Ignorance

This was previously posted on my blog back in September 2009.  My next Giveaway will happen on Friday 9th April when I'm back from our Easter break!

On Saturday I found myself in the ridiculous position of having to try and explain to my six year old daughter what racism is! Before I launch into my tirade about narrow minded people that need electric shock therapy, maybe I should explain a little about my background and how I’m going to generalise and use the word black to describe anyone who isn’t white, not to offend anyone, just to include everyone I love without having to catergorize anyone.  I am as English as they come.  I have a peachy complex and freckles and I only have to look at the sun before it burns me and I have to use Children’s factor 50 when I’m on holiday in the sun.  I tend to go from white to red to major freckles with a brown nose and arms and back to red then white again.

I have a huge family and one of the branches of my family happens to be half Caribbean.  I’m not sure what it was like for my Grandad’s Sister to be married to a Jamaican back in the 1960’s but I’m guessing it was pretty unusual around these parts.  I know that they had seven children, five of whom survived and that at least the oldest three were born at home. Growing up we were all quite close as the youngest and I were pretty similar ages so I kinda always knew I was white.  It never occurred to me that this was out of the ordinary until a couple of years ago. 

As I work for an educational establishment we have to have certain compulsory training every three years and one of these courses is Race Relations Training.  So like an obedient puppy I attended the training (which was actually really interesting!!) The first question that we were asked to think about  to write down, and not discuss, was when we first realised we were white. So I wrote down that I always knew I was white because my cousins were black and I remember being fascinated by the difference for as long as I can remember.  Well, I thought that my answer was normal until I listened to everyone else!!!  We worked around the room and listened to everyone else’s answers and I was one of the last people to speak.  Everyone before me couldn’t tell the training guy when they discovered they were white. They all said ‘well, I guess I was five or six???’. Then it was my turn and I told him, as above, that I always knew I was white.  Turns out that this is pretty unusual for a white person, who knew I would be the special one.  Normally (apparently) it’s only people of colour that can pinpoint the exact moment they realised they were different, generally from some insensitive white person pointing this out!!

Anyways, I am getting to the point of my story, which is basically where does all this hate come from?  When Chick was two or three she was desperate for a Baby Annabelle.  They are super special dolls that annoy the fu*k out of me cry, laugh and feed.  Initially I refused to buy one on principal as they cost around £40 each which, correct me if I’m wrong, is a ridiculous amount of money for a doll for a three year old without the cost of the batteries.  One day however, when I passing the local toy shop I noticed that they had an ‘ethnic’ Baby Annabelle in the sale for £10.  Now call me cheap or racist or whatever you want to call me but I bought Chick the Baby Annabelle and she was overjoyed with it.

During that Christmas there were many snide comments about the colour/race of her doll and about me being too cheap to buy a white baby but I naivelygenuinely thought that folk around these parts were joking.  Apparently not!!!!  Chick has taken the baby with us everywhere.  To Scotland on a camping holiday, to Barcelona on a family holiday, to bed most nights and basically everywhere a child would take a comfort blanket.  I don’t recall ever having the comments from Christmas repeated or any snide remarks about us being white and the baby being different until this weekend.  Chick asked if it was ok to take out her pram with the black Baby Annabelle, which is still her favourite after all these years, even though she now has four Annabelle’s all of different origins. So, as we weren’t in a hurry to get anything done I was all ‘Sure honey, bring your pram and baby’.  Now I have to admit that as we were walking into town I did notice people (of all races) checking out the baby and pram and then looking at Chick and I and they were either smiling or grimacing but I just put it down to the fact that I’m so hot that they were ignorant, and thought that I would simply choose to be ignorant too.  We decided that we would get some lunch from the sandwich shop and that because it was so busy Chick and the pram would wait at the door so as not to run over anybody’s toes. All was fine and well whilst I bought our picnic and off to the park to enjoy, or so I thought.

As soon as we left the shop Chick told me that some people queuing up by the door had been discussing why she could possibly have a black baby?????  Look away for a second please if you are offended by bad language…..What the FUCK!!!!!!!  This is a picture of Chick with her baby:

Terrible image isn’t it?????  Again WTF!!!!!!  It has never occurred to Chick to question why she has a black baby Annabelle as she has a multi-racial class at school, she knows who is black, brown, chinese and white and she knows that her family are all different colours but it has never been an issue, nor does she understand why it should be.  So, in my infinite wisdom I started to explain to her what I consider racism to be and about narrow minded people.

Chick cut me off about half way through with this comment ‘Mum, you are so boring!  Why would I even talk to stupid people who would be bothered by something like that?’!!!!!!   OMG, my daughter is possibly smarter than I will ever be!  Has anyone else ever come across this ignorance and had to explain to their children at such a young age????