Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Brown!

Mimi was invited to attend a get together,

at the Whereville ice cream shop,

to meet the other teen girls in town.

The local homeschool group is growing

at an enormous rate,

and us mamas wanted our teens to start connecting.

The girls sat and chatted about an hour,

and seemed to be enjoying themselves.

On the way home Mimi told me all about

one of the girls going on and on about

how her friend had just moved

into a bad neighborhood.

You know how she could tell it was a bad neighborhood?

Black people lived there!

Gasp!

Mimi, ever gracious, said

"Did you know my baby brother is black?"

Then went on to tell this girl that black skin

is not what makes a neighborhood bad.

The young lady backpedaled by saying

she's "met a nice black person once".

A few minutes later, the same girl began talking

about people with "brown skin".

Yup, that's exactly how she said it,

brown skinned people.

Mimi's friend replied "You know I'm Native American right?

You know I have brown skin?"

sigh.

I'm proud of these girls for stepping up

and calling this young lady out for her attitude.

I have no idea what to do now.

I certainly won't stand by while kids spew racist remarks,

but I'm going to march up to confront this mom either.

Any suggestions?

3 comments:

Kendra said...

Might be a bit old for it, but what about the brown egg white egg demonstration. Showing that the contents of both are equal & the same..

Katie said...

I'm hoping the root of her problem is ignorance rather than unfounded hatred. Regardless, ignorance is certainly not always bliss. I really don't have any advice, but it's great that Mimi spoke up.

Bethany said...

Wow. That's a whole lot of prayers situation. You are raising an incredible young women who was so quick to stand up for what she knows is right. I have a sister with brown skin. Nothing makes me madder, quicker than to hear words like these. Praying that God gives you wisdom.