We have had a number of different goes with SB of trying to explain why there is this huge historical and cultural ‘thing’ with the election of President Elect Obama. i am not sure that she still ‘gets it’. Firstly, she hasn’t been brought up to ‘notice’ colour. I mean, we know people are of different colours, as they can be of different faiths, sex, hair colour and age etc. It is an adjective, not a defining statement. [well, not for us - though I guess some people may chose to be defined by their faith or colour]. We have in the past discussed the possible evolutionary pressures that cause the different colours of skin predominantly [and hair as a side issue] – namely getting enough vit D from the sun near the poles, and not burning near the equator. So the appointment of a ‘person of colour’ seemed to her not to be anything particularly special, may just as well appointed a woman for example.
OK, so, backing off, although Pres Elect is not ‘descended from slaves’. This history of black people in America is one of slavery and then second class citizenry. We have lightly touched on the slave trade before, when we went to a museum in Bristol, and also on webland, but she had forgotten. We went further back and discussed the treatment of slaves by the romans, ah yes, she could remember that, and the fact they were treated as goods, separated from family. but she also remembered that they could be freed, and once free were treated as equals. [though, actually there came a time when slave/ true roman interbreeding was distinctly frowned upon] did this happen to the black slaves – well, not exactly! Even when they were all freed [emancipated] they were still second class citizens. they couldn’t go on the same buses and the same shops, date a ‘white’ person. We discussed civil rights, touched on klu klux klan, and Mrtin Luther King.
Eventually we got back to barack obama – you see, this is why it is such a big deal
pause…
‘I am part coloured’ “?what?” ‘well I have skin that tans quickly like daddy, and he is coloured’ “!??”
it is a difficult concept, as how pale should you be to be white, and how dark to be coloured/black. And yes, she is right, it really shouldn’t be a concept at all. Maybe, with a person of colour at the head of america, more and more children will also not be able to graps this concept either, because one day it will cease to have any more meaning than the colour of my eyes.
D and S have always seemed to be more or less ‘colour blind’ and as you say certainly not more observant of that than of different hair colour. When we talked briefly about Obama this week they both insisted that Ady is ‘coloured’ too so if the question of mixed race had ever come up they’d have considered themselves it aswell.
I remember reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin when I was quite young, and enjoying it. It was a long time ago, but I think it does convey a good impression of slavery in the US at that time.
We’ve always discussed race quite a lot – as part of discussions about prejudice and fairness – and also history, of course. When Leo was about three he declared that the black man in the Ghostbusters shouldn’t be there and that made me realise that it was never too soon to start talking about this stuff. He was (at that age) just identifying a difference, of course. But I felt that – especially as we live in a pretty white city – we needed to be aware of countering the bad stuff out there.
We all watched a BBC Four documentary yesterday, about a mixed-race man who became a British Army officer in the First World War. Both the kids watched in silence for an hour and I think it was a very good bit of drama. We had to explain the odd thing, I suppose, like why the white officers all left their shoes on the black guy’s bed, with a tin of polish and a few coins.
Leo also sat through the whole of the film Gandhi, a few weeks ago. He was mostly taken with the technique of non-violence. (He has a furious temper when it blows and he has decided that ‘Gandhi’ is what people need to say to him to remind him not to blow!) But, of course, it also addressed lots of questions of race, colonialism and so on.
Both of our kids know a fair bit about fascism too. Leo was horrifed to find out that the Nazis didn’t spell the end of fascist ideas. I think that was scary for him.
Reading this, I think we are probably quite harsh in terms of sharing the brutal realities with our kids. I don’t know why that is. I guess I hope that forewarned is forearmed.
Thanks for that Allie. I guess, apart from the museum visit, we have only discussed race when it is a topical issue. Although we are in a fairly ‘white’ area, SB has friends and knows people of other colour/ethnicity.
I also suppose, that as we rarely watch TV directly [do have DVD and downloads - but kiddie things tend to be very multicultural these days and quite PC on sotrylines to exclude racism] and we are doing the classical approach to history – starting at the beginning and working though, that unless SB asks as a result of reading a book, hearing something or one of our initiated discussions, she isn’t going to think of the ‘issue’.
i guess this is a starting point for that, and is something that will inevitably be discussed and read about later.
As part of exactly this topic, we were talking this morning about the Aboriginals and how it was very recently believed that the right thing to do by them was to breed their colour out of them.
Not that long ago either.