What are you afraid of?

The year is 2010, not 1960.

On one hand I can understand still having the same mentality now as you did back then. But at the same time I am no where near the person I was 10, or even 5 years ago.

Back then, everyone had their own thing. Their own school, their own water fountain, their own bathroom. I admit it would be nice to go out in public and have my own bathroom, just for me. But to have that own bathroom because of the color of my skin? Ridiculous.

The color of one's skin or their sexual orientation does not determine who they are. It is only one slice of the whole pie. Why is it so damn hard for people, in 2010, to understand this?

racism
For shits and giggles, because I am not always a normal person, I asked my son to tell his Grandma and Pap who he likes to play Star Wars with at recess. Sometimes reactions are priceless and hearing my son say he play with Agok achieved such a reaction.

My MIL had a look of confusion on her face. I think she was hoping she misunderstood my son. That does happen. So he repeated himself. I then had to explain that she did, in fact, hear him correctly.

My in-laws smiled and nodded, and we moved onto another conversation. One about Kindergartners adjusting to school.


My Little Dude was quiet at first, but after many hugs, had no problems walking through the doors of the school. The grandson of my MIL's friend was another story. His problems started at his original bus stop, where the before/after school program he attends is located. He had to wait for the bus with another little boy. My MIL felt the need to describe this little boy. It was completely irrelevant to the conversation. And really? Why does one have to whisper the words "big" and "black"? Is she afraid that she will suddenly gain a bunch of weight overnight and wake up with darker skin?


Be afraid of snakes and spiders, not someone who is different than you.

The year is 2010, not 1960.



3 comments:

Kmama said...

I wholeheartedly agree. There are certain people in my family that do the same thing and it drives me bonkers. People are people...and all that matters is that they have a good heart.

Shell said...

I have family members like that. Drives me insane.

Liz said...

my MIL asked me once how a black family could live in the same neighborhood as us. Um, black people get educations and good jobs, too!