36 Responses to “About the Blog & Commenting Policy”

1. 
   Feministe » Project Guest Blogger: Week Two Says:
   June 4, 2007 at 2:59 am

   [...] Aulelia runs the blog Charcoal Ink, where she highlights and discusses subjects within the spheres of politics, feminism, culture and society that particularly affect Africans or members of the African diaspora. She is a student at Bristol University in England, currently living in Paris, studying Politics & French as a dual degree. She loves Darrin Henson, Denzel Washington, reading magazines, chocolate, gossip blogs, lipstick, feminism, Africa, unity, and activism. [...]

2. 
   aggie Says:
   July 30, 2007 at 2:10 am

   What do yo u think. I have just bumped on acomment about black french roots. Talkin about roots it makes me wonder why americans tend to classify everyone with a black feature of whathever sort as black.People are humans in the first place, but since they love placing themselves in groups they should acknowledge people of mixed heitage. My son is half Zimbanwean and half Polish, he is mixed best of both, i will teach him he is white and he is black not to run into one side and neglect the other.

   Good example is Beyonce Knowles. She is multiracial. Her father is black and her mom is self confessed white french/native american with drop of african (interview on 3rd april this year), than people on blogs tried to persuade that she is actually black(with green eyes and nearly white skin)Now everyone gets angry when mentioning Beyonces heritage, while you can clearly see she has features typical for mixed raced people. Why all the fuss and arguments between fans?
   Why is it so hard to admit that yes Halle Berry, Alicia Keys are half white? WHy neglest part of your roots to fit to the other?
   My son will definitely be brought up properly to love both world, and one day people like him will erase the word race and replace it with humans.

3. 
   aulelia Says:
   August 3, 2007 at 8:04 pm

   i think your comment is wholly ignorant of the fact that racism exist. it also forgets the fact that black people have had to struggle because of their race and the way they looked. do you really THINK that 200 years ago that halle berry/alicia keys could have walked into any white saloon in the US and acted like one of the white girls? they would have been branded black. the US created the racial classification system, the African slaves did not. History impacts a great deal of what we do. Just deal with it and stop trying to make black people not be proud of their own. And yes, I do see most mixed-race people who classify themselves as black as black people like me. That’s just how I am and I will always be proud of being black. I think your comment is quite hypocritical in fact — you say why neglect the part of your roots to fit another but yet you dont want races to exist to FIT YOUR IDEOLOGY. be consistent.

4. 
   aulelia Says:
   August 3, 2007 at 8:05 pm

   by the way, beyonce is a BLACK woman and so is her mother. beyonce has said many times that she was the first african-american woman to win the ASCAP award for songwriter of the year. that is where i respect beyonce because she always states her AA heritage. just get over it.

5. 
   Charcoal Ink Is Being ‘Black’ Relevant? « Says:
   August 3, 2007 at 8:46 pm

   [...] About the Blog & Commenting Policy [...]

6. 
   Kelley Says:
   August 6, 2007 at 10:03 pm

   Aggie, I would just like you to know that Beyonce’s mother is indeed “Black” and does call herself “black”. Like Beyonce’s mother, I too am of New Orleans Creole heritage. I am a black woman with French ancestry. Most black people in America have caucasian ancestry somewhere in their history. But that doesn’t mean that our African blood is null and void, now does it? Believe it or not, many of us LOOOVE being black. Just ask Halle and Alicia Keys.
   As for Beyonce’s features being “multiracial”, please. You can find hundreds of other black girls in Beyonce’s hometown in Texas who look exactly like her. People of African descent have a wide range of features and complexions. It’s part of what makes us so unique and beautiful as a people.

   So as Aulelia said, “just get over it!” LOL

7. 
   aulelia Says:
   August 7, 2007 at 9:17 am

   thanks Kelley 4 the support!

8. 
   Prada Jones Says:
   August 26, 2007 at 11:57 pm

   I discovered your page today and it is beautiful
   I am so impressed by your cultural background and points of view.

9. 
   aulelia Says:
   August 27, 2007 at 7:00 am

   prada jones — thank you so much! that is such a nice compliment. feel free to come again

10. 
    Ann Says:
    August 29, 2007 at 10:53 pm

    Aulelia.

    Hi, just been wanting to stop by and leave a comment. Sorry for tarrying so long. Great blog you have, much power to you

    Now, on to this person by the name of aggie.

    “WHy neglest part of your roots to fit to the other?

