Source: Tia and Tamera Official

I guess the trolls will never learn that when it comes to coming for people on the internet, their children, even if they are the children of celebrities, should be off limits. Unfortunately, the desire to be seen, to elicit a reaction is stronger than the desire to show even a modicum of human decency. Like her sister before her, Tamera Mowry, is the latest celebrity enduring criticism of her new baby boy, Aden. “Fans” and critics (read: Trolls) of Tamera have recently made some rude and disrespectful comments regarding her interracial marriage to Fox News correspondent, Adam Housley. And now that the couple  have expanded their family, these same people are now insulting her son by questioning (?) his skin color.

On the blog that she and twin sister Tia created, Tia and Tamera Official, Tamera decided that instead of addressing the critics, she’d respond to the people who left comments of support and encouragement.

Here’s what she had to say:

Tia and I have always known we have amazing fans, but reading all your messages and comments on this blog make it even clearer.  When people say ignorant things about Aden’s race or my marriage with his daddy Adam, it’s easy for me to take it personally – even after all this time, my skin isn’t that thick!

But hearing your stories about your own beautiful, mixed race babies and the love you have for their fathers grounds me back to reality and reminds me of the truth: Skin color has NOTHING to do with love.  How Aden looks or grows up to look like – whether he looks more “white” or more “black” – doesn’t matter to me.  Why should it? He’s my precious baby boy and my only job is to be the best mommy I can be to him while showing him both sides of his heritage.  All I want for him to believe is that love knows no boundaries. 

Way to keep it classy and Tamera.

So the other day, I was on YouTube going down the rabbit hole of natural hair “how-to” styling videos when I came across this one gem called “Parents of Biracial Children Please Learn Hair Care Before Their Birth.” After I stopped laughing at the title, I was able to focus on the content of the video, which basically featured a black woman, with sunglasses (while indoors I might add) seated in front of a white man named Bob, who was destructively combing through her naps with a small-tooth comb (Yikes). The author of the video, which was posted by tag name Slapme77times a couple of years ago, was trying to make a point about the need for White parents to learn the hair texture of African American hair prior to birthing or adopting one into the family. However, watching Bob, who incidentally was holding the comb like one would a knife, painstakingly rake through her hair, I wondered if this was a big enough issue to warrant a tutorial video on the matter?

The short answer is: Yes.  It’s like the other taboos of interracial relationships that everyone thinks about but don’t want to discuss.  While folks may swoon over how Black and White people may make pretty babies, one thing that they can’t do is come together to achieve a decent head of hair for those kids.  And I’m not referring to the texture but the actual application or lack thereof of styling and maintenance.  You know, the real “good hair.”

I’m not saying that all non-black parents of mixed-race children are oblivious to hair maintenance but a large percentage of folks do have trouble. Look, I get it: doing somebody else’s hair, particularly someone of another or ethnicity, is not something most of us think about.

And yes, we do spend a great deal of time in our lives just getting to know our own hair. But when I’m out in the suburbs and see a mixed race child, maybe age six or seven, walking around with dry, brittle wiry hair or when I’m up in the richer part of the city watching a black child being scooted along in one of those older kid strollers by a couple of white parents, my first inclination is that the parents are just lazy or in some dire need of help – especially when the child’s hair has been hacked to the point that any attempts of gender identification are futile. It may not be the most politically correct thing to say but I don’t think we should sweep it under the rug.