Claudia Jordan- I Am NOT Crying For Sympathy

Last night on the Real Housewives of Atlanta, we saw Claudia Jordan discuss the challenges of being biracial. Today, on her Bravo blog, she spoke more about this. What did she say? 

Claudia claims, ”

I want to make this very clear: When I talk about my struggles, I in no way am crying for sympathy. I do know that I have also been the beneficiary of some preferential treatment, as well, because of my biracial-ness. I am well aware that colorism is alive and well in our society and more often than not, those at the darker end of the color spectrum continue to receive unequal treatment, as well as cruel prejudice. And this infuriates me! I in no way want to belittle or compare my struggles to others that–an argument can be made–had it much worse than me.

OK, with that said, I will speak on MY experiences. Growing up biracial, I honestly never even cared or thought about what color I was. I knew Mommy was light and Daddy was dark. And I couldn’t care less! It wasn’t until others started telling me what I was and started treating me in a cruel manner, including calling me horrific names, that I even knew there was a difference! My first negative memory having to do with color came when I was about five years old. We were the only black family in our neighborhood when we lived in Taunton, Massachusetts, and my brother and I had our jack-o-lanterns out on the front steps of our house. Well the neighborhood bullies came around and picked them up and threatened to smash them. We begged them not to and not only did they not listen to us but they called us the “N”-word as they laughed and destroyed our pumpkins. I remember feeling like the wind was knocked out of me. I know it wasn’t a matter of life or death, but when you are little kid and you experience such mean treatment, it kind of blows your mind!

When I got a little older, I remember looking at a magazine cover (I think it was Ebony), and there was a beautiful chocolate bride on the cover. I was admiring her beauty when my color-struck aunt looked over my shoulder and snickered and said, “Hmmph maybe you’ll get cute one day when you finally get some color!” I was only 10 years old! From that moment on, I thought something was wrong with me and that I was funny looking just from that moment alone. It’s amazing how much of an impact the words of an adult will have on a child. Now there are just two incidents but there are many, many more. Assaults, fights, etc…all of this peppered my upbringing. Did it make me think one side was better or worse than the other? No, it did not. And although I am biracial, I identify myself as a black woman. A black woman that has an Italian side. I have never, nor will I ever, downplay my black side. I think that is the side that the most injustice has been done to, and I’ve always been very vocal about the work we need to do in this country to make things equal. No, we still are not there. But I can’t make this blog a novel, so I will have to cut this conversation off here, because I could speak on this all day!”

We just adore Claudia and can’t say enough good things about her.