Comments on: Kanye, my brother?

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 23:28:24 +0000

i’m reminded of one of those james clifford-ey 90s cultural anthro lines: if roots are constructed, why can they hurt so much?

By: MF

MF — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 13:58:55 +0000

When I think about my brothers and sisters (all eight of them!), I often think what a motley crew we are. Nine totally different people. We wouldn’t pick each other as friends. We wouldn’t socialize except for our our status as family. I often wonder what keeps us together.

Sometimes it makes more sense to me that my family would all dissipate into each person’s own life, pick friends, have his/her own family. A literal “flying of the coop.”

BW highlighted “…the notion of the arbitrariness of kinship ties. Are the constructed? innate? Should they endure at all costs? Do we need them? Can we live without them?”

In my family, I’d say the kinship ties are more constructed than innate. And somehow, despite some great odds, they have endured. Do I need them? I don’t know. Do I want to live without them? No. Definitely not.

By: Kate The Great

Kate The Great — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 17:10:47 +0000

When asked how many kids are in his fambly, the hubby says, “I’m the first of one.” Comparatively, he grows quietly observational when among my family of eight people, and I have to glance back amidst all the happy chaos and poke him to make sure he’s not too bewildered.

By: PB

PB — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 17:06:04 +0000

I am thinking a million things right now – how grateful I am for my family of choice, how I have this laminated photo of Kayne with his shoes on fire and looking so hot in all other ways as well, how your writing style drops all these images like swirly multi-colored beads and doesn’t feel the need to explain because they just stand on their own just fine thank you, but mostly I love the name West.

When we were pregnant with our 2nd son (before ultrasounds were standard) we assumed he was a girl because we had one boy already. So we were in the hospital with our little male baby looking at some lame boy names and a discarded cool girl’s name. We decided on an old family name of my husband’s – a great great great guy who founded a town – dropped the fancy-pants first name and ended up with walker west. walker is a fantastic name but we are all facinated by west – a direction that denotes movement, expansion, growth, possibility, death, the sun, the gods, heaven, mountains, it sounds like wind through your teeth, the outside, strength. West fits my son like dna, but his personality could join you and Kayne as well.

That’s what is so brilliant about this post – family – idenity – as inherited as a name, as chosen as life.

By: ruben mancillas

ruben mancillas — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 02:48:36 +0000

I’m an only too.

(So is Adriean but I’ll let her speak for herself).

I grew up defensive about being an only, it was all I knew and had nothing to compare it to obviously but dealing with the assumptions that I was automatically “spoiled” or otherwise socially deficient galled me to the point that I no doubt reacted by playing to the very stereotypes I rebelled against.

Adriean and I were eager to raise an only ourselves…but you all know how that plan worked out. Now we’re excited about seeing how this whole extended sibling/family/kinship model really works.

Wendy, it’s almost fantasy basketball season (as anyone who had the good fortune to date Jay Z must know) and I wanted to add to your list of potential peeps. David West plays power forward for the New Orleans Hornets and Delonte West is a combo guard who was just traded from the Celtics to the Seattle Supersonics.