HAPPY HYBRID HALLOWEEN  Y'ALL! TAKE TWO.

(Before you scroll to the pics and vid please read this intro).

As some of you know, in addition to being a Black/African American and biracial identified, I'm also what's called nowadays, "Obama Black." That means my mama White and my daddy Black. That also means I'm a "hybrid" aka, "halfbreed," "mixed," "biracial," "zebra," etc. or in some quarters, "nigga" (affectionately) or "nigger" (not affectionately). For the record, although I jokingly refer to myself sometimes as a "hafbreed," etc. I don't see myself as "half and half" but whole and whole, i.e., 2 as 1, and the whole that results is more than the sum of parts. Rather it's a synergetic integration, which is what I mean here by "hybrid," or "hybridity."

btw From a historical perspective, the term, "half breed" derived from the belief among Whites that only the "white side" constituted the human portion of the "breeding" between a "human" (Whites) and "subhuman" (i.e., "the Blacks). So, people like me were considered only "half human" but a half step above "sub human" (i.e., those with two Black parents).

Relatedly, the term, "mulatto," which derives from the Spanish for "mule,"  was created by Whites to analogize the offspring of the mixing of two breeds - an ass and a donkey - to the mixing of Black and White. Mules were considered to be incapable of producing offspring. In the case of "race mixing," that meant that the "mulatto" was incapable of producing, White, i.e.,"fully human" offspring. To insure that such an outcome would not become widespread, Whites created "anti-mesegenation" laws, making marriage between Blacks and Whites illegal.

In fact, when my parents were married it was illegal since my father came from Virginia. They had to fight the U.S. Army high command, which threatened my Dad with the loss of his GI benefits if he went through with the marriage. They saw this as his "breaking the law," even though my Mom was German and they were in Germany during American occupation. Happily, my parents WON! But implicit "white-supremacy" (Not the terrorist extremist form, e.g. KKK etc. Please see my article on Herman Cain) interfused with capitalism still lives on as the predominant form of race/class privileging that places Whites in America AND the world -  whether "conservative," "liberal," or "progressive" in a relatively superior position to getting their needs and desires met. One need only consider the fact that the median wealth for White families is 20 times the wealth of Black families in the U.S. Just imagine the difference in degrees of freedom this wealth gap affords the average White family compared to their Black counterparts.

Now, back to the Halloween Hybrid story at hand. I was thinking, how could I make the idea of "hybridity," "two in one," or  synergetic integration, etc. into a Halloween costume theme? Well, I hit upon the perfect solution:

I decided to be both PEBBLES AND BAM-BAM!

So given, the two-as-one, "Obama Black" connection, the name of my Halloween Persona is: "PEBBLES OBAM-BAM" :)

So here are some pics of me as Pebbles Obam-bam (check out my orange Pumas) - solo, party, at beach, and a couple of extra pics wearing Halloween orange. I also included my drumming in costume, which is a little gift to my Cortona, Italy "Science and Spirituality Conference" crew. But first, and not least is a pic of Dad and Mom aka "Littlie Mommie" and "Big Daddy." Enjoy!