    Because the white part of black Americans (white rapist slave fathers and white rapist fathers during Reconstruction and during segregation) disowned their half-black sons and daughters, that’s why. Why should black Americans acknowledge and embrace the rapist blood that flows in our veins? Why should we seek solidarity with white America when it still has not acknowledged that the reason black Americans come in so many different hues is because of the race hatred shown towards black women by white men in the past?

    For over 400 years, white men treated black women as if they were good enough to fuck, but not good enough to marry (sorry for the profanity, Aulelia), and judging from today’s white men’s behaviour (not all white men, only those to which this does apply), black women STILL are only good enough to fuck, but not good enough to marry.

    So, should black Americans acknowledge the rapist white slaver blood that flows in our veins? Should black Americans acknowledge the rapist native American blood that flows in our veins (Five Tribes of the South aped the white man’s ways and enslaved black people as well, and treated the enslaved black people brutally)?

    I’ll accept and acknowledge the black blood, thank you very much. The black blood is what carried black people through slavery, failed Reconstruction and the humiliation of Jim Crow segregation, no thanks to the white or native american blood.

    And if ANY race in America is ‘multi-racial’ it is black Americans—black blood (of which I am very proud; white blood and native blood, both non-black bloods which cared only for their own greedy slaver interests.)

    My skin color is not what it is just by falling out of the sky. My skin color like so many black people in America got that way from white men’s race hatred and rape against black women and girls.

    Now, aggie, while you are so busy worshipping ‘whiteness’ which has caused nothing but hell, cruelty and degradation in this country, I advise you to learn more about black history—America’s history.

    Any race of people who would show so much hypocrisy as white America has by screaming and bleating about keeping THEIR RACE PURE, all the while white men raped and polluted black people’s bloodlines with the blood of rapists, should be ashamed to have the audacity to talk about black people as being inferior.

    If any race has shown inferior behaviour, it is the white race.

    A superior race of men would not hate and rape another race of women just because of the color of their skin.

    If anything, that is a sign of exteme inferior and filthy behaviour.

    Just goes to show you who was inferior and who was superior.

    That black women survived so much sadistic filth done to us at the hands of white men, native american men, chinese men, arab men, latino men and even free men of color during and after slavery, and even some black men who took [and still take] their rage out on black women because they don’t dare attack the big bad white man who is causing hell for everyone, is a testament that black women would not lie down and grovel before MEN period.

    It is not black people’s fault we come in so many different colors.

    Lay that legacy at the feet of the white man and his legalized mass gang-rapes of black women and girls for numerous generations, decades, centuries.

    Thanks, Aulelia, for allowing me to speak.

    Peace.

11. 
    aulelia Says:
    August 30, 2007 at 7:20 am

    your welcome ann to voice your views + thanks for using this blog as a platform

12. 
    Mr. McGinnis Says:
    August 30, 2007 at 5:14 pm

    What’s up! We need more black voices in the media! Especially women!

    BUT, as far as this thread, people don’t actually seem to be listening to each other. Y’all are sticking to certain points in each others arguments, and not really trying to have empathy for one another’s point of view. Lack of empathy is the real problem in the world today.

    First off, people have the right to label themselves anything they want; but no matter what your racial mixture, there will always be some ass*#$*$ who will label you with a disparaging word, deny you your rights and maybe even try to kill you. So in that sense, a half black/half white person is most certainly a black person in that they have to deal with all the bull that the world hands out to black people.

    Now Ann, you are lacking empathy. You are talking to a white woman with a multiracial child about interracial people being the result of white men raping black woman! Are you going to sit down with this little boy and be all, “Your mama’s blood is that of racist rapists! Your mama raped your dad!” Please. And on another note, is Aggie EVEN American?! I didn’t know Poland ever owned slaves or exploited Africa…. but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you should crack a book on Poland. Anyway, the main point is Ann, this woman has a multi-racial-child, and her experience is valid.

    On another note, I personally resent being lumped in with the white male devil. My ancestry is NOT pure evil. Please. I think it is a grave error to alienate people with angry, hateful words, especially those who are on your side.

13. 
    Ann Says:
    August 30, 2007 at 11:48 pm

    The ODR was created by white racists during slavery and continued long through segregation. Black people were not allowed to claim ALL of their racial heritage, whether that heritage included white blood or native american blood.

    Unlike Brazil, where there was a ‘mulatto class’, a ‘buffer class’, in the American South the racial creation of mixed-blood people (black/white/native) was not acknowledged. If you had one drop of black blood in you, you were considered ‘black’, no matter how light your skin color. I was speaking to the fact that even alive amongst Americans today are white men who sexually violated black women and girls in the American South during segregation; many of those people would be my Mother’s age. And yes, many of them did not claim their mixed-blood children.

