Photo from blackradionetwork.com.
Last week, just
before the admittedly hectic Easter/birthday weekend, I read an article which
talked about Kim Kardashian’s thoughts on raising a biracial baby.
First, let me
apologize for even adding to the amount of Kardashian commentary out there, but
I just can’t help myself, because she made a seemingly innocuous comment that
really bugs me.
In
an interview with BET, Kim Kardashian said:
Hold the phone.
What??
There’s nothing
wrong with seeing color, Kimmy. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that
people have different skin colors. You can choose to celebrate it or denigrate
it, and that’s where the problems arise.
If you teach your
child not to see color, you are doing him or her a disservice – especially (but
not only) if you are raising a child OF COLOR in America. Much as it’s been
hyped, we do not live in a post-racial world. If you choose to teach your child
to be “color blind,” to not acknowledge the differences that exist, you are
teaching him or her to ignore people’s differences. And people are different,
and they are beautiful. To teach your child to be color blind is to ignore the
diversity of beauty within his or her own family, not to mention the world
around him/her.
To raise your
child “just not to see color” not only translates into not appreciating the
beauty and richness of different colors and cultures but also translates into
not preparing them for life as a person of color – and perhaps you think you
may be able to shield them from that reality due to your fame and fortune, but
let’s be real.
In a world where
Forrest Whitaker gets stopped and frisked in a New York deli, let’s be real.
In a world where
my highly-educated, law-abiding husband can get stopped on the street randomly
because of his dark skin, or where a police officer can follow my minding-his-own-business
dark-skinned teenage nephew home for no reason at all: let’s be real.
Racism and
prejudice are alive and well. And to be a parent to a bi-racial child, you
can’t be blind to that fact. Like any expectant parent, I am sure you want to
be the best mother you can be. But that means teaching your child to appreciate
differences, not ignore them. And that means preparing your child for the reality
that the world may treat them differently than they treat you, simply because
of their skin color. I agree we should all strive for a world where this isn’t
the case, but let’s not stick our heads in the sand.
For more
commentary, visit here and here. Or just Google. Folks are a little irritated,
Kimmy. It behooves you to try and understand why.
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Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Color Blind
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2 comments:
"And people are different, and they are beautiful."
Best line ever, Lisa.
It took me forever to learn that one simple truth - that there are different kinds of beauty but they are all beautiful in their own way. For a long time I had these absolutes in my mind.
Fortunately with time we learn and we evolve...hopefully. :)
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