sheesh. But the comments about the child, and being reminded every time they look in that little black face. Poor child. Can someone adopt her before they screw her up? Why did they go public? They must really hate this child. By the way, there are millions more mixups in white families (with the wrong white sperm). But race is the thing.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 8:33 pm ¶

31. mtevc wrote:

    FYI…looking at the picture of the mom though…the kids look like her.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 8:33 pm ¶

32. Kokoro wrote:

    Sorry - there seems to be a lack of empathy for the parents. Obviously they did not get what they were expecting or what they paid for. I’m pretty sure anyone would be upset, not at the baby, she’s is so cute, but at the situation. In many of the responses above people seem to be stereotyping the Hispanic mother’s ‘natural’ response by prejuding her (and the dad as well) the source of her pain - the colour of her skin. Let’s now be fair please.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 8:39 pm ¶

33. HighJive wrote:

    when you look closely at the photograph, the one person who looks completely out of place is the white dad. the others “may be subjected to physical and emotional illness” by being associated with him.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 8:55 pm ¶

34. kim wrote:

    HighJive: High Five.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 9:58 pm ¶

35. Kyla wrote:

    kim and HighJive: You’re right, the dad really does stick out like a sore thumb there.

    Posted 23 Mar 2007 at 10:29 pm ¶

36. justin wrote:

    Sorry Lyonside, my sarcasm doesn’t really help. I have issues with the article as well, but I can’t see past the sensationalism to get an accurate impression of the family. They have my sympathy, generally when I go to see a freak show I feel worse about being part of the audience than I do about the people on the stage.
    I think it’s completely understandable for the father to have some issues and the entire family to react emotionally and irrationally when something goes wrong or not to their plan. I can’t imagine how vulnerable they must have been going into that process or the conversations they had about adoption and why they didn’t choose to go down that path instead. I still respect their choices. Actually, maybe they shouldn’t have let their attorney talk to the press, I wonder how much control they had over that and if it will help the lawsuit?
    I know I can’t delve too deeply into that families racial constructs without falling prey to my own.

    Posted 24 Mar 2007 at 2:59 am ¶

37. HighJive wrote:

    Just kidding on the previous comment. It is tough to guess what’s real in this scenario. After all, the New York Post appears to be the only source reporting on it. As anyone who’s ever dealt with a lawsuit will attest, it’s standard operating procedure to trump the charges to the max. And the lawyer appears to be trying the case in the media. So who knows what the players are really feeling. Seems like the only person who will definitely not benefit here is the child.

    Posted 24 Mar 2007 at 12:24 pm ¶

38. ELLE wrote:

    As a proud mixed race Dominican (African, Spanish and Palestinian) I am disgusted with the parents REAL reason for suing: the little girl is not half white. Who is the mother kidding? Does she really think SHE’S white? I would love to interview her hairdresser and ask if she takes her relaxer with lye or no-lye?

    From what I’ve read so far, I’m assuming that at every birthday party, ballet recital, soccer game, and all those things we parents of healthy children look forward to, these two poor excuses for parents will be ashamed of Jessica’s beautiful afro-puff and amber complexion.

    The judge said the couple complain that they have been forced to raise a child who is “not even the same race, nationality, colour … as they are.”

    FORCED to raise??? Wait a second. This mother carried and gave birth to baby who shares half her DNA and she feels she has been forced to raise her. God don’t like ugly. Maybe that’s why she was really never meant to be a mother in the first place.

    IVF is very expensive; the presumed African-American biological father paid big money to have his sperm stored for an IVF process with his spouse. I hope this man is found. Then he should claim custody of Jessica, sue the parents for mental trauma to his baby girl and raise her to be a proud mixed race woman.

    Posted 24 Mar 2007 at 7:59 pm ¶

39. kim wrote:

    Does anyone remember the case of the family (maybe in Utah, Colorado) who wanted to be legally released from their obligations to their adopted son, born in Russia?

    At about age 16, after having raised the boy for about, oh…15 years of his life, he came to a point where his relationship to crime was cemented as the path to which he was dedicated, and the parents had a background check done on the boy’s natural parents, and found some history of …something… which pre-disposed the boy, according to what I remember of released statements, to oppositional behavior in the broadest use of the term.

    Despite having been the ones who raised him, despite the eons old debate of nature vs. nurture, this couple decided his genetic code took precedence over their bond and relationship to him, and wanted out.