    There are many white people living in the South who have blood relative brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, uncles and aunts who are related to them via a white man having children with a black woman or girl, and this same white male relative disowned that mixed-blood child. That is what I spoke to. If a multi-racial person wishes to claim ALL their ancestry, I certainly have no problem with that, but, facts do have to be faced.

    The mistreatment of black women and girls by white men did not stop with the abolition of slavery. This racist/sexist mistreatment continued on up to the 1970s.

    True, Poland has no history of mistreatment of black women. And the denigration of black women has no history in Poland as it does in America. And I dare to say, MAYBE, but certainly not all, but, there are probably some men in Poland who would treat a black woman better and more respectfully than many men in America would treat a black woman, and that PROBABLY holds for some other areas of Europe such as Norway or Sweden or Hungary. But, that is just my guess. I do not see much respect of the beauty of black women in America, but, I am not waiting around for the rest of the country to catch up to accepting all black people.

    I am black and comely, and I have no shame of my blackness just because white America has decreed it so for over 400 years.

    Black people have a tough row to hoe in this country of their black ancestors. Black blood is deemed as evil, even with all the hells that black people have survived, no matter how hard white society has tried to destroy black people, and white society still is trying to destroy black people (racial profiling, economic violence, social/residential isolation, etc.).

    As to aggie’s multi-racial child, in this day and age her child can claim all of her/his ancestry, EVEN the black blood, wheres as not too long ago (Jim Crow segregation) the rule of hypodescent caused much hell for many mixed-blood ‘black’ people. And truth be told, it still does. Either they stayed with the black race and worked towards black liberation, or in order to better themselves, some opted to ‘pass for white’, having to leave their families and way of life behind them.

    Because of the worship of whiteness in America, anything and everything ‘black’ is severely denigrated and disrespected. Which is why I prefer to acknowledge only my black blood. If any parent has a multi-racial child, ALL of the child’s racial heritage should be acknowledged.

    And that decision rests with the individual.

    But, if aggie lives in America, aggie will have to face cold, hard facts that ‘black’ is the antithesis of ‘white’ and that this society still fights against the acceptance of ‘blackness’.

    All others are accepted (Asian, Native American, European, etc.) ALL but black. And hopefully aggie is braced and ready for all that will be thrown towards her child’s way.

    If aggie can raise her child to truly embrace ALL of her/his heritage without any fear or shame, excellent.

    But, aggie must realize that if she lives in America, everyone else has been and will be accepted over black people.

    “On another note, I personally resent being lumped in with the white male devil. My ancestry is NOT pure evil. Please. I think it is a grave error to alienate people with angry, hateful words, especially those who are on your side.”

    Yes, white men have committed some viciously cruel and hateful acts of barbarity. And the legacy of that is still with us, where black people are relegated to being inferior when they have done no wrong against white people, but, on the other hand, white people with the history they have, have been exalted as being givers of kindness and democracy to ALL Americans, when nothing could be further from the truth.

    And my black ancestry is not inferior the way this society loves to believe. And I too, also resent white people considering my black ancestry as evil, vile and degrading. There is much that black America should be proud of. And black America has no history of barbarity against all groups who have come to this country.

    But, everyone and their uncle is readily accepted in America.

    Everyone but black Americans.

    And I do not see this scenario changing until blackness is celebrated just as much as whiteness. But, I will not hold my breath waiting for such a thing to happen. So, I will continue to celebrate my blackness as I always have all my life. I will not wait on non-black America to accept me. I accept me.

    “You are talking to a white woman with a multiracial child about interracial people being the result of white men raping black woman! Are you going to sit down with this little boy and be all, “Your mama’s blood is that of racist rapists! Your mama raped your dad!” Please.”

    Please, no need to be melodramatic. This is a child born in the 21ST Century, not the 20TH Century, 19TH, or 18TH Century.

    Many black people born pre-1967, do carry the blood of rapists in their veins. Rare was the white man who cared enough for a black woman and the children he had with her to publically acknwledge them, let alone take care of those children. Rare was the black family that escaped the defilement of white men who sexually used black women in many black families across the South. The blood of many black people in America got their via rape or sexual coercion, not via much love and kindness.

    And the mass rapes of white men against black women is still a thorn in the side of America; it is still a part of black and white people’s history that is constantly swept under the rug because it was so savage and sordid what white men did to black women and girls.

    This is an aspect of black history that needs to be addressed and not run from. Yes, it is extremely painful, but it must be reconciled with. Because of this vexous connection that ties black and white people together, this vestige that causes attraction and yet loathing, desire yet repulsion, America will have to always have this issue that must be tackled.

