"I am brown"

and are we really making mistakes when we judge others based on race??

Sister Hoda,

[He said one of his new friends (Melanie) told him she didn't know he was black. He pulled his sweater sleeve up and said look "I am brown" ...]

Priceless!! This just goes to show us adults that kids know how to teach one another without being overly sensitive, defensive, and with spewing hate. Good job to your sweet little boy.

Was Melanie Black or White (American)? I want to say it sounds like she is Black because we tend to be taught from an early age about race through our own observations and interactions in the environment. When I was growing up in South Carolina, I lacked interactions with other African /Black people from other countries so I was shocked when I attended a big University to see other people who looked similar to me, but had a different way of doing things. I thought every Black person should look like me or act like me. Ha!

I'm sure this conversation would not have come up if you still lived in Toronto since the city is so over whelmly saturated with immigrants and is known for its diversity. One day I hope the States will become a place where race isn't a polarizing factor. It's a grave mistake to judge people based on race, but it happens all the time here.

I had an interesting conversation with a paramedic yesterday in the ambulance while transferring my patient to a bigger hospital for open heart surgery. The patient was a Pakistani Accountant who had suffered a heart attack a few days prior.

His wife spoke only Urdu although she understood some English (she just couldn't speak it fluently). The paramedic immediately judged the woman and the entire family who had been gathered there waiting for the patient (their father) to be transferred for a MAJOR surgery.

The paramedic probably didn't mean any harm, but she apparently had seem several immigrants abuse the system and had grown weary of this type stuff. Anyway she began to make stereotypical assumptions about them without even getting to know them first. She asked the man's daughter who was visibly pregnant things (I thought were offensive and personal) like did you have an arranged marriage, do all you guys live in the same house, and made comments to the wife that she needs to learn English because she's in N. America where we speak English. She didn't even want the wife to ride on the ambulance, but I encouraged the wife to come along and she did finally agree.

Having said that~~~ unfortunately your son will have many more encounters like the one he had with Melanie, but not to worry since he seems to know exactly what to do naturally . Continue to pray for him and gently teach him through the questions that he brings to you about race. ((hugs))


P.S. My son also is in kindergarten (5K)

Jen, thank you for your encouraging words. And I've always told my son that we're all a shade of brown, therefore he wasn't aware of the terms "black and white". He's always said he was brown and his dad was chocolate (ha), and I thought it was a beautiful thing.

And that's one thing I've noticed about the States since coming form Canada. Race is such a big issue here. Not to say everyone gets along fine and dandy there because it's not true, but people are more open to other folks because it's so diverse. The first time I was called "you African" was here (as if that's an insult..i love my Africaness) and the first time an old lady called me "colored girl" was also here. She said I was beautiful for a colored girl...how ignorant and insulting. I couldn't believe my ears because I haven't experienced that type of treatment before. And most of the insults came from other African American kids and adults, which is sad to say. That lets you know that parents, since they are the kids' first teachers are not teaching these children that there are other people that exist in the world, some who look like you and some who don't but are from the same place with a lot of the same struggles. Kids have to know this.

Also I believe traveling is a good way to show children how other people live. It's also a good way to learn a lot about yourself as a person.

With the whole stereotyping..it gets on my nerves when people do this. We are not all the same as people, so we need let this idea go and move on.

P.s Jen, does your son have endless stories to tell you too?

Stories about kids like Melanie? Not really, but I do expect to hear them soon unfortunately. Thanks for sharing your experience here in a blog. I will apologize to you for any damage that other African Americans may have perpertrated out of ignorance or just plain arrogance. I'm not like that, because of my experience both here and traveling abroad. (((smiles)))