    Now…to this story. There is in the courts a presumption of paternity that exists at birth, within the bonds of marriage. There is also the defacto intent to father in an emotional, financial, educational, and food-and-clothing sense that is established after someone has raised a child beyond a certain time ( I think 10 years is the number), that establishes the prima facie intent and permanence of the familial relationship.

    Scenario: if the parents decide they do not like how she is growing into young girlhood, don’t like her disposition, the nap of her hair, the way she pronounces ‘garbage’, how large her feet grow, the size of the pants she wears and how they hang on her, they may just ask for relief, as there is an out built in.

    Yes, I know it unfair, and I am, at this point in the thread, willing to concede that Justin, bertie and others may be onto something with the emotional upset the mother and dad have undergone. But, I’m not entirely buying into a full-fledged empathy for them.

    I wonder all the time if I would recognize my children if one of them were taken from me, and returned 10 years later; wonder if I was given the wrong one at the hospital (really, I’ve wondered this aloud)…and wondered, in that last instance, what my reaction would be if the ‘real’ parents came to claim ‘their’ baby, or switch.

    Baby, this ain’t no swap meet. She is ours now. Yes, I’m curious about the ‘mine’ that you have, but this one is also mine. Let’s work something out, like open visitation.

    This one is hard, this case. But the child is real. She is here. She is beautiful, and she is hers. Under the law, she is his. Has she not grown in their hearts? Is she the exception that is made clear to them each time they bathe, or wipe her? Is she the reason they take the extra breath before smiling, before responding to the ‘kiss, Daddy! wuv you, Mommy!’?

    This is truly sad.

    Posted 25 Mar 2007 at 1:44 am ¶

40. jstele wrote:

    “Because let’s face it: the only reason this story is newsworthy is the racial angle.”

    Actually, there was a story about a doctor using his own sperm to fertilize the eggs of his clients. So it would have been newsworthy without the race factor.

    Posted 25 Mar 2007 at 3:34 am ¶

41. raisin wrote:

    As a child of an inter-racial marriage who then went on to have children with a man who was also inter-racial I knew there would be no way to determine the skin colour of our progeny with any certainty. Our two girls are light-skinned like the father, while the son takes after me and is darker. This has led to people viewing the boy’s parentage with suspicion and I have heard complete strangers questioning this within my hearing in public, even though he is a carbon copy of his father, albeit his colour.

    It is assumed by ignorant outsiders that all one’s children will be the same hue, and if there are any variations then there must be some scandalous reason, i.e. sleeping around. So on one level I can understand why the Dominican woman is distressed by the fact that one child is darker than the other. It’s a marker.

    However, the fact that she is “mixed race” means that she can’t assume her progeny are all going to look the same. Due to her ancestry she is just as likely to give birth to a child that could “pass” as white just as surely as she could give birth to one that looks African.

    It is sad that parents aren’t screened for racist attitudes when they turn up for interview. These “mix-ups” have happened before. Why aren’t those who have issues with the colour of their future children warned about this possibility, and if they find this a bridge too far, refused treatment? We now have children that are going to have to deal with one child being treated more favourably than the other.

    With my own son, I have had to be sensitive to this, while outsiders are not. I can assure my son that he is loved just as much as his siblings, reinforce how handsome he is, how clever, how beautiful etc. Will these parents be able to offer their daughters the same? I doubt it.

    I have seen amongst some “mixed race” friends similar attitudes to the Dominican women. There is a colour heirarchy. Some want to uprgrade the “race” by whitening it. One Costa Rican friend describes how her dark skin was always denigrated, and she was assured she was ugly all her life, and that she would never get a man. She is 34 now. She went on to have 2 children, each by a different father. They are both fair-skinned with straight hair. The mother reports that when she takes the kids to the doctor, he will talk over her head to the kids. So they will be aware at some level of the colour heirarchy in operation. In the same way, the Dominican women should be aware of the discrimination meted out to her because of her skin-colour and instead of confronting that head on she has chosen to marry “up” to purify the “race.” Hence her great disappointment with a child who looks more African than her.

    An Afro-caribbean friend had 2 children also by different white fathers. She wished for the sons to share the same skin colour to avoid the problems society presents progeny that appear to have been fathered by different men. It won’t be an issue for her children as they do share skin tone. No scandalous whispers by strangers in public, because it is assumed they share the same father.

    So is this more a question of genetics than race?