    Black Americans have white blood in our veins that got there mostly by force, and this must be acknowledeged by BOTH black AND white America.

    Black and white are tied together more than they wish to accept. As painful as that maybe, black and white have to come to terms with this.

    With all that black Americans have contributed to America you would think this country would do the following:

    “Okay, black Americans, we know we have done grievous wrongs to you, and we ask your forgiveness, and we will work to reconcile our racist past. We will no longer treat you as third-class citizens, but as fellow equals. We will accept and acknowledge you as a part of this country you have put so much into.”

    Just those few words, Mr. McGinnis, that is all that black people ask.

    I realized it is asking too much, but, if black people really lose faith in this country, then it will truly be a travesty.

    But, hope still springs eternal; black people have not lost faith in America. Even with all that we have suffered here, even with all we have put as roots here in the country of our birth, as strangers in a strange land, we have not lost faith.

    I have not.

    Even with my ‘non-empathy’ self as you so describe me.

14. 
    Mr. McGinnis Says:
    August 31, 2007 at 4:09 am

    Ann… you are being far too simplistic. I am a white person, and I DO acknowledge the contribution of black people to American, and world culture… so do a lot of people. Again, all white people are not descendants of evil-OK, thanks.

    I don’t really want to get into all these specifics, and it’s really neither here nor there, but you are a bit wrong about multi-racial people in the history of America. New Orleans, as south as you can get, had a very large population of free, wealthy and educated Creoles before the Civil War. If you are interested, you should read up on it.

15. 
    Ann Says:
    August 31, 2007 at 10:54 am

    Yes, I am very well aware of the history of the Creoles of New Orleans ( the ‘free people of color’ as they were called, and the many Creole communities of Cane River, Natichotches and the free people of color of Charleston, S.C.).

    The Metoyer family, of whom Coincoin is most famous, comes to mind. That family was not the only one, as there were many others.

    Please, tell me something I do not know about free people of color, okay.

    And no, I am not a bit wrong about the history of multi-racial people in America.

    True, multi-racial people of America started when the first white men came to this country, and the first black men were brought here during the early years of colonization. Does indentured servitude ring a bell with you?

    Later as the mixing of blood between black, red and white escalated, the racist landed-gentry class saw what could have occurred—a TRUE equal, democratic society—and then and there, wedges were driven between black, and poor whites and Indians, who in the beginning were living together in egalitarian conditions. Heck, they could not help having lived together on the same level, as all three groups were treated the same, since they could not hold title to land nor vote.

    But, the rich white class (I trust you remember Bacon’s Rebellion?) saw the inevitable—various races living together in harmony–and that would lead towards an equal standing for all, the rich whites tore apart the alliances of poor whites, blacks and Indians.

    Since then, there has been racial strife in America. Strife which should not have ocurred if greedy, racist landed white males had not created anti-miscegenation, or shall I say, anti-human laws to put on the books.

    America could have continued on the path towards being a better country, with ALL being given human dignity and rights, but, America chose to go down a path of racial destruction.

    The legacy of which is still with us.

16. 
    Faye Says:
    September 14, 2007 at 1:37 am

    Why do we care what multiracial people call themselves? Like or dislike them for who they are, not what they call themselves Are there any pure people around…probably not. If Beyonce , Mariah, Alicia, Halle, Tiger were of questionable character, would we be trying to insist they refer to themselves as Black? The Black media tried to hang Mariah…don’t do it. Whoever and whatever they are comfortable with, let it be. Enjoy what they bring to the world.

17. 
    ricko Says:
    November 3, 2007 at 6:13 pm

    Thank you for you work! Good Luck.i

18. 
    Mike Says:
    November 7, 2007 at 6:01 am

    My great grandfather was the mulatto son of a Missouri slave. We don’t know anything about his father, but he may have been the result of a rape. Such things were not discussed openly in those days and that bit of knowlege has been lost in time. He was, however, a black man who married a white woman in 1885!

    Their daughter, my grandmother, considered herself “colored,” but after her father’s death, her mother forced her into a marriage of security with a white man many years her senior; she was 16 and he was 50. This meant that she had to live her life as a lie by passing for white because the One Drop Rule still prevailed in those days. The burden of denying her identity was torturous for her and she still felt conflicted in her old age about the life she had no choice in leading. It was a matter of survival. She even hid her black origin from her own children, who ranged from very blond to olive skinned.

