Carol looked relieved, and I offered only a nervous laugh and thank you. I’m off-brand for feeling white savior feelings because I feel white people are just digging themselves out of a hole they dug. I’ve had many a white person tell me how lucky my son is that I adopted him. I could tell when the thin veil of because he’s Black<\/em> was left unsaid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Last night, after our Prince Tribute Concert, a white guy said to me that this was the first time he had heard about this place or been in the Hall and he’s lived here all his life. I said that’s because you’re white. He said, well, so are you. I said, well whitish – I’m Sephardic. I grew up with people speaking down to my father because he had a thick Spanish accent (a la Desi Arnaz) and where Sephardic’s fall used to be non-white, until it was. Spanish and Jewish folks did assimilate compared to Black folks and that’s because of the obvious – we could pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I first bought the Hall, I went and spoke with Ripp Daniels about its history. Ripp owns a Black radio station and one of the only Black-owned boutique hotels on the Coast. He was the one who told me to resurrect the 100 Men, and it was that conversation which I slept on that made me decide to start the 100 WOMEN DBA<\/a>, because in my lifetime, women have always been the ones to get shit done. And any activism I have been part of was forged at a kitchen table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve spent my last seven years at the Hall speaking to the elders in the Black community about what the future of the Hall should be. Ripp ended our conversation by saying this place should be Black owned and I ought to make sure that happens. I did have designs on it being Black owned by my son at some point in the future. Now, I’m not so sure about that vision coming to fruition. You can’t decide anyone else’s future for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The elders have told me that the Hall’s day to serve the Black community is done and in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That leaves us with now and tomorrow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve seen the Hall as an opportunity to tell the more nuanced story of a Black community who under the dark cloud of Jim Crow and segregation found a place to celebrate joy. It’s the reason I asked Jen Coulter to make a sign that now hangs at the entrance of the the Hall with a quote by James Booker – “To know the feeling of rejoicing in sorrow is nothing strange to me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Should a white woman own an African American landmark? These are questions that are moot. I do and I did. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The history of why<\/em> is laden with sorrow, and still, there is joy and rejoicing.<\/p>\n\n\n
Should a white woman adopt an African American child<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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