A Big White Lie

CrimsonTide4 · #1 09-21-2005, 06:46 PM

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/enter...ostemailedlink

For 26 years, Dave Myers was told he was white. Learning the truth, that his father was black, sent him on a quest for his identity and leaves him estranged from his family.

Jeff Kunerth | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted September 18, 2005

Every family has its secrets. There are things parents never tell children. There are lies that become family legend. There are stories that were never meant to be told.

Judith Hartmann's secret, when she married Bill Myers in 1959, was that she was pregnant by a black man.

When the baby born to two white parents came out black, the secret became a lie.

Throughout his childhood, David Myers was told that his skin color was a disease called melanism. He was lucky, his mother said, because the skin discoloration was all over his body, instead of just splotches of brown like most people had.

So despite his dark skin, Myers grew up in white, middle-class neighborhoods in Ohio and New York believing he was white.

"For many years I thought I was white. I thought like a white kid. There was a feeling in me that I didn't want to be associated with blacks. I wanted the story to be true," says Myers, a 45-year-old Orlando tennis teacher.

Read the rest HERE

Honeykiss1974 · #2 09-21-2005, 07:05 PM

Give me a moment to absorb this story because it doesn't seem real.

Quote:

When a young Dave Myers asked his mother why police in Alabama were spraying black civil-rights protesters with fire hoses, she told him it was because they were hot.

WTF is up with his momma?! Some of the stuff coming out of her mouth is awful.

Dionysus · #3 09-21-2005, 07:09 PM

Q. What did the Asian couple say when they had a black baby?

A. Som-ting wong!

soulfulremix · #4 09-21-2005, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dionysus
Q. What did the Asian couple say when they had a black baby?

A. Som-ting wong!

TheEpitome1920 · #5 09-21-2005, 09:20 PM

It reminds me of that movie "Me, Myself and Irene" where Jim Carey is raising 3 Black boys.

How could he not know he wasn't white? His mom is wrong for that.

ladygreek · #6 09-21-2005, 09:42 PM

His Mom is a racist and his "Dad" is a patsy. Poor guy.

btb87 · #7 09-21-2005, 10:02 PM

I read this story yesterday and sent it to a friend. She was a bit outraged at it as well. The thing that got to me, and before I even read the "how" of this happening, I knew that she would blame his existence on rape. Some 45 years later. Don't ask me how I knew it, I just did.

Guess she valued his life so much she didn't report it and didn't want to see him swinging from a tree, huh?

preciousjeni · #8 09-21-2005, 10:49 PM

kiml122 · #9 09-22-2005, 07:38 AM

But I'm saying I looked at the pic, and come now dude looks black...not like he has some skin disease....straight up black. I'm just shaking my head because again, I'm saying who in their right mind believed that mess.

Steeltrap · #10 09-22-2005, 12:03 PM

Mr. Myers' story is rather sad.

And his witch of a mother really needs an azz-whipping.

The family does seem like it lived in a bubble, however. I can't fathom what it must be like for him to figure out that he's black (or now self-identifies as black).

msn4med1975 · #11 09-22-2005, 01:41 PM

she was all kinds of wrong for this mess and i love her husband for being so gulliable but COME ON, how you gonna take her word on a skin disease so "rare" it SHOULD have had your child in medical textbooks

rho4life · #12 09-22-2005, 03:23 PM

Am I the only one who's not surprised by this? I LOVE his videos. One time when he was doing cribs, I remember looking at him and thinking.......hmmmmmmm.......I always thought he just came out light in the genetic milkshake, but I thought he "had some Black in him".

ETA: MY BAD!!!! When I saw the name, i thought it was the guy who directs videos.

Then I read the article. That's sooooooo sad.

CrimsonTide4 · #13 09-22-2005, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rho4life
Am I the only one who's not surprised by this? I LOVE his videos. One time when he was doing cribs, I remember looking at him and thinking.......hmmmmmmm.......I always thought he just came out light in the genetic milkshake, but I thought he "had some Black in him".

This man is a tennis teacher.

WenD08 · #14 09-22-2005, 05:01 PM

based on his mother's views, it sounded like she wanted to see if the rumors were true about Black men and oops.

, got pregnant. the idea of having a Black child or even dealing w/Blacks as a whole is a foreign concept to her. fast forward she has a Black son. what's an ignorant/racist woman to do? accept her transgression and be truthful to all around her, especially the son born to her and this "random" Black man or deny, deny, deny.
i read this and at first thought, "unbelievable", but then, i thought about how we are viewed as a people and thought that his story seems plausible. sad that this man has been hurt by the one person that was supposed to love him but plausible.
this guy said he wants to go on Oprah. i hope he does but also takes some time to see Dr. Phil and/or Starting Over w/his family.
they all could stand some help.

Little32 · #15 09-22-2005, 05:40 PM

"As much as family members acted as though Dave was just like the other kids, they knew he wasn't. And the difference started showing up in his behavior."

This is interesting. It's the same old story of racial difference manifesting as behavioral difference. Come on.

Not only are the things that his mother said the earmark of a racist, but his entire family seems racist. Furthermore, the slant of the article and the way that things are phrased seems racist to me too.