From: Swami Tapasananda [tapas@accn.org]
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 9:02 PM
Subject: Sunday November 6 at Mother's Trust


Sunday Nov 6 , 11AM,
 David Douglas ;  talks about the theme of his book-- Marriage Beyond Black and White ; no charge
 2pm ;   Intercultural Family Relationships  a workshop 20.00
              Lakeshore Interfaith Institute, 6676 122nd Ave,
              Ganges Mi 49408 -269 543 3951 tapas@accn.org 269 543 3951


Marriage Beyond Black and White
An Interracial Family Portrait 
   

Memoirs of an interracial marriage

Marriage
beyond Black and White
by David Douglas and Barbara Douglas

... is a truly unique memoir that involves the reader on many levels.

It’s a love story...
interracial marriage between a black man and a white women from the 1940's to 1990’s.

It’s a story of family...
and of the parents' efforts to protect their children from the harsh realities of racism.

A story of spiritual transformation...
how one interracial family overcame the forces of racism through courage, forgiveness and love.

It’s a story of hope...
how our nation and world can heal from the disease of racism.







5 out of 5 stars  Wonderful

This book was an eye opener. . I thought this book described in a very personal way some of the ways racism effects the lives of African American families in this country today and in the recent past. The first section of the book is seen through the eyes of Barbara who grew up in Ann Arbor Michigan in a white middle class family. She described herself as growing up in a family that actively supported the rights of African Americans and as I understand this, as a child growing up accepted this as normal. This attitude she believed to be correct and therefore the way other white families believed. She was shocked and horrified to find out just how naïve she was concerning racism in this country when she became involved with an African American man. She recounts incident after incident of how racism affected her family starting as an interracial couple and then as a family with children. This included job and housing discrimination and even situations that literally put their lives into danger. She described her experience as one who had been raised as a first class citizen and then sudden found herself a second class citizen striped of all the privilege and protection she had taken for granted and had assumed were shared by all Americans.


5 out of 5 stars  Marriage beyond Black and White

Barbara Douglas, a great writer, one paragraph weaved to the next with long pulling sentences that keep the reader interested, sad, mad, and desparate to know what happened next. Barbara's wonderful story of her interracial marriage to Carlyle, the painful tradgedy of the sick racism they endured and their powerful love that kept them glued together - it is by itself an "unfinished symphony" and essay of the highest mark.

In part two, David in a distinctly different voice and style tells the story of his early years, education, and the details of interracial family life. His style is one of simply truth, exlaining his encounters and experiences with racism, as well as the solutions he found in his search for identity.

Indeed, David as a biracial child was at one-time, like a prisoner in a racially divided world. Thus he is able to give us a more balanced and unbiased perspective of this "disease" that lives on in virtually every human being. Yet the cure is attainable and David provides a thoughtful and comprehensive solution, while at the same time suggesting some tactical remedies derived in part from the Baha'i religion that may seem extreme to some but are well worth considering. It is a "must read" for anyone interested in the unity of the world.