Famous Black-Brown Family

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Riffing off of Siddhartha’s post, here’s a photo of the most prominent mixed Black-Brown American family that I know of:

The auntie in the center might have been America’s first desi First Lady!

Can you guess who this is? Answer after the fold.

Dr. Alan Lee Keyes (August 7, 1950 –) is an American politician, diplomat, neoconservative and social conservative activist. He is a member of the Republican Party, a talk radio host and a frequent candidate for public office.

He served in the U.S. Foreign Service, was appointed Ambassador to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and then became U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations under President Ronald Reagan.

In 1979, he was assigned to the consulate in Mumbai, India, where as a desk officer he met his wife Jocelyn… The couple have three children — Francis, Maya Marcel-Keyes and Andrew. The Keyes are a devout Roman Catholic family.

Keyes is notable for his unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Presidency in 1996 and 2000 and for the U.S. Senate in 1988, 1992 and 2004. [Link]

Jocelyn Keyes looks more (steroetypically) desi in this photo, without the bouffant ‘do:

Alan and Jocelyn Keyes in Israel

Daughter Maya identifies with both her Indian and Black backgrounds [this is from an exchange where somebody mistakenly tells Maya not to call herself Indian, thinking that Maya was simply a fan of India, hence the defensive tone]:

… yes, I am Indian… I am actually MORE Indian than I am anything else… My mom is Indian. All my mom’s side of the family is Indian. My mom is South Indian (Tamil/Malayali) by birth, but was born and raised in Calcutta… Since my mom is Indian and my dad is more mixed than my mom, this makes my BLOOD more Indian than I am anything else. My aunt, cousins, grandmother, and tons of other relatives live in Tamil Nadu, which is where I stayed in India… I am MULTI-RACIAL, but I have MORE Indian blood than I do African-American or anything else (Really, I’m about 5 different ethnicities, but PRIMARILY Indian, and then black)… people assume I’m black only and refuse to accept that I’m Indian also ;-)… [Link]

28 thoughts on “Famous Black-Brown Family”

  2. Keyes was also the one who railed against Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter

    “When asked if vice president Dick Cheney’s gay daughter Mary Cheney was a “selfish hedonist”, he replied, “That goes by definition. Of course she is.” Later, without being asked anything about his own family, he said, “If my daughter were a lesbian, I’d look at her and say, ‘That is a relationship that is based on selfish hedonism.’ I would also tell my daughter that it’s a sin and she needs to pray to the Lord God to help her deal with that sin.”

    only to have his own daughter come out of the closet a few months later.

  4. In January 2005 Mrs. Keyes and her husband threw their daughter Maya J. Marcel-Keyes out of their Chicago residence and refused to pay her college tuition at Brown University for marching at an anti-George W. Bush rally on inauguration day. The family problems were revealed on February 14, 2005 when their daughter spoke at a gay marriage rights rally in Maryland.

    Wonderful parents they are.

  6. Just did some reading of my own…Apparently Alan Keyes and his bibi Jocelyn Marcel threw their 20 year-old daughter, Maya Marcel-Keyes, out of their home and are refusing to pay her college tuition. (Incidentally, she’s a junior at my alma mater…which alone makes me on her side.)

    From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Marcel-Keyes

    Anyway, they did it because she protested Bush’s inauguration last January. Heeeeavy.

  8. Maya has a very interesting Xanga blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Xmisled0youthX

    It mentions about her getting kicked out the house (it was an important issue of political interest when Alan Keyes was running for senator, which is how I first came to read of it). It also mentions a visit she made to India. By the way, I once went to school with Maya’s brother (although I didn’t know him very well, nor am I in touch with him currently, nor did I ever meet any of his family).

    Maya Keyes has HUGE potential of becoming a significant political figure in the future. First off, an almost bizarro-world biography where she is a lesbian while her father is perhaps the #1 strongest denouncer of homosexuality, and she gets kicked out of the house even though she had been volunteering to support her father’s campaign! Secondly, she is pretty good looking…and say she has a good-looking girlfriend…again, that type of thing attracts attention. Third, her part Indian heritage, which she embraces— again, that type of thing attracts interest (i.e. Tiger Woods).

  9. !

    My mom, if possible, is even more conservative than my dad. [Link]

    And:

    After I graduated high school, I got into Brown University. I deferred and went to India for a year. There’s an organization there that works with tribal people. They run a hospital and a school for the tribal kids. I was teaching English and computer skills to kids my age who were training to be nurses at the hospital…

    … all [the media] want to know is do I hate my father, trying to get me to say bad things about him, trying to get me to say that I’m angry [at him], and none of that is true… He’s my father and I respect his decisions.

