Wednesday, June 15, 2011

A Mixed Issue

My daughter is bi-racial.

The Hubs is black (I am pretty sure I have mentioned this before). Z refers to him as brown. In fact, everyone in the world is either pink or brown. It's something that she discovered before she turned 2 and how she identifies herself with the world around her.

Most of the time, she describes herself as pink, however, in the last few fiery inferno months she has turned a beautiful shade of brown (as have I). Now we are both brown in her eyes - just like daddy.

Which brings us to yesterday. We drove over to the construction site that the Hubs is working at to bring them cool drinks so that they would not burst into flames be too hot. The construction site that his crew is working at is in the projects, so (of course) the entire area was filled with out-of-school children with nothing better to do than play tag around a pile of sheet metal and metal frames. (I will talk about this situation in a later post.)

Z ran off to play with some other small children (away from the construction materials) as I delivered the cool treats. As I approached the group of children, I hear the following conversation.

Little Girl: "Hey, girl. You mixed?"

Z: "No, I am Z."

I smiled inside. I know that in my three year old's mind she thought that the girl was asking her name, I know that the girl was equally confused by her response, but I love my daughter's innocence. I love that she does not understand these harsh and cruel terms. I love that she does not categorize herself in the ways that society will attempt to, that she will never fit into a box.

That no matter the color of her skin, the environment that she is in or the people that she is around - she is just Z.

That's pretty great to me.

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3 comments:

  1. My daughter is "mixed." (Although some might say too much Mexican to be considered white; and too white to be considered Mexican.) But I think that works: She's the perfect mixture. The perfect mixture of sass and sweetness. The perfect mixture of youth and wisdom. The perfect mixture of boldness and sensitivity. Huh. I don't get the color thing either.

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  2. Hello, new follower here. I just want to say what an amazing little girl. I love her response.

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  3. She is smart and you know what you helped make her that way. Something tells me she will always answer so eloquently!

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