Black is Beautiful: A Message to our Children Inspired by Trayvon

Image Credit: Flickr/werthmedia

Image Credit: Flickr/werthmedia

For a couple of weeks I've had to focus on things going on in my life, putting one foot in front of the other just to get through. As I spent time yesterday going through thousands of unread stories from fellow bloggers, trying to get caught up, I cried. Several times. 

Honeysmoke recommended this piece by Touré in Time that was the first to move me to tears. His piece is entitled, How to Talk to Young Black Boys About Trayvon Martin, and I don't know which saddened me more: the fact that such a conversation needs to take place between parent and child at all, or the fact that my husband and I have already had that conversation with our son--who is not yet 12. 

AP writer Jesse Washington has a son about the same age as mine. His piece, Trayvon Martin, My Son, and the Black Male Code also pulled at my heart strings. He's had that conversation with his child already, too. His conversation is tempered with personal memories of being an adult man, seen from a distance, and momentarily deemed suspicious by someone in his own family. 

We are a well-trained society when it comes to applying stereotypes.

Pieces written by parents of black/brown children flooded the blogosphere last week. Why? Parents of all children worry about their safety. The Trayvon Martin case has shown that many parents have additional worries. Those who have brown children worry that their safety will be threatened by the very same forces that are supposed to be serving and protecting them. It's not just that a crazy pedophile might snatch our child, it's that a neighborhood watch volunteer might kill him for no reason other than having brown skin in a society that sees all people with brown skin as threats. We inform our children from a young age (my daughters started getting tips at age 7) that they shouldn't bring big bags into any retail store because they may be suspected of shoplifting. We don't allow our son to go to the mall to hang out with friends at all (a cause for major eye-rolling on his part) because they will just be targets for trouble from mall security.  

So much of the time, we have to share messages with our children about how scary it is to be black... How difficult it is to walk around in brown skin...How worried we are for their safety...How much harder they have to try to proves themselves in EVERYTHING so that they can combat stereotypes. 

What we forget to do sometimes, is to remind them that they are beautiful. They are so beautiful! They should be so proud of their heritage and history! No matter what the struggle, no matter how society treats them, they are precious. 

To my children:

You are beautiful. I love you and believe in you, and I will always see you for who you are inside...not just for what is outside--your skin or your clothing.

To all of the black & brown children in the world:

You have a rich and storied history of which you should be proud. Do what you need to do to protect yourself, but never let it diminish your sense of self, your sense of heritage, your love for who you are.

This beautiful song sends such a positive message. Please watch, "You Are Black Gold" by Esperanza Spalding featuring Algebra Blessett.

Every time we need to remind our children about the possibility that what happened to Trayvon Martin could happen to them, let us also remind them that they are precious, like black gold.

Busy Life & Some Good Reads

On January 17, I started the last semester of my graduate program in Special Education. I am taking 6 semester hours--spending half-days in my own classroom, half-days in another teacher's classroom, then chauffeuring kids to dance/basketball/scouts, going to class, and keeping up (trying to) with my responsibilities for two volunteer board positions. I have been struggling to keep up with all my stuff, and even though I told myself that no matter what I would make sure to keep writing...I'm worried that this blog will fall by the wayside until May.

I hope that you all can stick with me for the next few months while I try on this whole micro-blogging thing that Multicultural Familia founder, Chantilly, recommended on her blog Bicultural Mom. Instead of me sorting out my thoughts in long-form, I'll be sharing little snippets of things I find interesting. I hope that you'll find them interesting, too.

I won this shirt on My American Meltingpot!

Here are a few posts that caught my attention this week:

My American Meltingpot takes on Black History Month
In honor of Black History Month, Lori is looking at white people who tell black folks' stories and profit from them. This fits right in with the series of done right here on empatheia regarding Inspiration vs. Appropriation. Lori's first post is about Kathryn Stockett and her best-selling book The Help. Check it out here.

Jesse Washington examines the phrase "African-American"
My husband has always referred to himself as Black. He dislikes being called African-American because he is not from Africa--he is American. My mom tells me stories of her time as an elementary school secretary when Nigerian-born or Senegalese-American families came in to fill out registration paperwork for school and checked the "African-American" box- because it truly explained their heritage and current citizenship. These issues and more are tackled in Jessie Washington's piece for the Associated Press which you can read here.

My daughter's hair story featured on Multicultural Familia
As a white person, I had no idea about Black people's hair... until my daughter was about 2 years old. It has been quite a journey for us. Read about it here. If you're as clueless as I was before my daughter was born, Chris Rock did an excellent documentary about the whole Black hair industry and the struggle that Black women face every day with their hair. I highly recommend that you watch Good Hair. And I sincerely thank all who have commented on Multicultural Familia, Facebook and Twitter! You have made my daughter feel even more positive about her decision to go natural in 2012!


What have you read lately that made you think? I'm short on time these days and would love for you all to point me towards the pieces that are worthwhile to read. Please share!