    [Her girlfriend] We’re both anarchists. We don’t believe in any sort of governmental system. [Link]

  11. He cut off all financial support, but that’s something that I can totally understand. I am working for things that he’s directly opposed to. It doesn’t make much sense for him to be [financially] supporting someone who is working against what he believes in.

    !!! is right. Man. Wow.

    For some reason I keep thinking of #4 on Seth Steven’s Trying to Like India Slate essay.

    Maybe because I don’t have children, but I just can’t figure out how one reconciles “loving” one’s child and reacting so strongly to their identity. Man. Wow.

  13. Is it just me being ignorant about American politics, or are most of the high profile desis in politics (I haven’t heard of many) right wing, bible-bashing chumps?

  16. It must be terrible to have all your family dirty washing out there in public like this!

    I like Maya. She stands up for what she wants and is also very regal and mature in her comments. I wonder if I missed it somewhere but are she and Ms Cheney buddies? This is an oxymoron…two popular and devout republicans have gay kids..

  17. oxymoron, or reality check that intolerance is useless as whatever one so vehemently “opposes” may, in fact, be their own? Is party affiliation stronger than blood or love? I guess there’s no one answer.

  19. Maybe because I don’t have children, but I just can’t figure out how one reconciles “loving” one’s child and reacting so strongly to their identity. Man. Wow.

    You know, some would say that this was a very desi way to react indeed…..

  20. jai, I don’t think desis have an exclusive on this type of behavior. In my experience, it’s been a more prevalent behavior, on the non-desi side of my family.

  21. DD – what you’re talking about is what has stopped me from marrying any of my serious non-desi gfs. It’s not the fear of divorce per se (I know divorce happens to same-culture and mixed couples alike), it’s the fear of what would happen to our offspring post divorce.

    I remember one kid with a Sikh father and a (white) non-Sikh mother. A number of times, while he was at his mother’s house (the father was the custodial parent), his non-Sikh grandmother would take him out and get him a haircut. It’s hard enough growing up Sikh and keeping your kesh, it’s even harder when there’s no consistency to it, and you’re being used as a ping-pong.

    In some ways, just as with a desi marriage, you weren’t just marrying a person you were marrying their entire family. I just couldn’t take the chance on trying an interfaith, intercultural marriage with some of the in-laws that would have been a part of the equation. Never told them that though – love you, but hate your mom, and if we get divorced, she’ll make our childrens’ lives hell.

    — Sikh B&#246i

  22. You know, there will always be challenges and interferences and the ping-ponging between “your” family and “mine”… the only way I know to alleviate some of it and start training it to go away is for the couple to be on the same page and present a really united front, so to speak. I don’t care if it’s my mom or his mom, if it’s not in line with US and OUR family, you’ll get stonewalled. OR, if a couple prefers 100% participation and input from their respective families that’s totally cool– so long as the couple is in agreement and stands together through it.

  23. DD – you’re right, but that only works while you stay married. The problem is that divorce is a reality, and it changes everything. The in-law problem I mentioned becomes very serious if you get divorced, and it’s not an issue if you marry a Sikh. I don’t plan on getting divorced, but if I’m going to have kids with somebody I want to know that they will be well cared for no matter what happens (my untimely demise, an unfortunate divorce, etc.)

  25. not that jocelyn k is so innocent. opus dei? yoikes!

    fascinating about maya keyes. so they dropped her from their tab cuz she’s a lesbian? a little keyesian economics…?

    any 411 on the other siblings? (just asking cuz that older brother has some serious chiseled broad shouldered hotness going on…)

  26. DDancer

    only way I know to alleviate some of it and start training it to go away is for the couple to be on the same page and present a really united front,

    SikhBoi

    The problem is that divorce is a reality, and it changes everything.

    You are BOTH right on. The (sad) reality is that part of talking about marriage is talking about what the expectations are in the event of divorce or premature death. Whether some of us unbrowns want to admit it or not, our families & what they think/do matter. Families are what they are, but the ultimate responsibility lies on the parents to reconcile any differences (& emphasize similarities).

    Me personally, I’d like to see more Chocolate Sepia luvin’, but I agree with mallumolu…this one is a @#*!in waste!!! What family values, what freedom! Alan Keyes – the right wing Steppin Fetchit…I swear…it comes in all colors….

  28.     chili of TLC is half african-american and half guyanese of 1/4 arab and 1/4 east indian origin.