Today, while walking to the park someone yelled something out their car window in regard to the boys' skin color.
I have never experienced the kind of fury that I felt in that moment. I want to protect them from such things and today I learned in an instant that I cannot.
I feel angry and sick over it. I have no words and yet I want to scream all sorts of things at the top of my lungs.
How is this still happening in our country? How does anyone find this acceptable? Will the ignorance ever end?
9 comments:
I hate this. It is addressed in that book about grace. I will pray.
Love,
Co
That's awful! People are so rude.
I have experience with this. My daughter is arab-american. Because of the war, because we live in dearborn and because of 911 it is socially acceptable to complain bitterly about arabic people. I used to be terrified that someone would act out against her especially when she was with her paternal grandparents. People dont even realize they are doing it sometimes. I have experienced this with family close friends and co-workers. There is a definate feeling of us and THEM. What do you do when your daughter, the person closest to your heart is lumped in with "them." I have fought alot of rounds on this issue and have distanced myself from people that couldn't distinguish that there is no "us" and "them" just a "we". Its painful to have an innocent child judged with blanket generalizations because of their race. She is not only judged because of her skin color but also because of her families Muslim beliefs. So what do you do? Do you chase down every ignorant person who verbalizes hate. I used to. But it gets exhausting really quickly. I pick my battles now. I also teach my daughter to be proud of herself, proud of heritage and glad that we are all different. I had to have the talk with her that some people are afraid of people who are different from them but if you are comfortable with yourself other people will be too! It also forces me to look at my own hang ups with other people. I dont always want to admit they are there because they are ugly. But we could all stand to be a bit more tolerant.
Wow sorry to blog a novel but you struck a nerve!
C u 2morrow!
Luv
Dee 2 da Jay
It makes me so sad! I can't stand it!
I know. It is awful. Makes me ill.
We have had two incidents.
I just wrote a bit about this on my blog not because we have had anything happen specifically to us but because of an opinion piece that was published in our local newspaper by a regular columnist. I have been struggling with whether addressing his comments is worth the effort ie he kind of seemed like an idiot before he published his latest column; is it really worth my breath and time to deal with an idiot?
I will utilize that whole grace thing that Co writes of. She is totally correct. And I will pray for my love for these folks to grow.
However:
Daddy is not big...but he's not little. And he's quite strong. And he really knows how to fight...and carries a big bat. And he's totally okay with having an arrest record. Game on!
I can't believe this. We have been targeted by people in our old church, believe it or not. It is so sad to think people are so ignorant, hateful and wrong. I am sorry you had to experience this.
So sorry to hear this.
:(
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