Do what you can to change the cycle, it takes a village to raise a child. Hopefully I can get just one out by just passing on the above information.

And the cycle starts all over again

So who cares about hair, love is what is kids and parents, every thing else will fall into place. I applaud Tom Cruise for not making an issue of race, if more people in this country where more like Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman maybe more children would have a family and love in there life.

Conner Cruise is a lucky kid he has two loving and caring parents, which is hard to find in any race in America.

My feelings on this? The little boy should definitely be exposed to both elements of his heritage. His racial identity will be more defined (by himself) if he is. I personally don’t see race in this country as being completely irrelevant, because America is probably the most racist country in the world. This kid will need a solid self-esteem no matter what. Both black people and white people can be VERY cruel/insensitive to mixed children, despite the myth that all black people accept mixed people into their community. He will need to know how to deal with this if it ever does become an issue. On the other hand, the problem of race will never go away if people don’t confront the issue within themselves.

I’ve heard it said that everyone, even the most “tolerant” peaceful individual, has deep-seated prejudice. I believe there’s truth to this statement. Many black people feel that if a white woman adopts or raises black/mixed children, she won’t be able to give them proper care or grooming, esp. with hair. I believe this is only an issue if the white woman in particular has few or no black friends to show her what to do. Many people don’t realize, as well, that there are different hair types within mixed people like any other. Not all mixed children will have “black” hair. My own hair is light brown/blonde and naturally pin-straight. There is no real difference in black or white children, but our racially obsessed society sees differences. Both need love and care and most of all-a healthy sense of who they are as people, human beings. It is not healthy to raise a biracial child in an all-white OR all-black community…there should be exposure to different cultures, different people.

Denying a biracial heritage when at least one parent is of each race isn’t so bad because the child can at least identify with the parent he or she looks like and ask questions if he/she wants to. Tom’s son has no one to talk to, no one to ask if he had questions, and it appears, no one who is willing to talk to him about being biracial even if he wants to. He’s a biracial child in an almost completely white arena, and that’s bound to cause some issues with him later on. I think Tom and Nicole should have been counseled on raising a biracial child before they were allowed to adopt him, but the rich don’t have the same rules and the child is the one who is going to suffer.

It seems that it doesn’t matter where you go, someone wants to talk about biracial people not fitting in. I have a close wonderful group of friends consisting of other mixed people, asians, hispanics and caucasians. We joke about race, as we joke about gender, but at the end of the day, while we all deal with our own personal issues, race is simply only a factor that other people impose upon you. I have long transgressed the need to fit myself in a biracial box, and simply claim I have the benefits of two wonderful cultures. If anyone else chooses to define me by my race, while it can be frustrating at times, that is their choice, and it only affects me if I choose to let it.
Irrespective of what society deems me, and no matter how many times I have to tick off “Other” or “None of the Above” when my race is asked, and the fact that no one cares what my actual mix is and it is not an issue unless it is a black/white mix, cannot phase me unless I let it.
So, while Tom may not have the most balanced outlook on claiming he doesn’t see his child’s colour, and he may want to balance it with a light approach simply discussing it with his son, those of you who claim he is ignorant for not choosing to completely saturate his son in racial issues are no better than he. There is always a balance, and living your life based on race is no answer. His child should not be forced into any racial issues, but when the time is right should be talked to, and let to decide on his own how he wants to deal with it. He will be not better off never forgettting his race than he would be to entirely forget it.

Remember, it’s not your colour, it’s your culture.

Race is a ‘non-issue’ issue. Do what Krishna, Shiva, Buddha, Christ and other great humans before us have advised, LOVE YOURSELF AND YOUR ENEMIES ( hard as hell to do). When you do this people will see you, not your gender or your race and you will see the reality of who we humans really are.

Stay beautiful and don’t believe the distracting ‘ism’ Hype!!!

And I guess obviously his kids are getting raised default “White” since he doesn’t even acknowledge their Black side. This is similar to how Native Americans got culturally and genetically “bred out” into a homeopathic “Cherokee Grandmother” phenomenom…

I think that overall the responses here have been interesting. However, from the overwhelming (but not all) number of respondents who identify themselves as being “white” there is still this inability to part with the idea that everything in this country is impacted by race…and gender….and sexuality for that matter. Stop being color blind…don’t accept me because you don’t see my color. Accept me because you respect me, my history, and my color which impacts so much of who I am. Truly, it doesn’t take a rocket science to see this. Again, the unwillingness to see that “race ” as a real and extant part of our culture, and more dangerously the willingness to minimalize race as a tactical “card” that someone plays, is intellectually affronting.

Oh yeah, by the way Camilla, your reference to black girls being the hardest on you stems from their early socialization that instills in them that black is beautiful when it looks as white as possible. Your mere presence embodied this philosophy and while you reap the benefits of being “beautifully black”, which you were likely considered almost automatically for having whiter features, you also have the flexibility to exist in the gray area which can often spare you a lot of (but not all) of the harsh stereotypes and treatment that dark-skinned women can expect as inevitable.

As ignorant and assinine as Radical’s statements were, I think that his observation that suggests that animosity exists between blacks and mixed people may have veracity. There is animosity but it isn’t because blacks wish they were white or looked white, it exists because blacks are frustrated with a society that ascribes beauty to blackness only when it resembles whiteness.

One more thing, Tom does appear to be a brainless man who should probably not procreate and yes Oprah should have pressed him more to answer real questions. Tom’s celebrity is based upon his populariy and one has to expect that personal privacy is a small price to pay for the $10 million paycheck that his fan-base affords him.

Just a thought….I know this got a bit off the subject, but I had to write this.