Hi All,
My family and I have been traveling the last two weeks on holiday. We've been to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Virgina and now we're back in NC for one more week with my mother before we leave. So yesterday I took all my girls to the Morrisville Aquatic Center which is about 12 miles outside of Raleigh, NC. Myself and my daughters were five of seven white people in the entire outdoor complex. Multiculturalism is not new to myself or my three oldest girls, but my youngest, who's 12, was a bit off balance. Nearly all of the children in the pool (about 50) were Black or Asian. Then my 12 year old discovered another child that had the same bathing suit as she did and the child, who was Black, walked up to her and said she liked her suit, which made my daughter laugh. I asked Ashtonn what she thought of the pool and she said the water was great but she felt "alone" with so many faces that didn't look like her.
I drew a connection to Honky because he grew up white in a mostly black community and had no difficulties being with people that didn't look like him and yet my daughter felt alone because her upbringing is completely opposite of the authors. Then later in the car Ashtonn told us there was one black child in her grade and she reflected on how she must have felt moving from Georgia to Colorado in the middle of the school year where there is little or no multiculturalism. This was a great thing to expose Ashtonn to, and the rest of the girls, because it teaches them what it feels like when the shoe is on the other foot. I want my girls to see the person beyond the skin color if they are going to truly benefit from the rich diversity of cultures our world has to offer.
Nancy--I admire you for exposing your children to this environment. I am an African American person, and I grew up in the south. I went to school with both African American and Caucasian children, so I have always been comfortable being around individuals who are different than myself. My children are the same way, because as a military family, the communities we have lived in an dlive in are multi-cultural and this is the norm.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that your daughter, not having been in this environment before, was uncomfortable at first, until she realized that something as simple as a bathing suit allowed her to realize that although their skin is different, they are both still little girls.