Evan came home today with papers from his work at school. One of the papers was from "A-Z Black Inventors". I was taken back by this topic. Evan has never mentioned the color of people, pointed out the differences of people, NOTHING! At first I wondered why even mention the inventors were black. My mind kept wandering and wondering. I asked myself what the moms(who are black) would think of such a topic. Maybe they would want everybody to know the inventors were black. Then I wondered what Evan thought so I asked him about the work. He used the term black and African American interchangeably...okay good kid. He spoke of his classmates that were black and a few friends that were black. He said he saw no difference with him and these kids....okay again...good kid. Good teaching him Mrs. L (much kudos to you).
I was saddened to know he saw their color at all(loss of innocence). I thought at the moment that my child saw different color skins but just never inquired about it. Oh my ....my child does not tell me everything.....my bubble as a parent is broken. But then at dinner the conversation kept going and come to find out......Evan never saw color until it was mentioned in class. See I really do know my child and what he knows and thinks. But still saddened that my child had to learn this topic at such a young age. I do not think he is affected by this...meaning he still does not fully get what was discussed. Color....yes but then again color....no. I am not upset with the school system or the teacher. My child lives in the world and thus I can not shelter him forever. And he still is the same child that I sent off to school in the morning...loving, caring, much empathy and quite funny. I am just saddened(yes this word again!!) we still look at skin color and must make a point to tell everyone he was a "BLACK" inventor instead of he was an inventor. Does one negate or belittle the other? What a world we live in??!!
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST:(I love that song) Another blogger is out of the contest. Kandee(The Family Edge blogger) forgot to post. Just forgot...nothing more to it. She said she meant to all day but well you know how it goes as a mom. We never really get to what we "meant" to do. We get to all the "other" stuff. But keep reading her blog. She is still around just not everyday.
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4 comments:
Wow, that's impressive that he never really took note until it was mentioned. Tyler has already asked, just as he'd ask me why someone has short hair, etc. I hope it's something that he never sees as an issue though, kwim?
This is something that I have always had an issue with. I don't think that the color of a person's skin should have anything to do with anything. I don't feel that anything should be taken away from or given to someone because of the color of their skin. I hate the fact that there are scholarships and other awards that are specifically for certain ethnic groups or for women only. I don't see how any of that should make a difference. And then there's the double standard that whites or men can be excluded from these things, but if there was something specifically for whites or men, or God forbid, white men, it would be considered racist or sexist or both. I think that singling out a specific race or sex, even if it is in celebration, only helps to make the differences between the groups even more noticable.
By the way, my girls have always noticed the differences in people's skin color, just like they would with hair color, but they have never felt that those differences meant anything other than people come in all different shapes, sizes, & colors.
Olivia doesn't notice either. I'm sure I will feel exactly like you when that little bubble is broken.
Yeah I have a problem with "pointing out" color. Every year, it's pointed out by "celebrating" Black History month. It's a shame that adults can't be more like children and just recognize "inventors", like you said. Of course, I have views that go deeper and not everyone would agree, but I think officials do it on purpose. Unfortunately, our world is frothe with agendas and we can't do much about it except raise our kids to be better than that. You're doing good Jennifer. Your boys will turn out to be fine men because of it.
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