Comments on: What do they tell the children?

By: Quercki

Quercki — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:31:49 +0000

Racism, like seagulls, is present and pooping whether we are cognizant of it or not.

By: Steven

Steven — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:40:03 +0000

Racism is only present as much as you are cognizant of it, if you look for seagulls you’ll see them everywhere too. As for preparing kids for racism, it’s like our attempts to prepare them for sex, too little, too late, and woefully inadequate. Part of being a parent is screwing up, accept it. My question to all of you is what do you do with racism when you find it… (paraphrasing) “Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one” – Friedrich Neitzsche

By: TallyCola

TallyCola — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:48:22 +0000

an alleged plot by white supremacists in Tennessee late last year to rob a gun store, shoot 88 black people, decapitate another 14 and then assassinate the first black president in American history.

Not a race thing. Right.

By: Mia

Mia — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:59:51 +0000

I don’t remember my parents talking about the racism we would face… ever. In the world they grew up in it was pretty commonplace, so I guess they felt it didn’t need any explaining. But children start dealing with these issues as early as preschool, and the heavy hateful stuff picks up as early as kindergarten.

It really just depends on the kid, their interaction with the world around them, and their resilience; because for some kids it can be emotionally crippling. What I like about the Obama’s is that they keep extended family members around, and that helps alot.

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:13:44 +0000

@Elisabeth Kay – I’d like to believe that, too, but your own evidence doesn’t really support you:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=bush+is+hitler%2C+obama+is+hitler&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

Those results suggest that the sheer volume of Obama hitlerisms is nothing like the bush equivalent.

In terms of raw, un-quote marks search results, ‘bush’ has a million edge over ‘obama’, but since he was in office for eight years and Obama hasn’t yet served a full term, you’d think that he’d do, uh, better, if this was a purely political thing.

By: karnythia

karnythia — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:09:50 +0000

Except you know…not. The Secret Service is reporting concerns that they cannot protect the President and perform any other mission at the same time due to the volume of threats. There is a distinct possibility that their other duties will be handed over to the Treasury department.

By: Quercki

Quercki — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:38:20 +0000

I worry about President Obama’s safety too. As a parent, I can’t imagine what the Obamas tell their children. My parents never told me anything, and lied about murdered family members when I asked what they died from.

This is an example of how racism hurts everybody. The best president we’ve had in quite a while is at high danger of being assassinated.

By: Elisabeth Kay

Elisabeth Kay — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:04:37 +0000

It’s really not a race thing.

Please take the time to google “George W Bush is Hitler” (without quotes for best results) and you’ll see that there was the exact same backlash to our former President as there is to our current one.

By: J. Andrews

J. Andrews — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:04:02 +0000

Hrm.. wouldn’t it be Christianityists? Doesn’t roll off the tongue as well though. Maybe Christists.

By: karnythia

karnythia — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:55:37 +0000

We are navigating these waters now. You know I get some ugly stuff by email and obviously that has required some changes in our approach to life. But, I don’t want the boys living in fear. So it’s a balancing act. At 10 my oldest is too old for me to keep everything away from him and we talk about things when he asks questions. He knows that the police are the people to go to if he’s in trouble and can’t get to us, but that the police are not necessarily going to treat him fairly (before someone jumps on me, please Google Chicago and Ryan Harris, follow that with a look at Lenard Clark’s case) and so he needs to be careful about what attracts their attention. We’ve discussed the conventions I go to, and why Daddy is so uncomfortable with the idea of bringing him and his brother. And it’s hard because I don’t want any of this to touch them, but I also don’t want my kids to be completely unprepared. The youngest is a toddler and so he’s insulated from a lot of things, but I wonder sometimes what he’s noticing because the oldest is looking back and remembering things from preschool that he’s now aware were race based and it’s clear that even then he was aware that his teacher was treating him differently. We do what we can to make sure they know who they are and don’t internalize the racism that floods our society, while learning to navigate life.