I just had to explain racism to my 8-year-old daughter.

[Left Is Write]

We are watching MLK III speak right now, and we talked about the "I Have A Dream" speech, its significance, and the significance of the nomination for president of Barack Obama.

She didn't understand, and she cried. It has never, ever occurred to her that people would be treated differently because of the color of their skin. To her, it's as irrelevant as the color of their hair or eyes. And I'm just sorry that racism is something that still exists in her lifetime.

[redqueen]

1. :(

I had to have the same talk with my youngest one a couple years ago... but from the other side of the spectrum.

*sigh*

[ThomCat]

I remember learning about antisemitism

because I was jewish. I can't even imagine what it must be like as a kid to learn about being hated for being a girl, or for being brown. (or both) :(

Bigotry sucks. x(

[Left Is Write]

4. I feel so lucky that I was raised by parents who actively sought to overcome

prejudices and were anti-bigotry.

They were raised in the rural midwest in the 40s and 50s. It could so easily have gone the other way for them, but they are good people raised by good people who recognized injustice when they saw it.

[redqueen]

5. She came home from school one day and asked

"Is brown skin pretty mommy?"

Broke my fucking heart.

[XemaSab]

23. The worst thing about sexism

is that you're never told that you're HATED for being female alone, you're just hated for not playing the game. :(

[ThomCat]

27. Yup. It seems like girls are convinced that they should WANT

to be an ideal girl and then an ideal lady. There is all this pressure to internalize the rules of the game.

And a lot of girls and women do internalize it to a scary extent. :(

[ThomCat]

2. I am glad that you had that conversation.

My parents ignored prejudice. It was just a natural way of thinking so there was no reason to talk about it. That made for some very difficult times later when I began figuring out what prejudices were and why I disagreed with my own family.

My senior year when one of those Jewish kids (me) was taking one of those black girls to the senior ball was really tramatic for a while.

It sucks getting blindsided. :(

[SeattleGirl]

3. The good and the sad.

It's good that your daughter doesn't think people should be treated differently because of the color of their skin.

It's sad, though, that racism still exists in this country.

[Guava Jelly]

6. So am I

I hope when she is a Mommy talking to her daughter, she will say to her "Now back when I was a little girl your age, people were judged by their skin color and sexual preference" and your granddaughter will respond "Really mom?" , "Yes sweetie, that was a long time ago..Things are better now"
:)

[DarkTirade]

9. Hear hear!

:thumbsup:

[undeterred]

double post

[undeterred]

7. I remember asking my mother what "impotence" was

when I was around that age. She asked me where I saw it and I had been reading the Almanac again and that was listed as one of the reasons for divorce. So she told me it meant that a man was unable to have sex with a woman and I thought it was terrible that a woman would divorce a man just for that.

[pokerfan]

11. OT: before the internets

I used to buy the fall almanacs. I remember a cashier muttering, "I've always wondered who bought those books..." It was my Bill Hicks' "Whatcha reading for?"

I grew up without racism but it was a pretty non diverse community, mostly descendants of nineteenth century German immigrant farmers. But my parents taught tolerance nonetheless.

(speech is starting)

[undeterred]

14. I can't believe the stuff I read as a kid

I mean, reading an almanac at 8 sounds pretty boring, but I also read a huge book of jokes that belonged to my uncle - there were a lot of jokes I didn't understand, and I didn't ask. I just figured the more you read the smarter you were.

[pokerfan]

20. We had two sets of encyclopedias

World Book and Britannica. We didn't have a lot of toys and luxury items but we had plenty of books down on the farm.

I loved almanacs and so did my father. All that information at one's fingertips! I think he would have loved the internet. As it was, he only got to see the beginnings of it when I subscribed to Compuserve back in the eighties. As a farmer, he was obviously very interested in the weather. I remember his jaw dropping when I pulled up a live satellite map on my computer. I miss being able to "wow" him.

[undeterred]

21. We had a 1963 version of the World Book Encyclopedia

and I used it quite a bit in grade school. I'm pretty sure somebody sold it to us going door to door, as quaint as that sounds. And I read whole books of it. Its just weird to think that there is no such thing as a print version of something like that any more.

Yeah, weather must be reall important to farming. I'm just amazed at what you can get now by typing in your zip code.

[pokerfan]

22. Google just keeps getting better and better

Obviously you can add a zipcode to localize a search result but in Google it will often launch a custom tool. For example:

current time, e.g. 'time Bangkok'
weather: 'weather zipcode'
movies 'zip code'

Not that we don't know how to find that info other ways, it's often just faster to use google.

[marzipanni]

25. Google Earth and Google Maps will be getting imagery from a new satellite

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - GeoEye Inc on Thursday said it will provide imagery from its new $502 million high-resolution GeoEye-1 satellite to Google Earth and Google Maps after the spacecraft is launched on September 4.
more:
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN2837224420080829

Ira Flatow's Science Friday will have a segment about the satellite tomorrow 8/29
http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200808296

[Zuiderelle]

8. We have had small conversations about that since our boy was about 4.

Since he was 5 he's known about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and slavery and the Civil War. And at 6, he's a HUGE Obama supporter. He himself wants to be president some day. He's actively seeking out the perfect first lady already, though he does understand that his wife might be the president, with him as first man.

[Left Is Write]

10. My son is 6 also -

He asked me a little while ago, "Can I stay up after 8:00 so I can watch Obama's speech?"

[Zuiderelle]

12. Awwwwwww... did you let him? It's on now :)

[Left Is Write]

15. Yes. We're watching together.

:)

[Zuiderelle]

18. Sweeeeeeeeeeet!

:)

[no name no slogan]

13. well

[Left Is Write]

16. ?

[no name no slogan]

17. Sorry, I should have prefaced it with

All she needs to learn is that there's an internet cliche for every occassion:

[DarkTirade]

19. They're called 'memes' on the internet, not cliches. :)

[LeftyMom]

24. I tried to explain to LK a while back.

He just looked at me like I was out of my mind. :shrug:

[LynzM]

26. I hear ya, LiW

Had a discussion on the way home from school with my 5-year-old daughter a few months back. "Mom, why did they kill that guy with the dark skin?" She was, of course, talking about MLK. So, let's talk about racism, social injustice, poverty, and how much the people in charge don't like it when you point out that they have all the toys and don't want to share.

:hug:

[RFKHumphreyObama]

28. People like your daughter will go a long way toward changing the world

Even if it is in a small way, with the attitudes and beliefs that she has developed during her short time on this earth. Thank you for sharing that LIW -the world is a much more beautiful place for having people like (and including) your daughter in it.

Wow! I'm hearing a lot of heartwarming and inspiring stories on DU tonight. It's a shame Lounge threads can't go on the front page

[NJmaverick]

29. I guess that's a good thing, that she was able to go so long

with out having experienced it. Guess we have made some progress.