black baby Archives - The Race Card Project

Mom placed newborn in front row

May 12, 2024May 12, 2024 black baby, Boston, John Butterworth, MA, MD, mom, newborn, nursing school, viewing window, white baby

John Butterworth
Boston, MA

My mother has just graduated from nursing school in Boston and moved to Maryland in the mid ’50’s with my dad, who was in the Army at the time. Mom found a job at a nearby city hospital in the maternity ward. Mom placed a beautiful newborn in the front row of the viewing window. The newborn viewing area was actually designated as whites -only and the baby front and center was an African American among the white newborns. Mom was completely caught off guard and never fully accepted either the reaction or the explanation provided as part of the subsequent request to move the baby, and told us the story more than once as a cautionary life lesson about right, wrong, equality, and the reality of the day. Imagine that this was the way lives began….

“He’s not your son? Oh good!”

October 13, 2021January 9, 2022 adopted, Amber Halverson, black baby, brother, but you don't look, city, colorblind, culture, Eugene, Family, father, first experience, godparents, mother, OR, sister, son, store, white

Amber Halverson,
Eugene, OR.

“Oh good! He doesn’t look like he has any white in him at all!”
My first real encounter with my own race that I can remember was when I was in middle school. My white godparents had just adopted a black baby. They “kept his black name”, DiMario, as his middle name and changed his first name to the “biblical” (aka: white) name Joshua.
We were in the store and my godmother took her oldest daughter to the bathroom so I was with the baby waiting outside. An older white woman came up to me and asked if he was my son. I exclaimed, “Oh, no no no. He’s my brother”. In my mind it was a crazy thing to ask because I was obviously too young to have a baby. Her response was “Oh good. Because he doesn’t look like he has any white in him at all!” and then she just walked away like what she said didn’t mean anything.
I was raised in a diverse city with many different races and cultures, but my own race was not acknowledged to me until it was compared to someone else’s.
His was acknowledged right away and was immediately looked down upon, all before he could talk.
I often wonder if his parents have ever talked with him about his race and what it means to him or if they teach him colorblindness.

Mommy, why wasn’t I born white?

June 25, 2020June 25, 2020 black baby, Black is Beautiful, Born, Cambridge, hair, MA, mommy, token, Victoria Finney, white

Victoria Finney
Cambridge, MA

I still remember how upset she was when I asked her this. Like I had said something wrong that I shouldn’t have. Like I had failed a test somehow.

“Tori, aren’t you happy with the way you are? You are beautiful; black is beautiful.”

Why is she saying this? Why does she look so mad? I just want my hair to be like my friends’ hair in my class… so nice and straight and flat and easy. I’m tired of people tryna yank it out every stinking morning.

“No, mommy, I just wanna be like everyone else, like my friends in school!” That is when I started crying. And mommy looked so helpless, like she had done something wrong. And for the first time I felt ashamed for wishing I was different.

“No, Tori. You were born the way you are and you can’t change the way you are. You have to love who you are.” This wasn’t exactly the easiest concept to teach to a six-year-old. I bawled harder and she just held me in that way that mothers do to make all the bad in the world go away. A few weeks later, we went to the hair dresser and I got my first relaxer. It burned. My best friend at school asked me how I got the weeds out. I was just happy to be normal.

It took a few more years of being *the token* for me to appreciate who I really was. I love my mother. And I love this colorful life that she gave to me.

I apologize for being born black.

December 14, 2015 Alicia Nichols, apologize, black baby, born black, OR, Salem

Alicia Nichols,
Salem, OR.

Another black baby born too soon.

May 11, 2015 anonymous, black baby, black neighborhood, Brookline, infant mortality, liberal, MA, preterm birth

Anonymous,
Brookline, MA.

After growing up in a predominantly black town (Bloomfield, CT) as the daughter of Northern, white liberals, I became a nenatologist. Racial disparities in infant mortality and preterm birth motivate me to leave my 3 daughters in daycare and go to work. There, I not only look after preterm infants in the NICU, but I research why some women deliver early and others don’t. Injustice at birth must not be tolerated.

Blonde daughter adopted beautiful black baby.

July 17, 2014 adopt, black baby, blonde, CO, daughter, Irene Eggers, light skin, siblings, Wheat Ridge

Irene Eggers
Wheat Ridge, CO

The baby’s light older siblings adore her.

Race adopting outside Race,…. least racist.

December 7, 2012December 10, 2012 adopting, black baby, CA, Hispanic, Leguna Woods, Middle-Eastern, Race, Racist, Tod Carey, white guilt

Tod Carey
Laguna Woods, CA

In my 66 years,.. I don’t recall seeing an Hispanic couple with their adopted Black baby in the baby carriage. I can’t recall ever seeing an Asian couple walking down the street hand in hand with their adopted White child. For the life of me,… I don’t remember ever seeing a Black couple with their adopted Asian baby. Why not?

Am I mistaken by claiming never to have seen a celebrity, except for whites, adopt outside their Race? Seeing a white couple with their adopted child of a different Race would hardly warrant a second glance today.

So,…. if a comprehensive survey were done to determine which Race adopts the least outside their Race and which Race adopts the most outside their Race,… and which Races are in the middle,… Whites would be shown to be the least racist. By observing human nature and various cultures through extensive traveling, my conclusion is that Asians (in their heart of hearts) are probably the most racist and Blacks, Hispanics and Middle Eastern folks are competing for the middle spots.

Some folks may say that this adoption observation doesn’t really prove a thing. Yes it does.

Some folks might also suggest that this would only prove ‘white guilt’, subconscious or not, based on some sociological need for redemption. Nonsense. The reason for this observable fact, is,… Whites ARE the least racist. After all, Obama would not be our President, twice, without White folks.

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