As many of you know, I have been in close communication with the McClure family since the “Justine Racist Tweet-Gate.” What started out as one thing has morphed into “exposing” the family business and forcing Ami to feel she had to come forward and announce that the McClure twin girls were adopted.

This absolutely sickens me. The level of harassment and vitriol leveled at this family has been obscene. In the absence of the actual facts anonymous keyboard terrorists on Lipstick Alley are filling in the blanks with outright lies, like Ami not really being divorced by her first husband, or that Justin didn’t really adopt the children, or adopted the children so he could exploit them.

I have spoken at length with a representative of the family who asked that I share the true timeline of events since Beyond Black & White is one of the few outlets not on a bloodthirsty feeding frenzy. Below is proof of the legal adoption of the twins by Justin McClure.

Timeline as released by the family representative:

March 2013 – Ami leaves ex-husband around 4 months pregnant (due to his infidelity & instability)
July 2013 – Twins are born
Fall 2013 – Ami starts divorce proceedings

Summer 2014 – Ami meets Justin
Fall 2014 – Ami/Jeff Divorce is finalized

Summer 2015 – Ami & Justin Marry
Fall 2015 – Justin adopts twins

October 2016 – Twins go viral
October 2016 – Justin converts his Youtube/Twitter to McClure Twins (registers mccluretwins.com)
-Didn’t start vlogging until after they went viral, there was no grand plan, didn’t even own the website.

Early 2017 – Ami & Justin begin talking to the twins about their adoption
July 2018 – Lipstick Alley trolls dig up old tweets and begin concocting nonsensical conspiracies. They’re publicly exposing their phone numbers, housing records, real names of relatives, contacting the ex-husband via email and feeding him conspiracies (and now he is even starting to believe). It has gotten to the point that they’re receiving death threats.

I am so disheartened at the level of evil directed at this family and honestly makes me question a lot about black women, who have been the instruments of this from the very beginning. Make no mistake, this isn’t about the McClures. It is about what Ami, a dark-skinned black woman married to a white man who took on her children and protects, provides and produces a lifestyle that most black women don’t have. Black women will never admit that the harassment against this family is jealousy and projection. They will hide behind their righteous indignation over one raunchy tweet. I guess that’s why they called CPS of the family, have reached out to Ami’s ex-husband to get dirt and stir up drama, force the family to come forth with deeply personal information before they are ready, and cackle with delight as the negative press continues.

This is sick. How is this who we are?

Moving Forward: Interracial Couples and Attacks

As the numbers of interracial couples with black women at the center increases, the danger of backlash through online bullying, doxxing of personal information, harassment of friends and relatives and even physical confrontation will be more likely. It’s time to start taking this threat more seriously. I am working with a group of experts on putting together an informational event on how couples like ours can protect ourselves. This event will be private, so if you’re interested in joining, sign up for our mailing list here. 

Follow Christelyn on Instagram and Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. And if you want to be a little more about this online dating thing, InterracialDatingCentral is the official dating site for this blog.