I posted this in my Tumblr blog on May 30, 2014. Cut to today, and my sister is currently having to live with me and M because the partner that I mention below has taken out a restraining order against her, which have prevented her in staying at her family home. This effectively has made her homeless. The separation process that she's going through right now with the said partner has been extremely difficult, not just for her and her children, but, it has also affected everyone else in the family. To complicate it further, race, gender, and unequal power dynamics have been a source of variables that has made it even more difficult for everyone (her partner is white). One thing of note is that when I mentioned that it's been rough seeing his white friends verbally abuse my sister in front of strangers, he turned it around and played the victim, saying that how dare I would call him white, because he doesn't think he's white. Instead, he thinks he's "olive complexion". I wanted to ask him if he checks the "olive complexion" box in government forms to indicate his ethnicity.
More blogs to follow on this issue that my family is currently going through. It's a life-altering event that, thankfully, we're all pulling together as a family to support each other through this transition.
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