    The issue I am trying to draw attention to is that society does not look favourably on progeny of different hues. The fact that the parents express dismay at this is proof. If parents have difficulty dealing with this then they should not be considered as candidates for fertility treatment as there is a chance that their children will look completely different from each other.

    Looking at their beautiful little girl, I am filled with sadness that her happiness will at some time in the future be marred when she encounters her parents true attitudes to race and colour. However, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!

    Posted 25 Mar 2007 at 5:23 am ¶

42. justin wrote:

    I have sympathy for the family not empathy, there are too many layers of exploitation in this story. Without the racial angle people might be more inclined to make conjecture about the incompetence or sinister motives of the fertility clinic.
    I think the solution to the social pressures that mixed families face is to find supportive communities. After this family has finished sacrificing their dignity for justice, I hope they can find a website like anti-racist parent and start to learn and grow along with their daughter.

    Posted 25 Mar 2007 at 11:07 am ¶

43. Ed wrote:

    In my mind what matters in this story is simply that the intended father’s sperm was not used to conceive the child.

    Perhaps the only reason this was discovered was the skin tone difference, but the use of the WRONG SPERM is what matters, right? Not the “race” of either the parents or the accidental contributor.

    Posted 25 Mar 2007 at 8:40 pm ¶

44. Clarafiedwords wrote:

    Those kids look just like their ‘white’ mom. WTF is she kidding?

    Posted 26 Mar 2007 at 12:59 pm ¶

45. Mrs. J wrote:

    raisin - I really appreciated your comments. I’d love to know if you’d be interested in contributing to my blog as many of my readers have famililies like yours (including my own!). Would you mind sending me an email so we can further discuss? The link is on the site. Thanks - mbj

    Posted 27 Mar 2007 at 7:45 am ¶

46. Kourtney wrote:

    WTF the mother of those children are just as dark as she is!! sometimes even though the child may be mixed it might take one parents skin color.. i think thier comments are out rageous! i really cant believe it! her kids have her ancestory running through thier viens whats the problem! are they racist!

    Posted 06 Apr 2007 at 6:33 pm ¶

47. kelly wrote:

    this is an amazing story–not that a black child was born to ‘white’ parents, but everything that took place after that child was born; the chaos, frenzy, and shame…
    it’s degrading as a person mixed race who is proud her heritage. it will be interesting to see how this all plays out…

    Posted 20 Apr 2007 at 8:17 pm ¶

48. armando wrote:

    I am a cuban of pure spanish blood. Most cubans in the US are of pure spanish blood (andy garcia, daisy fuentes, cameron diaz) and we get a great rise out of reminding dominicans and puerto ricans of their black ancestry. They get really upset. heh heh heh Its so pathetic when i see dominicans talk about spain as the mother country..i tel them “dude…you are the product of some horny spanish sailor and his black concubine”

    Posted 06 May 2007 at 12:00 pm ¶

49. Paz wrote:

    This is late, but I am compelled to respond to one of these comments. ARMANDO: I’m a proud third generation Cuban American of African, Indian and Spanish descent, as I’m quick to point out to anybody who mistakes me for Italian here in NYC. My family, like many Cuban families, is a range of shades and features. Unlike many Cuban families, my sisters and I learned growing up that to be Cuban is to embrace our true history, not some fairy tale about “pure” Castilian ancestry. The culture of those captive Africans who were brought to the New World is an integral component of all modern Caribbean culture, and this is especially true in Cuba. Cuba’s African heritage should be a point of pride, and not treated as something to be mocked, hidden, denied or “bred out.”

    Posted 14 Jun 2007 at 9:01 am ¶

50. Rcarcainskm wrote:

    I bet they wouldn’t give a shit if the baby came out with blonde hair and blue eyes. They wouldn’t be complaining about that I garuntee you.

    Posted 04 Jul 2007 at 11:42 pm ¶

51. Denise wrote:

    Aren’t we getting beyond the reality is that the lab mixed up the sperm so the baby is not genetically either parents. Did someone else receive his sperm and does he have a biological child out there somewhere as well?

    Posted 26 Feb 2008 at 11:46 am ¶

52. Melody wrote:

    It’s clear what the REAL issue is here. You can ignore what the parents have said (THE WORDS THAT ACTUALLY CAME OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS) and choose to only acknowledge the legal side of this or you can see the entire picture which points to obvious INTERNALIZED RACISM.

    Posted 17 Sep 2008 at 6:57 pm ¶

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