ok, many people (just two) have already asked about the pool incident. i have some fun pics of the fourth of july, but i must post this one first.
scene: our apartment pool. two families are already there. one hispanic, one african-american, many children in the pool.
we walk in. one of the little african-american girls yells loudly, “why is that black baby with them?”. i pretend i don’t hear it. she yells the same thing again, “why is that black baby with those people?”. i make a split second decision. i ignore it.
right after that the mother yells at this child to stop saying that and the child’s older sister yells back, “you’re a black baby!”
but you read me right, i ignored it. because sometimes, just sometimes, i don’t want to be the educator-advocate-open book. i don’t want to be the poster child for the multicultural new definition of family. sometimes, i want parents to tell their kids to shut it.
95% of the time, i love to talk to everyone and their mom about diversity and multiculturalism and tell our story. and then 5% of the time, i ignore it.
had the little girl asked me a direct question later on when we were swimming around in the pool, i of course would have given her age-appropriate answers.
i’m not setting out to be rude, i’m just saying that sometimes it’s ok to not explain ourselves. a little mystery never hurt anyone.
and what is more mysterious than a run dmc shirt on top, and sparkly grandma’s flip flops on the bottom???
