Strollerderby : Race

It's NOT Baby Fat

JeanneSager — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:28:00 GMT

Think those chubby cheeks are sooo cute? Stop pinching and pull out the scale.

A new study says one in five American four-year-olds is obese. Not chunky. Not husky. Obese.

Sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics, the study shows a drastically higher problem in minority groups, with thirty-one percent of American Indian children who were obese, twenty-two percent of Hispanics and twenty-one percent of blacks.

By comparison, sixteen percent of white kids were dangerously overweight, and thirteen percent of Asian children were obese. Based on an analysis of nationally representative height and weight data on more than eight thousand preschoolers born in 2001, the study took into account where a child falls on the percentile chart. Those who fell in the ninety-fifth percentile or higher qualified as obese.

Unfortunately, the statistics are not that surprising when you break down the higher numbers of low income families in minority groups - especially living on reservations. Low income families have a pre-disposition toward obesity because of the quality of food they can afford, food that is often carbohydrate rich but lacking in nutritional value. A recent study showed parents in low-income families were also more likely to pass on a habit of over-eating to their children because they look to food as a form of comfort.

It's hard for parents of any income level to distinguish whether or not their kids are overweight, but it's scarier still for parents to face a child as young as four with a weight problem. They're supposed to still have boundless energy at this age, to burn off their food just running like a banshee through the house! And how to tell when a kid is still working off the baby fat?

Just another reason to march them in for the well visit and load them up on the scale.

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Another Hospital Baby Mix-Up, Now With Added Racism!

Kate Tuttle — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:01:00 GMT

Despite all the modern technology that's meant to keep newborns from being given to the wrong parents in the hospital, there seems to be a rash of inadvertent baby swaps going on. The latest took place in New Hampshire, at the Portsmouth Regional Hospital, late last month. And the parents of the newborn in question -- a baby girl who was handed to the wrong mother for either five minutes (according to the hospital) or significantly longer (according to her parents) -- are hopping mad.

Calling it "every parent's worst nightmare," the father has taken to the media to publicize the mistake, because, he says, "the public has a right to know." Also, I'm guessing, to lay the groundwork for a lawsuit. Because here's the crux of the matter: when their baby, whom they had sent back to the nursery after the mother had ("reluctantly"!) taken a sleeping pill, was given to another mother, that mother did something truly horrific. She breastfed the baby. Now the parents are waiting for results of tests for HIV and Hepatitis C (despite the fact that doctors estimate a risk of HIV transmission at one thousandth of one percent per liter of breastmilk consumed). They are terrified the other mother took drugs during her pregnancy (although it's not clear how this would affect their baby). They feel violated, assaulted, scared. The father says his wife is "physically sick" over it.

Could it be because they are both white, and the other couple is a white woman and a black man? I'm sensitive to making unwarranted charges of racism (it's too easy, and not fair), but in this case it's hard to escape the feeling that the parents' overwrought horror of contagion may have something to do with their (all white! 100% caucasian!) baby's having been sullied by the possibly unclean nipple of a race traitor, a nipple meant for another, darker baby. The racial difference has the white baby's parents especially confused as to how the other mother (and the nurse) could have made this error. Why didn't she notice, he asks, and "give our baby back?"

The thing is, biracial babies aren't necessarily any darker at birth than white babies -- believe me, I've given birth to both! My children, born 13 years apart and with different husbands, looked enough alike as newborns to be twins, and it's a well-known fact that many black and biracial babies don't come into their skin tone until they're older. At any rate, newborns are newborns -- the reason hospitals go to such trouble to set up systems to avoid baby-swapping is because they do tend to look so much alike.

Of course, now I guess I'll have to believe something a little bit uglier: that hospital policies to avoid baby mix-ups exist to allay the fears of parents who think that another woman nursing their child for five minutes is their "worst nightmare" (I can think of worse, and have friends who have lived through worse, and I'm sure you all do, too). I genuinely hope this is the worst thing that ever happens to this family; if it is, they'll have lived a blessed life.

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Half of Black Girls Think White Skin is Prettier

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:20:00 GMT

A fascinating and poignant study conducted on Good Morning America today shows how race relations in the U.S. have evolved in the last 70 years—and officially proves that Barack Obama’s election to the White House has not wiped racism off the face of the earth (sorry, Steve Colbert, but you still have to pretend to like Spike Lee movies).

In a recreation of a 1940s experiment, black children were given two dolls, identical except for their skin color. In the original experiment—which was used in the arguments for Brown v. Board of Education—63 percent of African American kids say they would rather play with the white doll because it was “nicer” than the black doll. Heart-wrenchingly, 44 percent of black kids said they felt that the white doll looked most like them.

The 19 children between the ages of 5 and 9 who were interviewed on Good Morning America had more encouraging, though still problematic, responses. 88 percent said they looked most like the black doll, while 42 percent would prefer to play with the black doll (compared with 32 percent who chose the white doll and 26 percent who didn’t want to play with either one).

When asked which doll was prettier (a question added by Good Morning America to reflect our appearance-obsessed times), every single boy said they thought the dolls were equally pretty. But disturbingly, 47 percent of girls said the white doll was prettier. According to sociologist Julius Wilson, "Black boys are more confident. Black girls don't feel that they enjoy the respect and admiration that black boys do." This is not going to change overnight, no matter how many adorable African American girls are in the White House.

