INTERRACIAL VOICE

Speech

Ruth Bryant White
Multiracial Solidarity Rally

Thanks to Charles Byrd for bringing us all together to share before all of our people, people of all races. Multiracial people. Special thanks to talk show hosts Montel Williams and Leeza Gibbons for showing their support for this March by doing PSA's supporting us!! They are people of their word.

I'm so proud of Charles Byrd for putting his neck on the line to have the March on Washington. Even with all of his bold talking, he must really care for us all to put his reputation on the line to bring us all together and I think he deserves a round of applause!!

National/International P.R. person Bob Lyle didn't feel he was in competition with Charles Byrd, because they both have interracial magazines on the Web. As a matter of fact they help each other and support each other. That's Unity.

Today, Charles, because of you we are making history and change. What better place to make history and change than here where Dr. Martin Luther King made his speech in 1963, 33 years ago. It is equally important that we be in Washington D.C., because if it hadn't been for Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who took the time to read Mrs. Loving's letter and to take action, interracial marriages might still be illegal in all states in America. Robert Kennedy did what bigoted ministers and judges in America would not do!

God is not against interracial marriages. Moses was married to an Ethiopian. One of the best books in the Bible is about a mixed marriage -- The Book of Ruth. It's bigots' backward upbringings that keep the races separated, not God! Many in all races of church leadership are guilty of racism and separatism.

The Christian Coalition helped black churches that were burned to rebuild. I'm glad, but who came to the rescue of the man in New York who's hanging on to life because he walked out of a club with a woman who was a friend but whose skin was white?

Did the Christian leaders call for the dismissal of those racist cops? I didn't hear about it. Was it because they thought: "Oh, well, he shouldn't have been with her?" Our Director in New York at least was invited to appear on a New York Radio Station to talk about how we are praying for that man and his family, and how racial harmony is the only cure for peace In America. When jobs are equal, and families don't care what color the skin is of the person who wants to marry their child then we have begun to make progress.

There is a very highly respected man who I respected, who focuses on families, but it would be a cold day in you know where if he focuses on Interracial Families who support him. He is Dr. James Dobson, and he is one of the most revered Christian Leaders Today. He can rally against causes like child pornography and abortionn, but I guess the tough ones like interracial families he thinks he'll stay away from. Dr. Dobson says because marriages have problems in the best of circumstances, he can't recommend interracial marriages. That translates into the fact he thinks (we) interracial couples can't have the best of marriages.

He can tell the politicians to stop legalized abortion but biracial kids he's afraid to talk about. Is he afraid to lose the money given to him by those who don't approve of interracial marriages and biracial children? It's time for answers, because we're interracial couples, and biracial and multiracial people are here and we will not be going away!

I love the ones who even call us sellouts, and I feel sorry for them, because I don't see how they can have one life and spend it hating people who are going about their lives raising their children. They must be miserable and afraid of us because we are The epitome of what America is, and many don't like it that we are here to show them!!

How could others make money on their anger?? People call us sellouts. I'm sold out to God, my family, and until recently America. I'm appaled with people who don't like America; get out now! So call me a sellout. I don't care, because when my children needed a father it wasn't them who came to their rescue, bought them food to eat, clothes to wear, put a ring on this finger It was my husband Steve who did those things.

There are men today that are considered sellouts. I don't mind being in the company of Clarence Thomas, because no matter what you think about him and Ms. Hill, I believe it was because he is married to a white woman that got others angry, and he stood his ground on what he believed.

General Colin Powell cares for all people equally. Because he's Republican he's considered a sellout, but he's the only one who comes close to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I haven't decided if I will vote or not, because the man I would vote for is not running. President Clinton has never persued the multiracial issue in public. It seems that Bill hasn't taken care of interracial issues in Arkansas, because interracial couples in Arkansas lose their jobs when managers find out their employees have multiracial families. It has been reported to us that these people had good job records prior to their being fired. They then have to resort to welfare. Mr. President, Have you considered investigating the racism against interracial families in Arkansas and the rest of America??

