My friend Kelly is white and she has six wonderful biracial children. One day about seven years ago we meet up for lunch. She had two of her children with her who look more like their father than her. We were eating and laughing as one of her children was doing different impressions of famous people. An older man came over and I guess thought that Kelly and I were a couple. He said, "it's a shame that you two are living in sin, but to bring kids into this is a shame, besides they should be with their own kind." We sat there in shock and then I busted out laughing, at no point did we act like a couple or anything. However, the kids sat there with their heads down, no longer smiling or laughing like earlier. Kelly sent them to the car, and she told me that being told they should be with their own kind is something that they deal with often. I did not know what to do or say.
I felt so sorry for the kids to have to deal with ignorance from adults, I feel angry for adults treating any child this way and heartbroken for Kelly as she does not know what to do or say to help her children cope.
Hi Kaleena
ReplyDeleteMy blog this week expressed the pain and sadness I feel when I see, hear and experience prejudice in our society. Prejudice is taught, and it is up to us as adults to get over the ignorance and view differences as a way to make our society better. We need to teach our younger generations the importance to diverse cultures. Your post made me feel obligated to advice your friend and her kids. I started researching because fro me, literature has helped me to overcome many challenges in my life. I came across an article on how to handle disapproval of interracial relationships. https://www.thoughtco.com/handling-disapproval-of-your-interracial-relationship-2834743. Ask her to check it out, and I am sure there are many more that can help.
Thank you Janelle and I will pass the information on.
ReplyDeleteHi Kaleena,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry that people are like that in this world. I can understand what you went though because I had an expressed something like it. I live with one of my best friends and we bought a car together because we could not afford cars on our own. When I went to get insurance for the car they guy asked me who was all to be on the it and I told him me and my best friend. Well I did not think anything of it and when I got the paper work it said that I was married. I was like what I am not married so I called him and he said that he thought that she was my significant other. It is nice to see that there are others out there that go though it too. Great job
Melissa