That’s not to say that these kids weren’t affected by Obama’s presidency. “Barack Obama was, like, my ideal,” one little girl said. “He’s persevered and he’s gone through so much and I think since he’s done it, I can do it, too.”

The video (which ABC unfortunately won’t let me post here) is well worth watching to hear the kids’ full responses, which are tearjerkers of both the bitter and the sweet variety. Plus, one little girl makes a comment about the white doll’s “beady eyes” that is a total crackup.

Photo: The Situationist

Playdate: Anti-Racist Parent Offers Philosophical Commraderie and Practical Advice

Shannon LC Cate — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:02:00 GMT

After reading about the horrific cartoon depiction of Barack Obama as the chimp who wrote the stimulus bill in the New York Post this morning, I was gripped again with the odd paradoxical feeling Obama's presidency gives me as the mother of African American children. On the one hand, I feel the visceral opening of possibilities previously cut off from my girls by virtue of race--and more importantly, racism--and its place in American culture. On the other hand, I am terrified by the new daring racism popping out of the woodwork of our society, now that the true, self-conscious racists have such a clear target for their animus.

Add to this a third feeling of itchy annoyance whenever anyone suggests that racism--even race itself--is "over" now that the United States has a Black (biracial!) president and now I'm so conflicted and bothered I can barely get out of bed.

What's a parent who believes in racism and is passionately committed to its eradication to do on such a morning? Click immediately on my browser's "ARP" bookmark. Anti-Racist Parent is a group blog dedicated to parents of all races with children of all races who want to take positive action to eliminate racism from their lives and their society. ARP is no place for the "color blind," the believers in a "post-race" society; the singers of kumbaya. It is a place instead that looks race and racism squarely in the eye, meets its logic with intellectual rigor and offers experienced opinions and practical advice to all who'd do the same.

If you are devoted to an anti-racist stance, but are not sure what to do or where to start when it comes to educating your children in same, Anti-Racist Parent is a great place to get started and meet some like-minded peers.

Sharing African American History and Culture Through Kids' Books: Preschool Edition

Sharing African American History and Culture Through Kids' Books: Elementary Edition

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White Firefighter Reunited with Black Baby He Saved Forty Years Ago

JeanneSager — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 16:31:00 GMT

It was the height of the sixties, when racial tensions were taught in the City of Boston and across the United States. A white fireman was caught by a photographer, his lips pressed to the face of a black baby girl, his face racked with determination to save her life.

This week, more than forty years later, that baby and her grateful godmother finally met the man who saved her.

"November, 1968, a report of children trapped inside the building," William Carroll says into the camera. "Those things you remember like it was yesterday."

The baby was covered in soot, Carroll remembers, unable to breathe with no pulse pumping in her tiny wrist. He'd crawled on his stomach through the thick smoke to find her lyin in a crib in the burning Roxbury Housing Projects, clad only in a diaper. He grabbed Evangeline Harper - now Evangeline Anderson - and rushed from the building. The picture snapped by a photojournalist on scene would shape the future of the city, and he would earn commendations for bravery.

But Caroll wasn't thinking about any of that. He had a child to save.

Forty years later, Anderson met up with a Boston Globe reporter at a community meeting. She saw an opportunity to track down the man who'd saved her - through the newspaper that made famous her picture. Caught on tape by the Globe as a companion piece to their article, the meeting is worth watching (here) for one of those "restores your faith in the good of man" moments.

First delving into it, I thought the race issue would have the bigger pull - making me all weepy to see racial tensions melting away. Instead, all this brought out in me was the mother side, the part that wanted to wrap my arms around a guy who saved a baby. As Anderson tells him - "had it not been for you, I would not be here today."

"We did a good thing that day," Carroll said, "I hope I gave her a shot."

Awww. Maybe every day should be hug a fireman day?

Image: Boston Globe

Sharing African American History and Culture Through Kids' Books: Elementary Edition

Shannon LC Cate — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:00:00 GMT

It's African American History Month and since we have made some critical African American history already this year at Barack Obama's inauguration, there's more to celebrate than ever.

To help you share some special touchpoints of African American history and culture with your kids, I've rounded up a few favorite books on these themes.

Share and enjoy!

Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma RudolphBecame the World's Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull

I confess, I didn't really know much about Wilma Rudolph before I read this book to my daughter. The illustrations are amazing and the story can be read aloud, but it is short and simple enough for young readers to handle too. Baby Wilma was born weak and sickly. Polio forced her to wear braces on her legs. Yet she grew up to be the world's fastest woman. Find out how in this gem of a book!

Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat edited by Nikki Giovanni

Poet Nikki Giovanni puts hip-hop beats into child-appropriate form with her new edited book of rhymes old and new for kids. She draws on material from the Harlem Renaissance and material from the radio to share the genre with kids who love rhythm. But no mere book can convey the joy of the music, so this one comes with a fun CD to play along as you read.

Remember: The Journey to School Integration by Toni Morrison 

With her typical genius, Toni Morrison writes a fictional, first-person narrative of the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of children integrating schools. It's creatively real, featuring black and white photos from the time, but perfectly age-appropriate for a child's first introduction to a tough, but critically important part of U.S. history.

