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A black mother whose daughter is of mixed race has lashed out at strangers who wonder if the couple are related – because the baby is lighter-skinned than her mother.
Alex McCurry, 36, of Maryland, gave birth to her baby four months ago, whose name she hasn’t revealed, but who she calls “Pudge-Pudge.”
She posted a video on TikTok to vent her frustration after a series of bizarre encounters with people who refused to believe her daughter was related to her.
Alex McCurry, 36, posted a video decrying those who wondered if her four-month-old baby is related to her, as she has much lighter skin than her mother
The project manager said she needed to let people know that women in interracial relationships can bear children ‘of all colors’
Alex, who has three children with husband Rob (pictured), said the “cumulative” impact of strangers asking her a similar question caused her to go public
Project manager Alex said: If you don’t know the person who has the mixed children, it’s not okay to bring up the skin color of their children.
“She is blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh.”
Addressing her baby, she added, “One of the things about being a mixed child is that you’re going to experience colorism.
“In our family, we treat everyone fairly based on who they are as a person.”
She posted her video after being approached by a stranger who wondered if the little girl was really her child.
Alex said, “Someone was essentially wondering if she was my kid, they just didn’t understand biology, so I put it on TikTok because I was frustrated.”
Affectionately, she added the family nicknames to “Pudge-Pudge” because she’s “cute chubby.”
Alex said it’s been a common interaction for the last five years since the birth of her first daughter.
And she said the last experience with her four-month-old child was the last straw.
Alex explained that she was out with Pudge-Pudge, hugging and kissing the child, when a woman approached her and said the little girl was cute, but things quickly turned sour.
The woman said, ‘Is she your baby?’
Alex said she wanted people to understand that it was not acceptable to walk up to a stranger and question the parents
In her TikTok video, she told her daughter she would face colorism because she was a ‘mixed kid’
When Alex replied that she was, the woman was stunned and added, “But she’s so white!”
Alex said it was the “cumulative” impact that prompted her to go public.
She added, “I let people know that mothers who have interracial relationships and have biracial children can have children of all colors.”
Alex said she wanted people to understand that it was not acceptable to walk up to a stranger and question the parents.
Since the video was posted, it has gone viral, with nearly 800,000 likes and 4.9 million views.
Alex said she doesn’t want to discourage interaction between people, but thinks it’s important to understand what questions to ask and how to ask them.
She said: “My frustration came in because this is a very delicate conversation to have, because I don’t want to discourage a sense of community.
“At the same time, you have to understand that just because you see a black mother with a child you don’t see as black doesn’t mean that child isn’t hers.
‘I just think that people should be as inclusive as possible for everyone. There are different ways that people can do different things every day,” she said.
“You can let people be honest about who they are, you can just go about your life, without possibly hurting anyone else.”
Since she posted the video, she has received several supportive comments about her actions.
One viewer said, “As a biracial child and a mother of a biracial child, ‘yes’ to this!”
Another said: ‘I have mixed parents, people asked my mother if she was my nanny’ [or] babysit.’