So, is she yours?
Perhaps,they are thrown off her bone straight hair and light complexion in contrast to my kinky 'fro and dark complexion.
Brown-eyed babe is 50% African-American, 25% Italian and 25% Irish. But essentially she is biracial. Half black. Half white. However, she is not the one whom people see as abnormal. I disappoint them by not responding, "No, she is just my charge. I'm the nanny." Instead I give them a simple definative, "Yes."
So, she looks like her dad then?
Such a polite way of asking if he is of a different race. To this inquiry I responded quite cheekily, "Yes, she has his ears.", which is the truth.
I hope that her peers are less put off by her mixed heritage. And then there is the whole can of worms with regard to her own sense of identity. It has been my observation that most kids with a black parent identify themselves as black. Not that she has to identify with one or the other, but we all know how society loves to try and place people into boxes. What if I were to enroll her in an Irish dance class, would she be regarded as an outsider due to her darker skin tone? I wish I could just pass these worries off on blue-eyed babe but his sense of race is a bit murky as it is with regards to black and white. When we lived in Massachusetts, I had such anxiety about her only being surrounded by her white family members. I was quite resentful of it actually. Now that the tables are turned, I have anxiety about her not seeing her white family members. I guess we shall cross the racial identity bridge when we come to it. However, that does not mean that I won't be fretting about a possible furture identity crisis in the meantime.
3 comments:
I just got here by clicking the "random site" link on the Crazy Hip Blog Mamas ring, and I felt compelled to comment to your entry.
I have the same problem. My fair skinned daughter looks just like me, just a lot lighter and I am constantly asked if she belongs to me. And of course in hearing she was mine I got the same "she must look like her father". I get it with both of my children, and my son is my complexion.
I haven't yet come up with a way to resolve my issues about her being ostracized, I would hope people would just come to their senses by then, but it's so doubtful. I hope that your little ones never have to experience something so disheartening and that eventually you won't have to either.
People are so ignorant! We get that a lot to. ManChild has brown hair and brown eyes. DramaChild has red hair and greenish-brown eyes and LittleBit has blonde hair and blues eyes (ain't adoption great?) But who cares, they're all our kids.
I was looking for articles on women and financial responsibility in a cross-cultural, transhistorical context. Instead I landed here, and I'm glad.
My son is multiracial, because I am. His dad is white, I'm not. My own father was half Am. Indian, half Black, my mom was white.
I am arming my son with the tools he needs to shoot down people who ask rude questions simply because they are uncomfortable, teaching them to laugh is the most important thing; it's what certainly got me through a childhood in a rural, smalltown, all-white town on the Plains!! That aside, multiracial children ARE the new face of the planet. People will adapt or...well, you know. :)
I love your "he's got my ears"! Will put that one in my back pocket..Thanks for the refreshing break from school stuff!
Zoe
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