Harlem Stomp: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance by Laban Carrick Hill 

This is a really cool book! If you don't know much yourself about the Harlem Renaissance, you'll learn a lot from this book. It's a great reference for any age, but geared to older children. Filled with art, poetry, music and vivid scenes of life in Harlem, you won't want this one to be hidden away in the kids' room, but displayed on your own coffee table for easy, frequent family browsing.

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson

This lovely story tells of a little girl born into slavery. She is taught to sew in order to gain a place working in the house, rather than the fields. But as she sews her quilt, she begins to create a map north to freedom. Once the quilt is finished, the map is written in her mind. Clara sneaks away to follow the way it taught her, but leaves the quilt behind so that others can learn the way too.

Sharing African American History and Culture Through Kids' Books: Preschool Edition

Shannon LC Cate — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:00:00 GMT

It's African American History Month and since we have made some critical African American history already this year at Barack Obama's inauguration, there's more to celebrate than ever. To help you share some special touchpoints of African American history and culture with your kids, I've rounded up a few favorite books on these themes.

Share and enjoy!

Come Look With Me: Discovering African American Art for Children by James Haywood Rolling, Jr.

The Come Look with Me series offers introductions to great art for the youngest children. This one pairs twelve famous paintings by African American artists with simple questions for even the smallest children to encourage more thinking about the pictures and the way they were made. The book includes more "grown up" information to grow on or to help the adult reading with the child understand more about the art.

D is for Drinking Gourd: An African American Alphabet by Nancy I. Sanders

This is another book that can be read to the youngest child, but can grow with that child, or be enjoyed by an older sibling at the same time. Every letter of the alphabet is a piece of African American history or culture. Each letter of the alphabet represents a concept or figure in African American history. There is also a short piece of rhyming text that explains a bit about what each concept or figure means, then a sidebar entry with two or three paragraphs of text explaining in detail an older child or adult can appreciate.

Visiting Langston by Willie Perdomo 

This book is a lovely introduction for a young child to Langston Hughes, one of the most important writers in American letters, let alone African American letters. The book is written in the rhyming first-person voice of a little girl spending a day with her father touring Langston Hughes's home as a historical site. The little girl feels a special connection to Hughes because she is a poet, too! Brief, rhyming text and bright, colorful illustrations make this a captivating read-aloud for young children.

Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter

Once you know drinking gourd begins with D, it's time to explore the song that made history by teaching enslaved African Americans the way to freedom. This book tells who wrote the song, how it was learned and used by people traveling the underground railroad as well as sharing the complete words and music on the last page so everyone can sing along.

Obama's Pajamas by Jeff Nave

There are a lot of Obama books out there for adults and children alike. My favorite is this colorfully illustrated (not photographed) version that shares a day in the life of Barack Obama and some simplified versions of his philosophy that kids can understand, like "Respect your elders and be polite/Anything worth doing is worth doing right." Preachy? Maybe a little, but awfully cute!

Does Obama's Election Mean Black Kids Now Have "No Excuses"?

Kate Tuttle — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Op-ed contributor Charles Blow, writing in the New York Times, recently assailed comments by South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn that, in a post-Obama age, "every child has lost every excuse." In other words, if a blak man can become president, you -- black child, Latino child, poor child -- can scale every mountain, too. I can see what Clyburn meant, that his aim was to both exhort and inspire (and he spoke these words at a BET event, which I think is significant), but Blow's right: "no excuses" is a vast overstatement of how even the playing field now is.

The statistics Blow cites can make you cry: 60% of black kids grow-up in low-income homes, half of them in what the government offically calls "poor" households (believe me, what the Feds call poor is several steps more grim than what you or I would). Black kids are twice as likely as their white and Latino counterparts to be the victims of mistreatment, ranging from neglect to physical abuse. They are far more likely to be raped.

I don't think it's an excuse to say that the circumstances in which a child grows up have an overwhelming influence on her or his opportunities to lead a happy, healthy life. Nor do I think that acknowledging the inequalities that still exist in our society is in any way throwing a damper on the incredibly inspiring story of Obama's rise to the presidency, nor on the real-world solutions all of us hope his adminstration can bring to bear on them. And while I like Clyburn's old-school call for kids to overcome whatever obstacles they face, I cringe at how a slogan like "no excuses" sounds in the mouth not of a black warrior for equal rights, but yet another clueless white conservative pundit. So yes, I hope that President Obama means, among many other things, that nobody will ever again assume a black child can't get there, but I also hope it means we can all work together to improve the chances that she or he will be able to.

And besides, it didn't seem to me as if having a President Bush in office prompted academically sub-par rich white kids to stop making excuses.

Teacher Wants to Drop Huck Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, "For Obama"

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Teacher Wants to Drop Huck Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird "for Obama"

JeanneSager — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:37:00 GMT

Now that we have a black president, ~~an Oregon~~ a Washington teacher says he's ready to stop teaching about the days when the "n-word" was acceptable - and he's willing to say bye-bye to some of the most acclaimed books of school curricula to do it.

John Foley says he's sick of having to explain the usage of the "n-word" in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird to his students.

Sure, in the end the authors stood as beacons of light in their time for writing books that decried racism, but Foley doesn't think kids (or "an angry African American mom") have the wherewithal to stick with it to the end of the books.

