How Redbone Came to Be

Dressed in army greens, Handsome’s fatigues and gleaming teeth are all Beauty could see.

His eyes smiled as he laid back and she flossed, polished and cleaned.

Months later, she drove up to a new scene.

In his element on his stomping grounds,

When she pulled up he made his rounds.

Filling up her powder blue Beetle

His pearly whites were undeniable.

“I know you!”

Turns out that was true

and something new began to brew.

What was to develop was unknown...

She’s a Redbone with a Caramel skin tone.

Whose Mahogany-hued Soldier Mama was questioned for how bright her little bird’s feathers turned out to be, initially.

Chocolate Soul Brotha, Military Daddy was the one inquisitively observing his sandy-brown-haired, high yellow baby girl whose skin made it hard for him to see

past the parts that were obviously not recognizable as coming from his seed.

She grew to take on the features and shape of her mother, thankfully.

At least there was some resemblance every doubter could now clearly see.

Hailing from a Black American family, bearing a different shade than your parents is more of a commonality than a non-eventuality.

It often distinguishes you from other members of your immediate family.

There be all variations of coloration hanging from the stems of the family tree.

All this came from intermixing both voluntary and involuntarily, historically...

Mahogany’s mother had limbs just as pale as those of a Birchwood tree. Mahogany Mama, African Padauk Papa, Birchwood Grandma-- that’s how Redbone came to be and was claimed as blood kin by both sides of her family.