Proud Mama
So several weeks ago, Cheerios did a very cute commercial for its cereal. And then a certain segment of the population erupted over it. Watch and see if you can spot what made them so angry.
If you couldn't figure it out, well done you. If you did and wanted to face-palm for a few hours, take a look at the video below. It's one of a series where the creators get a kids'-eye view about various topics. Usually the kids have a lot to say. This time...it took some help.
I saw this last night and promptly put it on Tumblr. This morning I showed the commercial to Little Bead. He smiled and laughed at the right part, then said it was funny. I told him that some people didn't like the commercial and wanted it to be pulled off the air. Could he tell why?
It took him a couple of minutes, but he did zero in on "Racism?" He then proceeded to declare very firmly how stupid that was. "Look at M and E! They're mixed and they do fine!" (M is Mr. Bead's best friend growing up who is in a long-term relationship with the lovely E and they'll probably get around to getting married in the next year or two. She's always been good-humored about the situation; she described breaking the news to her mom that she was dating a white guy. Mom asked, "How white are we talking?" Her response was, "Oh, he's very white." And he is that, a classic nerdy/geeky computer guy.)
There is at least one of Little Bead's friends through elementary school that I know is part of a biracial family. And I'm fairly certain that I'd have to point that out to Little Bead before he'd think of them as an example. At school I see him mix easily with all kinds of kids...white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Indian... And he will be able to do this without the feeling that his parents are judging him for it the way mine did me.
I got close to an African-American child in third grade. When we were in different classes the next year, my mom quickly "lost" her phone number so she couldn't call and arrange playdates and probably fielded any calls from her as well with excuses until she stopped trying. My father tried to forbid me from coming home from college freshman summer classes the weekend of my high school's graduation, because he overheard my sister say that one of the boys a year behind me hoped to see me there and twigged from his last name that he was black. Therefore, I "didn't need" to come home that weekend. (I drove there anyway, snuck in with my sister to sit in the band pit, and watched many good friends graduate. Then I drove back the same night.) They've finally stopped making comments about the neighborhood we live in, with its very diverse population, but still think Mr. Bead and I ought to move "somewhere safer".
The Zimmerman trial and its total travesty of justice (even if it was somehow correct according to "law"), the insane levels of hatred that some people show to our President...these things prove that we're not post-racial despite what the current Supreme Court says. But I look at the kids I teach, the number of biracial families they have, and the reactions like these. There is hope.
If you couldn't figure it out, well done you. If you did and wanted to face-palm for a few hours, take a look at the video below. It's one of a series where the creators get a kids'-eye view about various topics. Usually the kids have a lot to say. This time...it took some help.
Click to viewI saw this last night and promptly put it on Tumblr. This morning I showed the commercial to Little Bead. He smiled and laughed at the right part, then said it was funny. I told him that some people didn't like the commercial and wanted it to be pulled off the air. Could he tell why?
It took him a couple of minutes, but he did zero in on "Racism?" He then proceeded to declare very firmly how stupid that was. "Look at M and E! They're mixed and they do fine!" (M is Mr. Bead's best friend growing up who is in a long-term relationship with the lovely E and they'll probably get around to getting married in the next year or two. She's always been good-humored about the situation; she described breaking the news to her mom that she was dating a white guy. Mom asked, "How white are we talking?" Her response was, "Oh, he's very white." And he is that, a classic nerdy/geeky computer guy.)
There is at least one of Little Bead's friends through elementary school that I know is part of a biracial family. And I'm fairly certain that I'd have to point that out to Little Bead before he'd think of them as an example. At school I see him mix easily with all kinds of kids...white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Indian... And he will be able to do this without the feeling that his parents are judging him for it the way mine did me.
I got close to an African-American child in third grade. When we were in different classes the next year, my mom quickly "lost" her phone number so she couldn't call and arrange playdates and probably fielded any calls from her as well with excuses until she stopped trying. My father tried to forbid me from coming home from college freshman summer classes the weekend of my high school's graduation, because he overheard my sister say that one of the boys a year behind me hoped to see me there and twigged from his last name that he was black. Therefore, I "didn't need" to come home that weekend. (I drove there anyway, snuck in with my sister to sit in the band pit, and watched many good friends graduate. Then I drove back the same night.) They've finally stopped making comments about the neighborhood we live in, with its very diverse population, but still think Mr. Bead and I ought to move "somewhere safer".
The Zimmerman trial and its total travesty of justice (even if it was somehow correct according to "law"), the insane levels of hatred that some people show to our President...these things prove that we're not post-racial despite what the current Supreme Court says. But I look at the kids I teach, the number of biracial families they have, and the reactions like these. There is hope.