OK, let's back up here. He's decrying racism and a lack of education with . . . racism and a refusal to educate?

Foley wrote a guest editorial in a recent issue of the Seattle Post Intelligencer, noting he's sick of having to explain to those African American mothers why he has students read books that portray blacks as inarticulate and uneducated. He's weary of having black students sit in class uncomfortable when the "n-word" is read out in class. What's more - he says the kids find the books "dull and plodding," and they never get past the usage of the racist word.

And lest you think he's being satirical, Foley told the Los Angeles Times he was "bemused" by the people who came to his quasi-defense in the name of satire.

To be fair, Foley does not want to ban these books. He wants to update the curriculum, replacing what he sees as poor black role models with more empowering examples for his students. I certainly support him on that. So add a few in there, beef up the reading list. But does that have to be at the loss of literative examples of the racial struggles that led up to Obama's victory? However corny, the George Santayana quote comes to mind: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Dropping the Huck Finns of literature from our kids' reading lists is akin to whitewashing those struggles out of our history books. Where else do these children learn what the times in which the n-word" was acceptable were like? Where else will they learn that, yes, the black men depicted in these books were indeed uneducated and inarticulate - not because of stupidity but because of oppression?

As a white teacher, I can also appreciate that Foley faces a daunting task. A close friend is white and teaches at a racially diverse school in the south, where she has been called out time and again by over-sensitive parents of other ethnicities for perceived slights. I am not saying all white teachers are innocent; but unwarranted accusations can be tough on a teacher - my friend is currently seeking a move out of the classroom. Perhaps I am reading too much into his words, but it sounds like Foley has experienced having to rationalize a misperceived support of the n-word to an African American mother who has only been told by her child that the teacher used the n-word (without providing the context of the book).

He's tired. And maybe he's tired of teaching too. Because the saddest comment of all is what Foley has taken out of a classroom after all of these years teaching literature. "You have to remember, it's hard to sell kids these days on books," he told the Times. "I write young adult novels, and sometimes I wonder, why bother? You're writing for three girls who like to read."

Kids can wear teachers down, especially the kids who just don't care. But when a teacher begins to blame the kids for just not getting it or just not being able to get past a stumbling block, perhaps he needs to examine not the book and the history lesson but his method of "inspiring" young minds.

These kids need someone to tell them "that was then, and this is now." Can John Foley still do that?

Image: Amazon

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Biracial Twins -- Is One "Black" and One "White"?

Kate Tuttle — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:30:00 GMT

Okay, this story is mostly worth commenting on because the picture is so damn adorable -- all four of these girls are just so lovely -- but also because it uncovers lingering racial attitudes that beg for examination. English interracial couple Dean Durrant and Alison Spooner have just welcomed their second set of twin girls, and for the second time, one is noticeably light-skinned while the other is darker-complected. The media loves this story, using expressions like "two-toned miracle" and proclaiming one girl "black" and the other "white" -- it's pretty much the same kind of coverage they would give, for instance, a mother cat who nurses an orphaned litter of puppies. Aw, so sweet, they're the same but they're diferent!

But hold up. Dogs and cats are different species, cannot mate, and are (if Tom and Jerry cartoons are to be believed) mortal enemies. But black people and white people are obviously all humans, can and do mate, and can and do love one another, as they do in this family. And the children those couples give birth to aren't forced to hew to one side or other of the color line, except of course by American (and other) cultural legacies of the so-called "one-drop rule," designed to keep all folks with black heritage in a position of subordination. (It also inspired a mass of light-skinned black people to leave their race, history, and families and pass for white.)

As things have improved in this country with regard to race, the situation has gotten more confusing for white people (who make up most of the mainstream media, as they always have). If Halle Berry has a black father and a white mother, is she black? Can she ever be white? Or will we just call her biracial, and claim her half-whiteness with pride when she's playing non-humans in movies like X-Men (but not when playing a crackhead in movies like Losing Isaiah)? The black community has never been confused about this sort of thing -- Barack Obama is black and biracial, as is Rashida Jones, and as for ancestors like Walter F. White, the pale-skinned, blond-haired, blue-eyed general secretary of the NAACP in the 1920s, well, he was black too (even though he looked so white he could sneak into lynchings and observe them with the white spectators while doing research).

So to call one of these babies "white" and the other "black" is just as naive and foolhardy as calling Rashida Jones white and Halle Berry black -- it's neither necessary nor sufficient. If "race" itself is a social construct, as it surely is, then demarking the line where one race begins and the other one ends will always be a dangerous game -- just as dangerous as pretending the social construct itself doesn't exist. Colorblindness is just as crazy a response to "race" as thinking it's all about skin color (a strange misreading we had to hear a lot about during the Obama campaign). The Durrant-Spooner family has four gorgeous daughters, all of them biracial, all of them (in this country, anyway) welcomed as members of the black community. And all of them simply lovely.

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Newbery Winners Decrease in Diversity in Recent Years

Shannon LC Cate — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:56:00 GMT

According to analysis by Brigham Young University, the diversity of characters portrayed in Newbery medal winning books for children has decreased significantly over the past 27 years. Only one book with a main character who is African American has won the award in the past eight years and only one with a Latino main character has won in 43 years. Additionally, Newbery winners tend to feature children living in two-parent households at a far higher rate than the general population.

