It starts in childhood, kids notice some other children have different skin than they do. But to babies and tots, this is no big deal, they see colors all around them every day. Everything has a different color so why not people? Eventually though children are exposed to the feelings, actions, and words of others that may sway their feelings of people of other races one way or the other. Some kids rise above it and become well rounded adults, accepting of everyone. Others, well…..I’ll leave that for another post.
Sometimes we let my daughter watch the news. She’s kind of aware of the Trayvon Martin case and she’s always been aware of the injustices people suffer because of race.
I made the silly assumption that Jade was acutely aware of the races themselves. Hmm. Apparently not so much.
I bring this up because my Mom and I were with the children in the store when we ran into an old friend of the family who happens to be black. Miss Cleo is older than she will admit but doesn’t look a day over sixty. She was shopping with her daughter who is about my Mom’s age. Miss Cleo and my Mom have been friends for about twenty-five years or so and Miss Cleo has kind of adopted Mom and always treated her as one of her own. So when Jade asked who she was and my Mom introduced her as her mother, I thought nothing of it. But you could see Jade’s wheels were turning.
Miss Cleo’s daughter laughed and said “She’s thinking something doesn’t match up here.”
After some thought, Jade said “She can’t be your mother, because you said your mother died when you were fourteen.”
I simply said “Jade just doesn’t think that way.”
I couldn’t have been more proud of my baby. The fact that Miss Cleo is black and her Grandma is white so they can’t be related never even entered her mind.
We should all be so accepting.
jennifermayormaynot 