The third person called a sellout is Christopher Darden, just because he was on the prosecuting side of the law against a celebrity. He didn't play the race card. He had more guts and spoke his mind more than any other lawyer on the defense or the prosecution, and he stood his ground. These are the people I admire, because I was one in an interracial relationship who heard the cruel things said about I/R couples in Los Angeles around the O.J. Simpson trial.

I sat in restaurants, worked with people who made derogatory remarks about interracial marriages. The good thing about being interracially married and not always having your spouse with you is that you can freely hear the racist remarks. Steve and I were there at the courthouse. We were there at the jailhouse the Sunday after O.J.'s arrest to tell the media that Nicole Brown Simpson's death did not need to be identified as a race or interracial issue, and we all know what happened.

I personally talked to Nicole Brown Simpson's sister Tanya several times. She was glad we were there for support, just if she needed someone to talk to or if O.J's children needed to know we were there for them.

What angered us most was when our State Director, who is a school teacher, told us that in her classroom her students told her that Nicole deserved to die because she had no business being married to a black man, and O.J. got what he deserved because he shouldn't of married outside of his race. These kids were told this by grandparents and what they heard on television. The O.J. Case was the ammunition racist parents needed to try to keep their children from being involved with children of other races, and to attempt to show their children that interracial marriages don't work. Over 50% of all marriages end up in divorce and that's people of the same race.

People know that biracial children are over 56% of children being born today. It has come to a point that we will not be ignored or treated as invisible people anymore. The people who don't want to see interracial couples or their children are the same ones who loosely spout off Martin Luther King's "I HAVE A DREAM" speech and have used and watered down his words for their own agenda. Many of them could care less about racial harmony!

People use Dr. King's speech because it sounds good. They are attracted to his speech because it's powerful, and the reason why it's powerful is because he respected God and put God first in his life. That's why he didn't fear people's threats. I have the utmost respect for the leaders in "A Place For Us," people like Valerie Wilkins-Godbee, Kathy Bee, Rita Frazier and Sandra Lord, who's turning the Entertainment industry around for the good to bring all races together. They put their lives on the line in the same manner as Dr. King did. Everything these leaders and we do is for the good of our families, our country and racial harmony.

The 1990 Census was messed up because we said if you don't identify us correctly we'll do it ourselves. If they can't identify us then get rid of the category forms altogether except for birth certificates and medical records. Until then, children deserve to be identified for who they are. If the Office of Budget and Management doesn't approve the multiracial category in 1997, we'll have to go for a ballot initiative at the state and federal levels.

Do not let our government have you commit fraud by signing your name to a form that makes you falsely identify your child. I believe the government wants us to beg for the bone that's ours already. I have my own; I don't need crumbs from anyone to validate me. God validates me, and I validate me. Recently the Legislature in California knocked down the multiracial category.....

That is why "A Place For Us National" started working on the Multiracial/Multiethnic Children's Initiative to put on the ballots for California, New York and Arkansas in 1995, so you and I can vote, instead of the legislators monkeying around and not doing anything about issues that are vital to us. Get involved! A Place For Us National was asked to call for a meeting with Bob Dole to see if he was elected, would he direct the Office of Management and Budget to put the Multiracial Category on the census forms? It seems President Clinton has already turned his back on making OBM establish the category. We (the Multiracial Leaders) would set up a meeting with Dole when he comes to California for the Republican convention.

Rod Carew's daughter might be alive today if racial category limitations hadn't been used to get blood for her. I didn't hear the doctors asking for Jewish people, biracial people or all races to come forth and donate blood for her. It might have worked.

The only reason organizations are trying to block us from having a multiracial/multiethnic category is because they don't want their racial numbers to decrease, but they could care less about you any other time. Their numbers were decreased in 1990. Most of us don't care about numbers, and most of us don't want our children to get any less or more than any other child.

"A Place For Us" needs your support so we people of all races can show how strong a force we really are.

"A Place For Us" is stronger than ever. Our people are getting the attention of the entertainment industry, politicians, religious leaders, school administrations, etc. People are lending their names to the work of our people, because real people are tired of the phonies. We are getting involved and we are getting a lot done.

Without God I don't see how you can have the guts, because in God there is no fear of man and his devices. I love you all and thanks to our hard working staff and to Charles Byrd. God Bless You. We Love you!!