by Carmen Van Kerckhove

Addicted to Race is New Demographic’s podcast about America’s obsession with race. Here’s a rundown of what you’ll find in this episode:

How do we raise black children in an all-white community and still maintain a healthy sense of identity? How do we combat Eurocentric standards of beauty? Do internationally adoptive parents go too far with the cultural activities, at the expense of talking to their kids about race? Carmen Van Kerckhove, Tami Winfrey Harris, and Jae Ran Kim discuss.

Addicted to Race is broadcast live every Sunday afternoon at 12 pm Eastern. You can listen live on our BlogTalkRadio page and call in by dialing 347-996-3958.

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by Carmen Van Kerckhove

Addicted to Race is New Demographic’s podcast about America’s obsession with race. Here’s a rundown of what you’ll find in this episode:

Is there a racial component to the angry protests over healthcare reform? Is racial “covering” the new racial passing? Why do people of color often find themselves the subject of mistaken identity? Are comedians right in saying that black parents spank their kids and white parents don’t? Carmen Van Kerckhove, Tami Winfrey Harris, and Deesha Philyaw discuss.

Addicted to Race is broadcast live every Sunday afternoon at 12 pm Eastern. You can listen live on our BlogTalkRadio page and call in by dialing 347-996-3958.

Click here to never miss an episode by subscribing to us in iTunes
or
click here to play it immediately

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

Addicted to Race is New Demographic’s podcast about America’s obsession with race. Here’s a rundown of what you’ll find in this episode:

When underage black girls date men who are 10 or 20 years older than them, why are the girls blamed for being “fast” instead of the men being called out for preying on children? Why is love not enough when it comes to raising kids? Is the absence of people of color in the AMC series Mad Men an accurate portrayal? Or is the series just trying to duck the race question? Carmen Van Kerckhove, Tami Winfrey Harris, and Maxwell Reddick discuss.

Addicted to Race is broadcast live every Sunday afternoon at 12 pm Eastern. You can listen live on our BlogTalkRadio page and call in by dialing 347-996-3958.

Click here to never miss an episode by subscribing to us in iTunes
or
click here to play it immediately

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

Funny stuff, especially in light of last week’s episode of Addicted to Race, in which we talked about the role of race in the marketing of books.

By the way, I just noticed yesterday that the huge Barnes & Noble store near 23rd and 6th has been shut down. Pretty sobering stuff. The book-selling/publishing industry is not a happy place right now.

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

As I wrote awhile back, I’ve been on the fence about whether and/or how to teach Sean Chinese:

It feels kind of unnatural to speak Cantonese to her – especially since I rarely speak it myself nowadays. My sisters and I converse mainly in English. And most of my Chinese friends are actually Taiwanese, so when we talk it’s mostly them speaking English mixed with Mandarin, and me speaking English back to them, with the occasional Chinese phrase thrown in there (bai qi! sam ba!)

Serge doesn’t speak Chinese, so we don’t speak it at home. Which means that for Sean to learn more than just a few words here and there, she would really need to take a class.

But I have major reservations about those classes. There’s a kid I know who’s enrolled in one of those Chinese-language classes and every time I ask him how his classes are going, he gives me this miserable look.

It reminds me of my experiences learning the piano. I started learning piano from about age 3. Around age 6 or 7, my mom started getting really serious about it, and every piano lesson would end with her yelling and me crying, with a good dose of spanking thrown in there. It made me hate piano and wish I could just quit.

When I got older, I was lucky enough to have a series of good teachers, and I learned to enjoy playing for its own sake. At that point I was glad that I never quit. But then again, thinking back on those early miserable years – was it worth it? I don’t know.

Hopefully I’ll find a class that makes learning fun, because I would really hate for Sean to associate her Chinese heritage with drudgery and boredom.

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

[Warning: another whine is coming your way.]

I’ve been lucky in that I haven’t had a lot of issues with breastfeeding. Sean took to it very naturally as soon as she was born, and my milk production is keeping up well as she grows.

What I do have trouble with though, is pumping. My mother-in-law takes care of Sean a few days a week, and I’ve been trying to keep Sean exclusively breastfed, but it’s been hard as hell to pump enough to keep Sean fed when she’s away from me.

I know it’s stupid and I just need to chill out and formula is totally fine, but it’s just another thing that makes me feel inadequate. There’s nothing more demoralizing than pumping for a good 10 minutes and then looking down and seeing a measly couple ounces.

Also, just when I felt pretty good about nursing, I read this question in one of those BabyCenter.com emails: “Is it okay to nurse my baby with the TV on?”

The answers from the 3 doctors they asked was an overwhelming “OH HELL NO” with reasons ranging from:

“feeding time with your baby is bonding time for the two of you. It’s a time for you to hold, snuggle, and talk to your baby.”

to…

“it dilutes this time by taking away your attention and eye contact.”

Geez… another reason for me to feel like a crappy mother.

Are breastfeeding moms around the world seriously spending every minute of every nursing session cooing and snuggling and making eye contact with their babies?

Nursing gets boring, dude. Sometimes I need some Wendy Williams to keep me company.

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

I’m definitely enjoying being a mom so far. BUT… and it’s a big “but”… I’m also plagued by a general sense of inadequacy.

As is probably obvious, I’m an extreme Type A personality, and the fact that I’m so much less productive than before is really frustrating to me. Like, the fact that I couldn’t even stick with doing one tiny blog post a day on this blog – that just makes me mad at myself.

I know that a lot of it has to do with finding a rhythm and figuring out how to balance everything (Latoya gave me a good talking-to about that), and that I need to adjust my expectations and realize that I may never go back to pre-baby levels of productivity. And I know it’s still early – Sean just turned 3 months. So really I’m kind of just finishing my maternity leave.

I know all that, but I still feel inadequate.

/whine

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

Addicted to Race is New Demographic’s podcast about America’s obsession with race. Here’s a rundown of what you’ll find in this episode:

The protagonist of Justine Larbalestier’s novel Liar is a young black woman with short, natural hair. So why is there a white girl with long, straight hair on the cover? Why does the publishing industry assume that blacks don’t like reading, or only read street lit? What does the story of the reconciliation of one family tell us about how to make progress when it comes to race in America? Carmen Van Kerckhove, Tami Winfrey Harris, Latoya Peterson, and Liz Dwyer discuss.

Addicted to Race is broadcast live every Sunday afternoon at 12 pm Eastern. You can listen live on our BlogTalkRadio page and call in by dialing 347-996-3958.

Click here to never miss an episode by subscribing to us in iTunes
or
click here to play it immediately