Topic #1. American Lovestories reactions
(Showing 16-30 of 34)

16. day 3
Wed, Sep 15, 1999 - 1:00 AM/EST
kermit

I am not a TV person but I am enjoying this series. There is a lot of positive. Through it all the daughters know their parents love them and only want what's best for them. This is hard to convey to some kids. The fact that theparents have been able to do this in spite of all the differences is a testament to their commitment to each other, the girls, and the all American family so many of us want desparately to have.

17. Cecily!
Wed, Sep 15, 1999 - 8:03 AM/EST
ottercat

I love Cecily. I want all my children, my friend's children, my nieces and nephews, EVERYBODY'S children, to have her sense of "I am".

Karen is such a strong woman. When she spoke of having to fight to keep Cecily at birth, I startled. That happened in Indiana to a friend of mine, even though she was married to the father of her children. Because her husband was black, HER MOTHER called the state and claimed she wanted to give her children up!

People are just so weird.

18. thoughts
Wed, Sep 15, 1999 - 8:22 AM/EST
davidt10

regardless of the positive or negative attitudes of people, I think this documentary was great and it really opened my eyes to a lot of things I was blind to. I think the family is closer than any I have ever known and it makes my heart jump for joy. I usually am not comfortable watching this sort of thing since I was brought up different and when it was announced I almost didn't. Since there was nothing else on tv at the time I decided to go ahead and see what it was about and I am glad I did.

19. David
Wed, Sep 15, 1999 - 10:32 AM/EST
ottercat

Not to be mean, sweetheart, but three things:

1.Get out your Old Testament and find out why Miriam and Aaron got leprosy. 2.I think we've spread out enough. Mission Babel accomplished. 3.Regardless of skin color, all of us here speak one language.

20. closeness, the ties that bind
Wed, Sep 15, 1999 - 12:59 PM/EST

One thing my husband and I both agreed on after last night's show, is that successful interracial marriages seem to be closerknit. I know that our friends of all colors and persuasions remark on the fact that he and are are affectionate and kind to eachother all the time. I think we've made an effort to do this, and that it has become a habit over the years, (and also we both just like to be that way) our adult children are the same. I believe that, although we don't feel that we've had a terrible amount of hassle from others over our marriage, that we face the world as a team, and we are prepared to defend ourselves should trouble arise. My husband said that I have learned to look around carefully when I'm out of the home, as Bill Sims spoke of doing, and that even when I'm by myself, I still have that element of caution, I "feel" like people don't exactly see me as white anymore, even though, when I'm alone, of course they do.

21. Hello
Thu, Sep 16, 1999 - 11:43 AM/EST

Where'd y-all go?

22. Wednesdays show
Thu, Sep 16, 1999 - 12:57 PM/EST
photographer

Last night's show that illustrated, defined, Bill's hassels was interesting. The male Black experience when you love a white woman here is unreal. How many of us would continue going to visit someone knowing you were going to have to do some jail time? This show is beginning to look like a good jazz piece sounds. We are being allowed to see and hear all the voices independently. We are getting a good feel for what's going on. It's interesting how Bill's sister has taken on music too. A town that has only a prison and steel mill as work opportunites would be crushing to almost anyone. It's easy to understand what happened to Bill's son. The poor kid never had a chance. And that town, even now, has places in it where Blacks will be stopped. Busts for DWB must be large there. More than anything else, this is a grand love story. Bill and his wife are exceptional people to have built what they have considering what they had to work with. We are all products of our rearing. Look at what they have made, starting with so little.

23. Ahem
Thu, Sep 16, 1999 - 2:27 PM/EST

Photographer .... "the poor kid never had a chance?"

You know youself 98% of the black kids his age in that county are not dope dealers and their backgrounds aren't much different from his.

C'mon.

24. love
Thu, Sep 16, 1999 - 3:29 PM/EST
ottercat

What stands out about last night's first half for was Bill's shaky admission that men and women are different beasts. Nature or nurture, we are, and if male & female can find common ground enough to live together as two/one, anybody should be able to. In theory.

