Diversity is On the Job Training

I wrote this last month for a friend who was highlighting diversity in February.

February is known as Black History month.

I won't lie to you and say that during every February I parade the great black Americans for my children to learn about. Are you kidding?  That would mean I'm on top of things.  That would mean that I plan ahead for holidays and special events.

As I write this today, it is Chinese New Year.  In my head I had an egg carton dragon craft for the kids.  But that idea stayed in my head. I bought frozen potstickers to feed my kids like I do every week.  But they remain in the freezer as if today is like any other. The tea still remains wrapped in it's plastic packaging. The clean pot hasn't held any hot tea today.

So, I stink at special occasions.  Yet despite my lack of planning for the big events, my kids manage and get along.  Even though I never told them to call black people African Americans, they just picked that up from the culture.  Well, eventually they picked that up.

Before they knew what to call African Americans, they described them as people with brown skin.  Or grey. Or really, really dark brown almost black.  They had no idea that the level of melanin classified people into groups.  Because I didn't point anything out, they ended up noticing nothing.  They saw no difference between anyone.

That experience made wonder if in our culture's attempts to make everything equal we inadvertently highlight and perpetuate the inequality. Are we actually schooling our kids in how the world represses people in our diversity celebrations instead of truly celebrating the fascinating differences? I don't know.

Like most questions, I observe the problems more than I can offer solutions. This is why my children are very fortunate to live in such a diverse area of the country where we are in almost daily contact with people of other cultures. Since their mother forgets to deliberately guide them in the ways of accepting people from all walks of life, I can only actively be their example.

I hope my kids never confuse this guy with the other guy who
nailed the 95 These to the Wittenburg door.