Monday, the Anti-Racist Parent blog will become Love Isn’t Enough and we’ll get a sparkly new logo to boot. Why the name change? Well, for a while, Carmen and I have worried that “Anti-Racist Parent” does not fully explain what we are about. We talk about race, mostly, but we also want to talk about education and self-esteem and childcare and religion and gender bias and homophobia and the things all parents, regardless of race, worry about…and how all that stuff intersects with race. Being a parent can be joyous, but it ain’t easy. One thing is for sure, simply loving a child is not enough to ensure his or her well-being–at least not “love” in the passive way that people too often think of it. To be an anti-racist parent is to be proactive–to love and to guide and to protect and to teach and so much more. Read our post: What We Believe: Love Isn’t Enough.
So, stay tuned for a new name, more content, new contributors, plus all of the things we hope you’ve come to love about this space.
You will still be able to reach the new site through this URL as we make the transition.
I totally get where you’re coming from, but I’m not thrilled about the new name. It states things negatively, but then so does “antiracist parent.”
I realize it’s probably too late now, but for whatever it’s worth, what about something like “More Than Love” or “Not Just Love”?
Just some thoughts.
I do hope you’ll have a tag line that helps people realize it’s still about bias! I’ve really enjoyed having all this available, and have used it a lot in my anti-racism work with my son’s school.
Thanks, t.
I love you guys, and I’m glad to see an increased (?) focus on TR adoption. But the new name makes me think that will be the sole focus. I definitely appreciate on here the voices of parents of color and I hope you’ll continue to cover the same issues.
Are you going to have a relevant tagline? Because I was not googling “love” when originally looking for a site of this nature.
I agree with Rita, and it does have the sound of something more adoption-focused.
Love Takes More? Love Means Learning?
Beyond Just Love? Even “Love Is Not Enough” has a better ring and rhythm to me…
But you know, I’ll get used to it, whatever it is.
I’m with the others. I get where you are coming from, and like the spaciousness of your vision, but am not thrilled with the new name for all the reasons mentioned and something I’ve yet to figure out how to articulate. I also liked that I could send other folks this link without much explanation.
That said, I support y’all and love this site no matter where it may end up.
Hi all – congrats on the change. I agree, it’ll be hard to let go of the site name as it helped give “name” to the work that people were doing (being anti-racists). I enjoyed being able to say, “Oh, okay, so you want to understand more about what it means to be an anti-racist parent? Then, duh, go to http://www.antiracistparent...” But, thrilled for the new take on it. Agreed that your tagline should still have some searchable ARP type of focus if possible.
Looking forward to the new launch!
I found this site looking for articles on race and identity. I’m not sure I would have opened the page if I saw a title dealing with “love.”
Can the other changes not still happen under the old name? I happen to love the clear stance of your current name — and find that the new one sounds a little too similar to this http://www.amazon.com/When-Love-Not-Enough-Attachment/dp/0970352506
We appreciate all of your feedback and know that change is really hard. This decision really did come as a result of a lot of research and thinking. To clarify:
- This change does NOT reflect a shift to more adoption-focused content. It is not just adoptive parents of brown children who have a difficult time addressing race.
- Those of you concerned that new readers will have a hard time finding us, remember that Google searches blog content and tags. Anyone looking for articles on race or identity, etc. would still find our content.
Stay with us. We hope that you will come to love the changes we have in store.
I don’t often comment, but I am a regular reader of this blog, and really enjoy it as an outspokenly anti-racist parenting site. That’s why I prefer the name “Anti-racist Parent” to “Love is not Enough.” The first name is straight-forward and firmly asserts the values and objectives of this community, the second seems much more vague. Also, I feel that anti-racist work is motivated by love, so although love WITHOUT critical anti-racism is not enough, and the post from which the new name came is totally right on, the new name just doesn’t sit as well with me as the old one. “Love is not enough” sounds vaguely critical to me, but there’s not sense of what is being promoted beyond love. That said, I’m so glad that you want to bring gender, homophobia, religion, and other intersecting issues more to the fore. To me that seems like a more general social justice reorientation, but again, since I feel all this is motivated by love (and respect, fundamentally, but I see the two as related), to me personally, the new name doesn’t convey that message very well.
Thanks for the great resource–by any name!
Hey everyone, thanks for your feedback on the name change! I wanted to jump in and offer a few thoughts.
One of the reasons we decided to change the name is because we found that many of our readers of color didn’t really relate to the name “Anti-Racist Parent.”
Why? Because they see tackling race as part of *parenting* period, not just “anti-racist” parenting. It’s just like how many folks of color don’t see race as something that they have to go out of their way to think about. It’s woven into the fabric of their everyday lives.
As Tami said, please do stay with us. I think you’re really going to enjoy the changes we’re making (in fact, those changes already started a few months ago, you just may not have noticed).
Change is rarely popular. Believe it or not, there was quite an uproar a few years back when we changed our sister blog’s name from Mixed Media Watch to Racialicious.
But with time, people grew to love both the blog’s new focus and new name. I’m confident the same will happen here.
I must agree with limboland lala above – I also found my way here by explicitly searching for sites about race, parenting/caregiving. Had I seen a link to “Love Is Not Enough” I’d have skipped it on principle… it’s a bit too “pink and frilly” (doesn’t quite sound serious enough).