Why does this matter, in a world full of great books for kids, medal or no medal? One reason is that Newbery winners are considered representative of the best of the best in children's literature. They remain in print perpetually and are often used as quick-and-dirty reading lists for busy parents, teachers and even librarians (after all, the Newbery medal is awarded by the American Library Association).
It isn't a matter of hippie-dippie tokenism either. One in three U.S. Americans are not white. On in four U.S. children live with only one parent or some other non-two-parent family. Lack of diversity in children's literature is a lack of opportunities for children other than Beaver Cleaver to see themselves reflected in their books. And a lack of characters to identify with may well subtly turn such children off of reading.

In my family, books are of central importance. We are writers, teachers (of literature, no less) and pleasure readers. We spend happy hours in independent bookstores, chatting up the staff and browsing every single section. My kids have no want of books--even books that reflect an aspect here and a trait there of their own highly unusual family. (We are two white moms and two adopted African American daughters.) But that's because we have the time and the inclination to look beyond Newbery for our library selections.

There is no dearth of good material out there that falls outside the narrow scope of white children in two-parent families. it's time the Newbery committee took a broader look at the possibilities.

They Say: Foster Care Bureaucracies Prevent Adoptions

Miriam Axel-Lute — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:00:00 GMT

More single women who find themselves pregnant are raising their kids on their own, so that traditional "source" for kids up for adoption (god I wish there were a way to talk about this without making kids sound like consumer goods) is dwindling. This should be good news for kids in foster care who need permanent homes. But will it work out that way?

There are 600,000 parents seeking children to adopt. And while it may be true that there's a particularly high demand for white newborn girls, people who work with prospective adoptive parents say that that's not as extreme as you might think. A large majority of those wanting to adopt would be happy to adopt nonwhite kids, and kids older than 6. And there are even far more people willing to adopt teens and kids with disabilities than there are waiting kids who fit those descriptions—at least according to the parents' reports of who they would be willing to adopt.

And yet there are hundreds of thousands of kids languishing in foster care without permanent families. What gives? According to an op-ed by the project Listening to Parents, foster care bureaucracies that handle initial calls badly, force prospective parents to jump through humilitating hoops to become qualified, and don't listen to parents throughout the placement process are among the culprits.

This seems both hopeful and depressing to me. It's "just" procedural! On the other hand, having seen some people near and dear to me go through hell in the foster-to-adopt process (taking emergency foster placements and being willing to adopt if that was needed), Listening to Parents' modest critiques seem like the tip of the iceberg to me. It seems as hard as reforming police departments. I know there's a massive can of worms here, but at least it's starting to look like one that there's going to be some pressure to open and deal with.

Photo by CG2_SoulArtist.

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Babble Talk: Tackling Race

Jen Chaney — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:02:00 GMT

The past few days in America have been extraordinary, intense and record-setting, and not just in terms of the number of people who cast votes. I am pretty sure we collectively set a new world record for the number of times the sentence, "I never thought I'd see this in my life time," has been uttered in a one-week period.

All of us have undoubtedly participated in conversations about the historic nature of Barack Obama's election as President, as well as discussions about whether we should be placing so much emphasis on his "blackness." Not surprisingly, Obama's presidency is sparking new dialogue about race, dialogue that will undoubtedly continue, in heated fits and illuminating starts, over the next four years.

Which brings us to our kids, and this week's "Bad Parent" essay, written by Erin Blakely and entitled "Baby Bigot." In the piece, Erin expresses concern about whether her toddler might be prejudiced after what she refers to as "the Laurence Fishburne incident": the time her little boy saw the esteemed "Matrix" star in a New York restaurant, pointed at him and shouted, "Doggie!" She subsequently noticed that he only referred to African-Americans as "doggies," something that worried her and also forced her to do some soul-searching to determine whether she and her husband really embrace diversity as much as they like to think they do.

It sounds like Erin is still working through those issues, as so many of us are. I haven't quite experienced a Fisburne episode yet, but -- to bring this all back to the election -- one of the first high-profile people my son successfully identified was Barack Obama. He could have been helped by the fact that, as this super-awesome video demonstrates, Obama is a really easy name for babies and kids to say. I am sure it didn't hurt that on a couple of occasions, my husband and I pointed to images of Obama and told our son who he was.

But I got that ugly Fishburne-esque wake-up call a couple of times when my son saw other African-American males on television, pointed and said, "Obama." Geez, I thought, does he really think all black people look the same? That can't be, I told myself. He goes to daycare with students and teachers of virtually every variety of race and creed. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't think Obama is one of them.

Ultimately, I concluded that he's not even two and is still figuring things out. When he sees vague similarities between people and items, he tends to refer to them using words he knows, then waits for one of us to correct him. This explains why he often refers to any thirty-something-ish woman he sees in a book or on TV as "Mommy" -- regardless of her skin color, hair style or general demeanor --or why he thinks that any elongated object is a "tenn-y racket." (Actually, that might just be because he likes to hit crap.)

