The Way We Were
Back in the "dark ages" - pre internet that is - when I was about 14 and listened to rock and roll on WIBG Philadelphia on the (now vintage) turquoise clock radio with alarm feature (oh I wish I had that radio - my son used it for years until it finally died), Hy Lit, the DJ, played a song that advocated interracial marriage and sang about "chocolate colored people." There was so much WRONG about that particular phrase, but the sentiment was also unwelcome - yes even in the Quaker City. Hy Lit had to add a little blurb at the end of the song that interracial marriage wasn't such a good idea. I was 14 and accepted that.
My late Aunt M was one of my favorite aunts. She made me feel good about myself and always was glad to see me. She didn't rag me about my weight or anything else that other members of my family either said outright or inferred with a deep sigh. (You mean even THIS size doesn't fit?)
Aunt M had one glaring fault: she was a racist in the extreme. She used the N word with abandon and spoke about glaring at a young white woman sitting with her black boyfriend. She actually glared at them. This was the 60's after all. Nowadays they would get in her face. Not then.
Fast forward to the present. My grandson, when he was very little, observed that his friend, Lily, was "brown." It was just a matter of fact statement. Lily is still his friend - his "best friend" as he will tell you. He never talks about her skin color. She's just his best friend. (A while back he was in the library playing a video game that an older boy scornfully called a "girl's" game and asked him if he liked girls. He said yes. My best friend is a girl. And then he went back to his video game. He's not a big fan of crash and burn games or violent games. He likes games with math and science among other things. But that's another issue.)
What made me think about this today was that I finished Queen Charlotte, an offshoot of Bridgerton, which traces the beginning of the courtship of Queen Charlotte who marries George III. If you've seen Bridgerton you know that it takes place in 18th century England where royalty is both black and white and mixed and people fall madly in love with one another regardless of skin color.
In the Queen Charlotte story she is one of the first of the "Great Experiment" which brings black royalty to England and other Euuropean countries. Queen Charlotte is actually German. We meet Lord Danbury who is old and wealthy and has a much younger and very beautiful wife. He longs to be part of society but is spurned by the white royalty and takes his frustration out on his wife by having sex with her constantly until, sadly, one day he has a heart attack and dies. His wife is left fend for herself and try to save their estate which she ultimately does. In the meantime she meets a white neighbor and falls in love with him and he with her but it's too early in the "great experiment" for that to happen.
Lady Danbury survives nicely and by the time her son is grown the great experiment has succeeded. If only.....
Queen Charlotte was especially touching. The end was lovely and provided interesting background. There is a lot of going back and forth from the past to the Bridgerton present but it's all so much fun and the costumes and hair are absolutely exquisite.
But just think if this had been true! We probably wouldn't have had a civil war, there would have been a lot more intermarriage and the founding fathers would have included founding mothers and maybe at least a few would have been people of color. Slavery may not have been an issue unless they decided to enslave some other race. We probably wouldn't be talking about racism either.
I really did enjoy Queen Charlotte. She's a strong woman who loves her husband deeply and helps him survive his "madness."
And there was an actual Queen Charlotte who may have actually been mixed race.
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