Ireland just had to return two "blonde" haired/fair skinned children taken away from their biological parents.
I've gotten stares, my golden haired/fair skinned grandson has been questioned in my presence (the individual totally ignoring me as if I wasn't present) and we've even been followed several blocks all the way back to my car.
Just for the record, two brown or even dark skinned parents can be the biological parents of fair skinned, even blonde/red-haired/ sandy haired, children.
My daughter and oldest, born in the 70s, was very fair skinned. Mama said her coloring looked like the side of a peach the sun hadn't yet kissed. How could two brown skinned parents give birth to such a light/fair skinned child? The hospital even isolated me from her on some lame excuse they were running some kind of test. It took threats of a lawsuit just to allow me in to see her while I was recovering from her birth. I was released from the hospital without her using the same excuse. I didn't get to bond with my daughter the way a mother normally would because of their suspicion of a possibly baby switch or mixup. I had to leave the hospital without my daughter. Even when she was finally released to me, I was questioned and the hospital was hesitant to hand her over to me to me and her father. DNA testing wasn't at the stage it is today. Where testing and result can be immediate.
Family trees go beyond what's physically obvious to the naked eye. Although her father was a darker brown complexion, his father was biracial. His mother was white/father black. Although my skin coloring was just a tad lighter brown than his, my paternal grandfather was very fair skinned with red hair. My maternal side of the family Native American (of the lighter skin shade/green eyes) and a hint of possibly German. Along with African and other.
So Roy is wrong again in believing a blonde haired child couldn't possibly be the biological child of two brown skinned or even dark skinned parents. My family members (even siblings) consist of freckled faced, carrot top (red haired), golden haired, various eye coloring children, grandchildren, aunts and uncles all up and down our family tree.
Maybe Roy has been up on that mountaintop far too long and needs to come down and mingle a little bit more with reality. Heck, Roy, you may even find a few darker shades among your own family tree.
I doubt very seriously if there would be such worldwide attention, concern, suspicion, and even racism if a brown or dark skinned was found living in a community of poor whites.
Brenda Manghane-Washington
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When I read Ms Washington's opinion piece, I read Roy Exum opinion piece and then re-read it about the girl that authorities found in a gypsy camp. When I was in school there was a test called reading comprehension. I must have failed the course because I couldn't find anything like this in Roy's article. Quote: "So Roy is wrong again in believing a blond haired child couldn't possibly be the biological child of two brown skinned or even dark skinned parents."
The opinion piece brought back memories from the Nixon presidency. My wife and I like many T.V. viewers would listen to the president's speech and then listen to ABC, CBS and NBC commentators tell us what the president said. We would look at each other and wonder what speech they listened to. It was for sure they were not listening to the speech we heard. These opinion pieces were different as apples and oranges.
Roy's piece was about child trafficking and as usual Ms. Washington's was about race. I promise I will go back and read them again to make sure of what I read.
N.D. Kennedy Sr.
Ooltewah