The key phrase, though, is that he waits for one of us to correct him. Which means as parents, we always have to be there, steering him on the right path. Like Erin, I strive to encourage him to treat all people equally, without regard to their skin color. I strive to make him a warm-hearted, open-minded young man. That process starts now, but the hard work will come when he gets older. The touch challenges will arise when he really begins to understand that there are differences between people and that, sometimes, those differences bring out the ugliest sides of human nature.

In the meantime, I take some comfort in the positive signs I see. Like this one: A few weeks ago, my son walked into our house and spotted a penny on the floor. He picked it up, the head-side gleaming in his hand. He looked down at the copper profile of Abraham Lincoln, then he looked at me and -- completely unprompted -- said, "Obama." A few days later, he did the same thing with a quarter: Took one peek at a silvery George Washington and declared, "Obama."

For some reason, he saw those founding fathers and perceived them as being the same as the presidential hopeful from Chicago. One could see that as a sign that he looked at something beyond race. It's a nice thought, and maybe it's true. But I didn't even think about race at the time. All I thought was, "Wow, that kid knows a president when he sees one."

Related Links:

Obama's Friday Schedule: Tackle Global Economic Crisis, Parent-Teacher Meetings

Bringing Some Color to Capitol Hill

Balancing Work and Parenting—When You're the First Lady

How to Keep Your Kid From Pissing off The McCain Supporters

Image: Daly & Newton/Getty Via Babble.com

Bringing Some Color to Capitol Hill

Shannon LC Cate — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:01:00 GMT

During my grad school years, whilst teaching young students at a university in Washington, DC, I would sometimes bump up against a young (invariably white, male) conservative who expressed concern that only minorities could get good jobs, or get into good schools these days, because of affirmative action or less formal P.C. sentiments. I would generally raise an eyebrow an invite the whiner to take a walk down to Capitol Hill at quitting time and watch the folks walk to the subway. Capitol Hill was, and is, virtually brimming over with straight, white guys with thinning hair. Their interns were and are the young white boys and girls born to their law partners and golf buddies. In other words, the Hill was swarming with the beneficiaries of white affirmative action.

That bastion of the old white guy, The Wall Street Journal, takes note of this phenomenon today, astutely noting that now that Obama (a Black man, if you are colorblind and hadn't noticed) is poised to be president, he might very well be taking Black folks with him into the halls of power:

"For more than a decade, Mr. Obama has cultivated ties with a growing circle of black power brokers who are poised -- and eager -- to wield greater national influence. Some of these insiders stand to gain new status in an Obama administration, and many more in law firms, big corporations and on Wall Street. They believe that their proximity to the president-elect will burnish their reputations, much in the way that white elites always have leveraged connections in business and politics."

Well, duh.

I am not much for identity politics--I've been too disappointed by Jesse Jackson, Hillary Clinton and Condaleezza Rice to assume that any person with some oppressed status will rule more wisely than Ward Cleaver--but seeing some color on Capitol Hill is a welcome change anyway. For one thing, my African American daughters (and plenty of other children almost as fabulous as mine) will see people who look like them in positions of authority. This will be helpful as I groom my eldest to take her seat on the Supreme Court someday. But mainly, the more people and the more types of people sharing power in this country the more corners of the United States we will cover when we start making policies. Too often, leaders make policy that affects whole groups of people they have no familiarity with. Diversifying power means diversifying the perspectives and knowledge instrumental to leadership of a diverse country.

Image: Compromise of 1850 from britannica.com

Michelle Obama: The Anti-Palin

Shannon LC Cate — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:12:00 GMT

Have you noticed that these days Sarah Palin's face is there every time you turn around? (I know we at Strollerderby are guilty of promulgating this phenomenon. What can I say? We can't look away any more than most of you can.) I know, Ms. Palin is supposed to be good looking, but me, I like my female role models a little less...Ladies Home Journal and a little more...Ms.

Even though she isn't running for anything, Michelle Obama is the power woman I am most interested in these days. The folks at Michelle Obama Watch agree with me. They've devoted a website to accumulating every single Michelle mention in the media. From the "baby mama" incident to the New Yorker Cover to appearances on The View, if you're as big a Michelle fan as I am, you'll appreciate this site. It also features feedback from users to discuss how Michelle is being used as a lightening rod for race and gender in the campaign, as in this thread about Michelle being called "uppity" by a republican congressman from Georgia (there's no way he can claim not to know the history behind that term applied to Black people).

Head over there and check it out. It's the perfect Palin antidote.

Banned Books Week: Is Racism Packaged as Children's Literature Defensible?

Shannon LC Cate — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:12:00 GMT

"It's not racist! My mother says it!" objected an acquaintance when I suggested she not continue to use the phrase "that's white of you"*

Why is it that people assume things associated with childhood or their own loved ones are magically not racist simply by virtue of that association? When I saw Little Black Sambo on the banned book list, I winced. Because there's more than a small part of me that would like to see such minstrel-esque images of Black people erased from the culture. (And before someone dismisses this by telling me that he is Indian, "Sambo" and his ilk migrated to America and came to be representative of the enslaved and formerly enslaved population here, too.) Maybe the world wouldn't be any worse off without Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, all those mammy-figurines made into salt and pepper shakers, pickaninny dolls, the film Birth of a Nation...