    When I was growing up, people only called themselves “Americans” if they left the country! Inside the US, people were considered Irish, Italian, English, Negro, Chinese, or whatever they identified themselves to be regardless of how many generations their families may have been in the US. One day my schoolteacher gave the class an assigment to report on what nationality we were. Again, none of us thought about being Americans, so I went home and asked my mother what we were. She was puzzeled and finally said, “Well, we’re just white people.” I said that white was a color, not a nationality, so she called my grandmother to ask what we were. That is how the story was finally leaked in my family.

    Telling the story of her orgins seemed to be a tremendous relief for my grandmother, but it upset a couple of her children. In fact, years later when my grandmother died, I mentioned at her funeral that, in her old age, she looked more black than she appeared to be in her pictures taken as a young woman in 1916 when she was first married. Her daughter, my very blond aunt, responded as if I’d plunged a wooded stake through her dead mother’s heart! She was very offended that I would suggest in public that she was part black! Her own mother, however, lying there in the casket, looked more at peace than I ever remembered her to be in life. Only in death could she finally be the black woman who she really was inside.

19. 
    aulelia Says:
    November 7, 2007 at 10:53 am

    Wow Mike, thanks for that anecdote. It was very illuminating

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22. 
    Haley Says:
    November 19, 2007 at 8:08 am

    @ Ann, Why would I apologize for something that I didn’t do and I had no control over it because I wasn’t even born?? I will NOT apologize for something I didn’t do and had no control over! And I will NOT be blamed for what happened so long ago, way before our time. You can’t blame ALL white people (especially the ones living today) for slavery because we didn’t do it. And for black people that are against all white people for what “some” white men did so long ago, makes ya’ll just as racist. So you really can’t say nothing. And Africans are the FIRST ones who started slavery. Black people sold their own people to the white man. Ask your history teacher. So not every black person is innocent. like most of ya’ll like to claim to be.

23. 
    Bameextece Says:
    December 6, 2007 at 12:08 pm

    mm.. very nice

24. 
    zack Says:
    December 22, 2007 at 11:08 am

    This site truly amazing!!!

25. 
    otuyi Says:
    December 23, 2007 at 9:38 am

    Great site!n

26. 
    Tricia and Funke Says:
    February 9, 2008 at 2:10 pm

    Loving the site very original, miss thing you must have time on your hands!luv ya make us proud and do your thing!xx

27. 
    msmilie Says:
    February 13, 2008 at 7:17 pm

    I came across your blog randomly and have enjoyed reading it.

28. 
    p Says:
    February 21, 2008 at 4:59 am

    are you planning on posting the lenny kravitz scans you mentioned in the leona lewis harper’s bazaar post? i’d love to see them, thanks!

29. 
    aulelia Says:
    February 21, 2008 at 11:41 am

    p — i will get those uploaded tonight. i completely forgot about them. stay tuned!

30. 
    enhaniDawn Says:
    February 24, 2008 at 11:43 am

    Not outward were all of her workouts stretched and her smartass precarious, when she fell forward, she would ach on her bottled hair.

31. 
    miss b.t Says:
    March 17, 2008 at 3:06 pm

    hey there Aulelia…. are you eva gonna reply to me? ….. girl to be honest you are an inspiration to me and other girls as well (well those who are sane and broad minded as we are)… i dig the fact that you are proud to be african…. i reside in johannesburg in south africa where everyone is trying to be white including my roomates and schoolmates and people like you rock my world…. keep it up girl….. and stay blessed… ayowba africa

32. 
    miss b.t Says:
    March 17, 2008 at 3:09 pm

    oh by the way i got through your blog absent mindedly but to be truly honest i am happy i came across it … its mind blowing and i enjoyed reading it…. go on and make us proud

33. 
    aulelia Says:
    March 18, 2008 at 4:07 pm

    @miss b.t, sorry it took me ages to reply! i am glad you like the blog. you can e-mail me at aulelia_2@hotmail.co.uk if you have any questions.

    do you have a blog ?

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    April 15, 2008 at 3:16 am

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35. 
    OG Says:
    June 24, 2008 at 12:24 am

    Auelelia,

    I found your blog because I was too lazy to search for an old post and was googling it to see if I could find it that way quicker. Instead I landed on your post about the black glamazon and OF COURSE fell in love with it, Since I’ve been blogging under the name for almost four years now.

    I love your blog and plan on visiting here often as I am interested in the Diaspora and how they view black life in there respected countries!!

    -OG

36. 
    aulelia Says:
    June 25, 2008 at 7:03 am

    @OG, thank you for the compliment!!!! i look forward to seeing more of your comments on the blog.

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