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I think this post will cause a firestorm, and frankly, I'm okay with that. Not for page views, not for talk about it, but because I feel that what I am about to say...needs to be said.
I am white. And according to some people, that makes me an automatic racist.
Okay, that was a big statement, let me back up....
This isn't the first time I've been in the middle of a race discussion. I'm quite passionate about the subject.
One started when someone mentioned that there was white people on the subway, must be tennis season.
Another one started when someone said that "that's such a white thing".
And finally, the one I'm writing about started when I read a blog post, linked by someone I follow on Twitter. This blog post was written by a mama, to a little boy, who asked for a white barbie doll for Christmas. The mother basically went through this whole identity thing, and why did he want a white doll, etc, (I'm paraphrasing...obviously) and one of the lines she said to him (and I quote this part) after he asked why she wouldn't buy it for him was: “Because YOU aren’t white! Why would you want white Barbie?”
*hold. the. phone.* I chuckled, surely this mother was kidding..right? I mean..there was really no way she could honestly say that because she was black, she was refusing to buy her son a white doll.
.......
Here's my issue with this. I'm not judging this mom. This has happened more than just this one occasion....on twitter, in real life.
If I were to say to my son...No, H-Man you cannot have the black one because WE AREN'T BLACK! I would be a racist. Instantly. No questions asked.
When I'm not a racist at all. I would give my son a black doll, a white doll, a purple, pink or rainbow polka-dotted doll. I would teach him that even though we are not that race, there is nothing wrong with being that race. Just the same as people who do not have brown hair like you, aren't wrong.
To me, this is breeding racism. Telling my son that he can't have something because we aren't that race sends the message that there is something wrong with being that race.
I'm a single mother. H-Man's father is in no way, shape, or form a part of his life. Here's the thing: I don't want my son judged because of it. Does that mean I'd NOT let him have a "Daddy" doll? Of course not. All families are different. Some have two mommies, some have no daddy, some have a black mommy and a white daddy, some have two daddies, some have no mommy or daddy and only have grandma and grandpa.
I don't want my children to grow up in a society that breeds racism. That breeds white people to stay with white 'things' and black people to stay with black 'things'. I don't want my children to grow up in a place that they are considered racist because they aren't that race.
It's not just white people who could be racist.
Do you know how many people have called me "so white"? What is that? As opposed to, what, ..."kind of white"? Is that really a way to describe someone? Someone told me because I spoke proper English and had good manners...it made me ''so white''. Are you kidding me? Now turn the tables, if I had said to a ___(insert different race here)__ the flip side of that, I would have been racist. Racism works both ways.
Racism isn't defined by being black, white, purple, yellow or green. Racism is defined as 'hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.' There's nothing in that definition that says only a certain race can be racist. Or a certain race could have racism against them.
*I approve all comments, but I ask them to be respectful of everyone. I only keep comment approval on so I can actually read them. ;)*