Two parts of me are at war when I see these things: one part cultural theorist with a specialty in black and white race relations in the United States and one part white Mama Bear to two beautiful Black daughters. Seeing "them" (all Black children reflect my daughters to me now) portrayed with caricature thick-lipped grins, rolling white eyes in an unnaturally black face--unnuanced by the shades of gold and mahogany that make my babies so take-your-breath-away gorgeous--doesn't just turn my stomach; it makes tears spring to my eyes. I want to slay the dragon of racism for my girls. I want to make the history go away. I want never to have to explain slavery, Jim Crow, minstrelsy and blackface, lynching, disproportionate Black poverty, and perhaps least of all the sexual vulnerability of Black women throughout American history from the first woman whose baby was ruled to "follow her condition" of slavery, rather than his slave-master father's.

And yet, it is these very forces that have brought my children to me. It is surely the fallout of centuries of racism that hammered their mothers into circumstances requiring them to place their babies for adoption. To deny this history is to deny my children's very existence--not just as my children, but as the progeny of generations of women who have struggled under the burden of racism and made life beautiful anyway; who have taught their daughters the true value of their minds, hearts and souls, however unappreciated by the world outside their skin. To hide the seemingly insurmountable obstacles these women (and men of course) have lived with and through is to hide the power of their spirits and the sacrifices of their heroes both famous and obscure. It is to take something away from their individual dignity and their collective glory.

Little Black Sambo was a fixture in my own childhood. The kind daycare workers at the church preschool I attended from ages three to five read it regularly to my all-white class. I loved it. I was intrigued by the mechanism by which tigers could churn themselves into butter. I was still too young to know that couldn't really happen. For all I knew, I would turn into butter if I ran in fast enough circles.

But just because I remember enjoying the story as an "innocent" child doesn't mean it wasn't/isn't racist. And just because I don't think it should be banned, doesn't mean I will be reading it to my own three-year old. But I think it is vitally important that these representations of blackness be acknowledged, remembered, taught, explained, critiqued, and understood. I will have to teach my daughters the shameful history of racism in this country, perhaps most of all because that history continues to unfold within our lifetimes. We should no more ban books like Little Black Sambo than we should pretend to be "colorblind." Acknowledgement of the real meaning of race in real people's daily lives and in the history of our country is necessary honesty required to fight against racism's continued power.

* For the lucky ones of you who haven't heard this, it's a fairly common southern expression meaning roughly, "you're a mensch!"

More from Banned Books Week here at Babble:

Banned Books Week: R.L. Stine's Goosebumps

Banned Books Week: Shel Silverstein

Banned Books Week: Kama Sutra for Kids

Banned Books Week: Little Women

Banned Books Week: In the Night Kitchen

Banned Books Week: Sarah Palin

Banned Books Week: "And Tango Makes Three"

Best of FameCrawler: Week of June 27th

Whit Honea — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Billie Piper's Topless Role

The Sexualization of Miley Cyrus

Ben And Jen Together For Better Or Worse

Worst-Dressed Bellies? Top 5 Maternity Wear Mistakes Of Spring/Summer 2008

Tim McGraw and the Wife Beaters

Scott Kalitta Killed In Drag Racing Crash

Robert Downey, Jr., and Son: What's Wrong with This Picture?

Matthew McConaughey Is Ready To Rumble

Guess Who's Moving Across The Pond?

Jamie Lynn's Delivery Room Drama!

Tori Spelling Baby Photos!!

R. Kelly found not guilty

Brett Singer — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 02:51:00 GMT

So. It's time to admit that sometimes, I am wrong.

For example:

"Google? Feh. That stock will never go above $100."

"Hairspray: The Musical? Who the hell is going to want to see that?"

I also think I would have predicted that R. Kelly would be found guilty in his child pornography case.

And once again, I missed the mark. Kelly not only believes he can fly; he will fly, right out of the courtroom. The "dramatic verdict...appeared to stun even his own highly-paid lawyers." When even the attorneys defending you look surprised, that's not a good sign.

Now, this doesn't mean he's a good guy, or even that he didn't do it. One juror said, “Neither side proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt...that’s why we had to go for not guilty.” The jury did not hear about Kelly's prior history with underage women, including "Kelly’s secret marriage to the late R&B star Aaliyah when she was just 15." Nice.

So what was the lack of proof? Apparently the man in the video has a mole on his back, and R. doesn't. Also, according to The AV Club, Kelly's goddaughter denies that she is on the tape, and defense attorneys (you know, the ones that were surprised by the not guilty verdict) also "noted that Kelly's goddaughter is a 'sweet, nice young lady,' and certainly wouldn't have accepted cash for sex, as the girl in the tape is shown doing."

image: Chicago Sun-Times

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Down with “The Herp”: 1 in 4 New Yorkers Has Herpes

Denise Richards still trying to prove she's insane

R. Kelly case jury selection begins; girl he filmed was his goddaughter

Brett Singer — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:20:00 GMT

R. Kelly might believe he can fly, but first he's going to have to convince a jury that he's innocent of child pornography charges. (See? I could write for TMZ.)

The songwriter and R&B star, known for classics such as "I Believe I Can Fly" and inexplicable train-wrecks like "Trapped in the Closet," (see below for videos) has been charged with "videotaping a girl 'whom he knew or reasonably should have known to be under the age of 18' in a variety of sex acts some time between January 1, 1998, and October 1, 2000."

