Wednesday, August 27, 2014

"...he who smelt it dealt it racism"



Uhm. Can we all just take a moment and applaud just how amazing this segment was?! Bravo Mr. Daily! Bravo!

I am a person of color. My boyfriend is a person of color. My son is a person of color. 

It is important to understand these things and be aware of ourselves and how we affect others. I want Makai to grow up and understand what privilege is, and how he/others may or may not benefit. He should understand the idea of "other-ness"/exclusion, what is fair/not fair, and in essence what is inherently right/wrong. 

I'm not naive enough to say that "there is no color," "there is no more racism," or that "I don't see color" so it is therefore not my issue. It's there and it's important to understand and identify the problem and issues. THAT is the step in the right direction. Not to sweep it under the rug and pretend it's not around. Yeah, that'd be cool and all - if we all just stopped being racist... but that's just not the current reality. 

I've struggled with this concept and how to make sure my son understands as he grows older. It's a difficult thing to tackle. I had the experience of my entire family being immigrants in this country. I grew up in a city and school as the ONLY Filipino family. Makai is so far removed from these experiences, so how do I help him understand? It's difficult, and messy, and sensitive, and delicate, and confusing! But I think it's important for my son to be aware of these things.

2 comments:

  1. Great post! I can only imagine it's very difficult to want to expose Makai to these injustices when he's growing up in very different circumstances than you did. I'm sure you'll do a great job though!

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