I’m going brag a little on my wife and myself.
There is a public swimming pool/water park near us in Oak Park, MI; a very nice, clean, well-maintained facility. My wife and I have taken our 4 year-old son there quite a bit this summer for swimming lessons and also because it’s just a nice place to go to relax and to let my son frolic and to cool off a little, especially with this stifling heat we’re experiencing at the moment.
Yesterday evening, as I watched my boy splash about having a grand old time, I was struck by something that made me feel truly proud and hopeful for my kid’s future. As you can imagine, on a day where the temperatures had reached the upper 90’s, the place was packed. As I looked around, it occurred to me that, with the exception of maybe an employee or two and a couple of the lifeguards, we were the only white folks there. I watched him playing and splashing around with the other kids there and I realized how completely unaware he was that there were any differences between him and the other kids, meaning obviously the color of his skin.
I felt very proud at that moment of the fact that racism in our household is not an issue. I can honestly say that my 4 year old son has no prejudices, racial, or otherwise (what kind of food he will or won’t eat is another subject altogether however). We live in a very ethnically, racially and socially diverse community, where my kids play and interact with kids of all colors, shapes and sizes.
Now I’m not so naïve to think there won’t come a day someday when he’ll come home from school with that inevitable question for my wife and me “Mom, dad, what’s n*gger?”, or worse yet, actually using the term. If and when that happens I’ll address the issue at that point. But until that day I see no reason to taint his innocence.
It was such a hopeful scene, especially for someone like me, having grown up in a fairly sheltered community as a kid. It showed me that someone’s race, ethnicity, or skin color doesn’t have to be an issue. That the only reason it ever is, is because someone was brought up that way and was taught to think and feel that way. And that goes for all parties involved, not just white folks.
All in all it was a very simple, uneventful, yet very enlightening experience.
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9 comments:
Six: Your kid is certain to encounter the word nigger 10,000 times by blacks in music, tv, movies, and in everyday language. It is almost a guarantee that unlike when you, Nadir, and I were kids, cracker kids today don't encounter that word from older whites saying something like, "those fucking niggers". More likely than your kid hearing something like that and then asking you "what's a nigger", you will instead notice him calling his friends niggers, regardless of their race, or happily reciting some assinine rap song that uses it (along with bitch, whore, ho, motherfucker, shit, fuck, etc.).
Nadir's and my friends Andrew and Monifa have two kids. They're a black family, and they do not discuss race or make any racial references around their children. They do not teach their children to have "race pride", such as having any special association with famous people who are black. They teach their children to associate equally with all positive famous people regardless of color. They do not want their kids to consider themselves to be "black", or others as "white", and they do not tell their kids that they "live in a racist society."
They make a point of this, and know that this makes them at least somewhat unusual amongst blacks. Educated black parents for some time have been instilling "race pride", but I think that more are adopting this more accurate and constructive view of Andrew and Monifa.
Six: And you are a racist because you support school vouchers and oppose affirmative action.
I can tell you this much, I don't give a sh*t if he learns the "n" word from some f*cking rap tune, or from one of his school buddies, that term will not be allowed in our household.
And people like Nadir will still call you a racist because you vote republican, and still think that this practice in your household is unusual, and that most whites in the US want black folks seperate, uneducated, and poor.
I forgot to mention how my 4 year-old son is on a first-name basis with both of his swimming coaches (both young, teenage black guys) who he runs up to immediately and says hi to them, and they always reciprocate with "Hey William, how you doin' buddy?".
It's a thing of beauty.
And the typical scenario in the US in 2006, a remarkable difference from the days that Nadir romantices, when white folks in the US really dispised and subjugated blacks. Ah, those were the days, when guys like me and Nadir could lead slave rebellions. Now all we have left to do is convince black folks to act right. What a boring job.
Your kids will learn abour racism not from an older white person indoctinating them about how blacks are inferior, but by teachers and other people they will encounter who will indoctrinate them about how the US in general is racist even today, and that all white people are inherently racist, even if they don't even realize it. Although your kids are unlikely to ever have another white person try to coax them into a racist act or to convince them to adopt racism, they are very likely to get accused of being racist due to their political beliefs. At the very least they will watch other whites get called racist for opposing affirmative action, or to witness blacks get called sell-outs for same. Very sad.
Six: I think it's a great thing that your kids don't understand race yet. They will pick it up in school a little later, but it won't be the same way we learned about it as kids. That's for sure.
I am very hopeful about both the young people who are teenagers now down to those who are your son's age. The only racism they may face is anti-Arabic if things keep going the way they are now. Perhaps they will be distrustful of Muslims of all colors. I don't know, but I hope not.
It's the old ignorant ass racists like Paul that are still creating division where none needs to exist. Once we get rid of those folks, race truly won't be an issue in America.
"The only racism they may face is anti-Arabic if things keep going the way they are now. Perhaps they will be distrustful of Muslims of all colors. I don't know, but I hope not."
I hope not too. But unfortunately I'm afraid you're right. The vast majority of good, decent, peace-loving Muslims are having their image tarnished by a small, but growing minority of militant, Islamic fascists.
I hope they take - or at least begin to take - their culture and religion back from them soon before it's too late.
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