Poor Bill. Poster child for assimilation mourning the loss of black culture. Hey, wasn't it his generation that abandoned their parents' family/church/community-centered lives for something...more?

25. Night #4
Thu, Sep 16, 1999 - 6:33 PM/EST
christina

Bill said something (clearly audible) that spoke volumes..... " people think that bi-racial families have no moral values".... AMEN!!! We just like all other families are proud when our children succeed, we hurt when our children are hurt, we laugh, we cry, we pay taxes, we clean up the "vomit" accidents in the car, we are EVERYMAN...the color of our skin in our homes may be many different colors, but under that skin, it bleeds red.....

26. Smitty
Thu, Sep 16, 1999 - 9:44 PM/EST
photographer

Perhaps the other kids didn't want as much, or didn't have the heart. It's a different world now. But that kid would be a great buddy in combat. One's world view is mollified by personal experience.

27. The Entire Series
Thu, Sep 16, 1999 - 11:26 PM/EST

I was so deeply moved by the entire series. I must admit that prior to recent events in my life (dating a man that was married to a white woman for 20 years and the viewing of this series), I looked at inter-racial relationships with disdain. I thought that black men or women who dated outside of their race had some type of self-hatred don't know why. I have a mother that dated men of different races and I have friends both male and female of different races. I have even dated men of different races (never seriously). I now look back on my thoughts and I feel ashamed. It was my own private racism. I hid it well until the tears rose up in my body this week. This was fanily, no differentthan mine. I pretended to be tolerant but I was not at all. I realize that love transcends color, religion and many other circumstances. I appreciated this family allowing me to share a small portion of their world. They have truly changed my life and how I plan to treat people (with compassion and empathy). Thank you PBS for lifting my mind to a higher level of thinking. God bless the entire family!!!!

28. Forget it
Fri, Sep 17, 1999 - 5:16 AM/EST
davidt10

I see that most of the people posting their thoughts here are black or at least part black. I have a few things to say and most of you are going to get upset by it. This will be the last post I do here since it seems to be all one sided any way so say what you will I won't be back.

Why is it that blacks can look to their roots and teach their children to do so and yet when white people do this they are made to feel as though they are doing something wrong? Why is it ok for blacks to be prejudice toward whites and yet when whites do it to blacks they are considered hate mongers. I am tired of being made to think that blacks are better than whites.

All I hear are blacks crying about how white men put them into slavery. Whites didn't put you into slavery, blacks did. White captains piloted the ships but they didn't round you up. Blacks did.

Now whites who don't know better feel sorry for blacks that they even try to mix and marry with them.

Stop your whining and be who you are and quit trying to get us and our children to be who you are. Let us be who we are.

Blacks also whine because they see a movie or program that only has whites in it but they seem to think it is ok for them to do it. I am so tired of a one sided thing with you people.

I am not a hate monger, I just want my kids to be proud of their heritage just the same as you want yours to be of theirs. Leave my children alone. I have taught them that it is wrong to marry blacks and always will. If you can't handle that then it is too bad. Call me what you will. I have the right to be who we are and not who you and other week whites want us to be.

29. Oh David T10
Fri, Sep 17, 1999 - 9:34 AM/EST

I guess someone taught you to hate and fear. Nothing in your post showed that you have learned a thing since. Your life, and that of your family will be the poorer for it, but there's nothing we in this group can do to help you.

30. Good Conclusion but ...
Fri, Sep 17, 1999 - 11:55 AM/EST

I hope the filmmaker knew that her final night was by far the strongest testimony to family strengths in which race plays an almost infinitesimal part.

The series raced out of the gate with a lot of material which led you to believe we would witness a bi-racial "family under fire."

What we actually saw was a snippet of the lives of four persons and their friends and relatives that seems to prove that most people do the right thing most of the time - not without pain and sadness, to be sure. But no one ever said this life was going to be a breeze.

I am sad to not have them back tonight.