Adding to intense sleazery of the case is that the "alleged victim, who is now 23, has been identified as Kelly's goddaughter." Doing the math, this means that the girl may have been as young as 13 in the first video.

Ewww!

Jury selection has begun at the Criminal Court in Chicago, and this piece in the Sun-Times describes how the choice of jurors is being handled. The reporters make a point to give the race of each potential juror, although in some cases that doesn't appear to be relevant." One (white) man said, "I have two little kids…Child pornography is about as low as it gets." Maybe I missed something, but (apologies to Michael Jackson) does it really matter if he's black or white? Another woman, identified as, "an African-American woman whose husband is a Baptist pastor," says that she lives in the same town as Kelly but hadn't heard anything about the case. Years ago, during the Rodney King trial, while lawyers were looking for people who hadn't heard anything about the case, Bill Maher said that this meant they were looking for people, "you wouldn't even talk to at a cocktail party." I don't care what race she is, how exactly did she manage to not hear anything about a case as sensational as this one?

The charges are all alleged, so let's not jump to conclusions. Well, let me put it this way – I don't think they'd pick me to serve on this particular jury.

Here's the thing: if memory serves, there's a videotape that shows R. having sex with the girl. They used to sell it on street corners all over Manhattan. So if you can I.D. him and her, what exactly is his defense? "She told me she was almost 18?" And if it's true that she is his goddaughter, should that factor into his punishment?

image: Chicago Sun-Times

Videos of Chapter 15 of "Trapped in the Closet" (not work-safe, lots of cussin'), and "I Believe I Can Fly" (which, as far as I know, does not contain any foul language at all.)

Chapter 15-Trapped in the Closet

I Believe I Can Fly

School Holds First Integrated Prom; Yes, It's the 21st Century

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:54:00 GMT

Growing up in Northern California has made me soft. I think there's even a song about the condition. Thankfully it didn't make me stupid. Or ignorant. Or downright D-U-M. Like these kids. And their parents.

And don't even come at me with "It's the South; it's tradition." It's the 21st Century. It's moronic that anyone would let this go on as long as it has. Yes, you read the headline correctly. A high school in Georgia held its first "united" prom, with white and black kids dancing together and, gasp, holding hands!

Said one moron about the segregated prom tradition of the way yonder past, meaning 2006: "There was not anybody that I can remember that was black," she said. "The white people have theirs, and the black people have theirs. It's nothing racial at all."

Uh huh. Look, I'm happy to see an integrated prom has finally taken place. Kudos to the kids who finally got their heads out of their ... binders. Still, an all-white prom was held a week before, so I'm not so sure race relations in bumbleweed are as great as they so obviously sound. I'd like to say at least it's a start -- but it's scary to think they're just starting.

Will "Song of the South" See the Light of Day?

Patti — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 13:26:00 GMT

The company that never lets an occasion go unmarketed let the 60th anniversary of its first live-action feature pass last year without a peep. Why didn't Disney take an opportunity to put us under its marketing spell? Because the film in question was "Song of the South", a film better known these days for its controversy than its content. The film has never been released in the US on video or DVD, and hasn't been showed in American theaters since the eighties.

(Sidebar: I'm almost positive I've seen it, but pretty certain it wasn't in the theater. Could it have been broadcast on ABC's Wonderful World of Disney, did I actually see one of its theater revivals, or could I have just seen enough clips to make myself think I've seen the whole thing? Mom, you reading this one?)

Anyway, the "SOTS" question apparently gets batted around Disney shareholder meetings and other events quite a bit, and Disney CEO Robert Iger addressed it at the most recent annual meeting. The verdict: They're trying to figure out if they can do it in a way that isn't insensitive to the concerns that people have raised about the film's treatment of blacks. Which, coming from the folks who made Pocahontas only a few short p.c. years ago, is pretty rich. And after the recent kerfluffles I've witnessed amongst parents when "Peter Pan" was recently released on DVD, it's not hard to see why Disney would be cautious--people really are having to address "What Makes the Red Man Red" with their kids, this is stuff we're really not allowing our children to say or believe to be okay anymore. Disney's got their work cut out for them in a big way if they want to release "SOTS" in a way that is relevant to where American society should be heading.

Disney First: Black Princess in Animated Film

MetroDad — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 01:28:00 GMT

Like it or not, Disney has become intertwined with the childhood fantasies of millions of little girls. Generations of women have grown up surrounded by the grace, beauty and feminity of the Disney princesses. And as anyone with a little girl knows, every girl love dresssing up as a princess.

The problem was that, for FAR too many years, the princesses were only white: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. Where the fuck were the princesses of color? It's truly a black mark on Disney's reputation that it took until 1992 for then to introduce a non-white heroine (a Middle Eastern character named Jasmine in the film "Aladdin".) Later, they introduced an Asian ("Mulan",) a Polynesian ("Lilo",) and a Native American ("Pocahontas".)

Finally, Disney has announced a film with an African-American heroine. According to news reports, the company has started production on an animated musical fairy tale called “The Frog Princess,” which will be set in New Orleans and feature Disney's first black princess. The film will be released in 2009.

Better late than never, Disney. Now how about getting started on something for all the Hispanic and Latino girls out there?