A few weeks ago:
Hey, Ains. What did you learn in school today?
We learned about a king. He got the black people freed.
You mean a president?
No a king.
You mean somewhere else?
No here.
This is America. We don't have kings here. We have presidents. Could they be talking about Abraham Lincoln?
No, it's a king. And we also get to not go to school on Monday.
It says on the lunch calendar that there is lunch on Monday. You just got done with Christmas break. I think you have school.
No, they said there won't be any school because of someone's birth day.
A week later at dinner.
What did you learn in school today, Ainsley?
We learned about Martin Luther King. He got the whites and the blacks together.
Right. A king. That brought freedom to black people. No school on Monday. Martin Luther King Day.
Mommy did you know they used to not let blacks and whites go to school together or drink out of the same drinking fountain? Did you know they weren't allowed to be friends or be together in the bus?
I know.
Isn't that terrible?
It is terrible.
Isn't it happy that we all get to be together now?
Yes, very happy!
My dream is that she'll have a similar conversation with her daughter about women's equality.
Mommy, did you know that women didn't used to have equal rights?
I know honey. Isn't that crazy? she'll say, remembering absurd it was.
3 comments:
*nods*
a lot of stuff gets shoved under the carpet about history - sometimes in the name of "healing modern society".
For example, when Ainsley is taught about the 1930s and they concentrate on the Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers and FDR, tell her... tell her... tell her about the bad '30s.
Like the girl who ran away from abusive parents only to be caught, returned to the abusers and then forcibly steralized by the State.
Like the American girls and women who risked maiming and death in my native Cuba because the thought of bringing a baby into the world was more frightening than any backyard abortionist.
Like the black boy who objected to being pushed off the sidewalk by a white man and was hung from a cottonwood tree in his small Southern town for standing up for himself.
These people are forgotten by American textbooks but they shouldn't be forgotten by everyone.
let's remember that we are not, in fact, "all together now," and some say race is still the bigger problem ... such as this blogger ... http://walkwithjustice.wordpress.com/2008/01/02/whos-your-daddy/
i'm trying to start a conversation at my place about our white privilege and i'd love it if you wanted to come by ...
best,
sw
Certainly the struggle for equality for all isn't won. But, it is definately better for both women and minorities than it has ever been.
Which doesn't mean now is the time to relax and quit. But, we can afford to reflect gratefully too.
Post a Comment