Waiting on the World to Change

We took our boys to the Smithsonian Museum of American History today, and it was really moving.  There's an entire section of the museum that deals with the history of African-Americans from the time of the Emancipation Proclamation all the way through the Civil Rights era.  My husband I debated whether or not to bring the kids through it, because race is something we just don't discuss in our home.   We don't feel that race is important; therefore, all we've ever told the children is that people are a rainbow of colors and are all beautiful.  Being different is beautiful.  We don't refer to a person's color; so the kids never really notice there's a difference.

My husband pulled them aside and explained what slavery is/was.  When he told my oldest son that white people held black people in captivity and owned them, my son immediately asked, " Dad, what's a black person?"  I was so moved by that and so proud of us.  I mean, he's nearly six years old!

It's like my husband told me later, "We grew up knowing inequality first and learning tolerance later.  I'm glad it's going to be the opposite way for our boys."  My kids do not understand differences in races in any kind of negative way at all. In fact, they just don't notice it.  People are people.   I think that's a gift we've given them.  It was sad--and a bit embarrassing--to have to tell them that people owned other people because those people were different from them.

The saddest part for me was that all of today's children could be like mine if only my generation and the generations before mine would see that race does not define a person.  We're doing our children a disservice by pointing out differences; we should be pointing out similarities.  We need to teach unity rather than division.  I don't mean to sound preachy or anything like that; I simply saw the world through a child's eyes today.  And I like what I saw.  And I'm truly glad that my little family is trying to make a difference--even if only by two children at a time.  My husband also wisely pointed out that this is how it starts.

Our children will teach others and then will teach their children one day.  It moved me in a way that is really hard for me to put into words right now. In essence, everyone wants to grow up and "change the world."  Today, we did.