Welcome to my new blog on what's happening in the mixed-race community of Montclair, NJ. This blog will focus on tips, activities and resources for mixed-race families, bi-racial Montclairians and for others with a multiracial outlook on life.
My husband and I moved to Montclair, NJ 11 years ago, not just for the typical reasons that people choose to live in Montclair -- art, restaurants, parks, unique stores, easy commute to NYC -- but mainly because it was voted the best town for mixed-race families to live in the U.S. We were newlyweds, planning to have a family one day. My husband is Irish-American and I am African-American. We have a 3.5 year old girl.
Montclair has changed a lot since 1997 -- restaurants come and go, the downtown landscape is evolving (or not, judging by the number of empty store fronts), plus we have direct train service to Manhattan, and rampant development coupled with high taxes and housing prices. One thing that has not changed is the continued attraction of mixed-race families to our lovely town.
I decided to start a blog to bring this community together in a more visible way. I want my daughter to see that there are a lot of families like ours in our town.
I hope to cover a wide variety of topics -- education, family, friendship, transracial adoption, identity, interracial dating, religion, media representations, race relations, and stereotypes to name a few. I welcome other bloggers/authors/writers, podcastors and video artists to contribute.
I hope that you'll join me in this adventure.