Oh well, mileages vary. I guess the main thing for the mods is to make sure that the summary that comes up under Google etc is precise and to the point – as long as the main ARP mission is tagged/highlighted with appropriate keywords, the site title hopefully won’t matter too much…
Okay, I like it.
Actually, the new name makes much more sense with the tagline. In the past I’ve heard the phrase “love isn’t enough” in discussions about adoption–I did not mean to suggest that only white parents of children of color deal with racism and similar issues–but it does make sense now.
Any chance the rest of the blog (especially the fonts) will get an update to go with your spiffy new logo?
Is this name final?
I think change is hard but necessary, BUT I know you all could come up with a better name. I mean racialicious? That is great, probably the best named website I’ve ever heard of.
I really like this website, and wish I had a nicer way to say this, but I think “love isn’t enough” just isn’t enough. It’s boring and bland.
And whether it’s intentional or not, the name does sound to me like it will be more of a focus on adoption. There is nothing wrong with talking about adoption of course, but theres plenty of websites devoted to adoption, and I feel like too much emphasis on adoption drives away the rest of us. Like I’m a young single mother with a limited income, there is no way in hell anyone would let me adopt a child (except I guess maybe through kinship care)
Anyways, not to ramble, but I think alot of us like exactly what we like about racialicious here. We like a place to talk about race in life and in society. We like to read, think about and discuss serious topics, stuff in the news or on TV, we like funny stuff sometimes. Sometimes we just need to hear someone else say “WTF?”
Love isn’t enough is a good first try. I would hate to see it be antiracist parents’ epitaph though. Are you still deciding on a finalized name? Are you taking suggestions or advice?
Racialicious really is a great name. I know you guys can come up with something great!
I actually like the name and I see where it’s coming from. Beyond adoption, there is the whole idea of loving your child past racism or racial issues w/o having to deal with them. I just had a conversation that led to my own rant on the issue recently.
I am in an interracial marriage and in the beginning (the tender age of 19 for me)…of course I was naive enough to think that “love was enough.” So trite. I am behind this idea and I will be reading, of course!
I wanted to second Tina’s comment about how negative ‘Love isn’t Enough’ sounds. I understand what it’s trying to get at, but it just gives love a bad rap.
I would like to mention, however, that I love the change for a reason no one else has mentioned yet–that the new name doesn’t focus solely on parents. I always felt a little weird with one of my top three blogs being Anti-Racist Parent, given that I’m not even a parent! But as a young adult who cares a lot about raising kids and is also incredibly invested in instilling anti-racist critical thought in my niece, I found the content of ARP unmatched by the focus of other anti-racist blogs. So thanks for that! (And for the record, I’d love to see more topics about mentoring if that doesn’t detract too much.)
Thirdly (and finally), is there any reason you didn’t choose to ask for the input of ARP readers in terms of the name change? I hear what you’re saying Carmen about the initial dislike of the shift to Racialicious, but it seems like it would have been a great opportunity to give the audience of this blog a chance to help shape what it means. This could have happened in any number of ways that wouldn’t necessarily relinquish your editorial control (and rightly so)–a brainstorm for names, a poll on possible names, or even a call for feedback before announcing.
Congratulations, Carmen and Tami, on this change. I really like the idea of taking ARP to the next level and opening up to many new topics of discussion.
It’s exciting!!!
I like the new name and second Becky (hey Becky!). Love isn’t enough, and I think too many people confuse not being racist, with being anti racist. Hopefully the new name will get people thinking and doing
I do see where you’re coming from – like Becky, years ago I entered into an interracial marriage as a colorblind “love is all we need” ignorant child — no, love was not enough, especially when raising kids of color in this world.
But … I have to add my voice to the chorus: not liking the new name. Though I see – and agree with – the intent, if I’m honest, it seems to be watering things down, and that’s a let down. I was looking for an anti-racist parenting site when I found ARP. I liked that the name was very clear and made no bones about it. Honestly? I’d have bypassed it had it been called “Love Is Not Enough”. Sorry, but the new name sounds like a million other mommy blog titles out there.
As I said, I agree that love is NOT enough, and that would’ve been great as a tagline for the old name, but I’m disappointed to see the actual title change to this, without even a strong tagline.
Like I say to my kids, if all the people around you who love and care about you are telling you that your course of action is a concern … might be time to step back and think on why everyone is seeing something you’re not seeing.
Sorry guys – I’m a huge fan, and I get what you were going for, but had to be honest.
I have to join in to say I don’t much like “love is not enough” either. It doesn’t seem to quite capture what you’re doing here, and has a negative tone. Even something like “Love Plus” would have worked better (although still not fully capturing the anti-racist content). Sorry!
Are there any other changes to the site coming? I would love to be able to browse old posts more easily (not just search) and I would also really enjoy a more dynamic message board arrangement. For example when a post generates more than one line of discussion it can get really confusing and often one line gets shut down if another heats up. It would be nice to have a threaded format or a more traditional message board system. I think the blog format is not super conducive for ongoing discussion. Last point (for now), it would be great if you could preview your post before you submitted it!
Yes, the name change is done and we’re not going back. Sit with it for a while. Carmen points out that no one liked the name “Racialicious” when that change was made.
I hope that those of you who have understandable concerns about the new site name will find your fears unfounded.
We are going to make some other changes to the site, a little at a time. Stay tuned.