Question regarding racial stuff - splitoff from Imus thread
Since we have a ton of people in different ethnic groups on this board, I figured I could get some good advice :)
As I mentioned in the Imus thread, some comments & terms I never knew were racist slurs, are. My family is very relaxed (I guess?) about different races. Meaning, I grew up in a mixed neighborhood and our black neighbors would come visit, my best friend (who was black) and I would stay the night at each other's house all the time, my parents go to a mixed church, etc. Even though I've always known about racism, it's never really been a part of my life, and my family doesn't really identify people they know as being black, white, etc. We just identify them by their name.
Now, I've raised my kids the same way. My older son (dark hair, darker skin) is starting to figure out that people are different races, and I'm sure he hears racist stuff in school, but he still doesn't identify his friends by their race, and when he has a new friend over, I never know if they're going to be black, white, hispanic, etc. (which is great). But my younger (blonde & fair skinned) son has no clue. He just thinks that some people are darker than others. In fact, I was talking to one of the other moms (who is black) and he tells her that she is brown lol. She agrees, and then he says "my brother is brown too". Everyone just laughed it off because he said it so innocently, but my question is this...
Should I sit him down and explain to him about different races and racism so that he doesn't get his ass beat if he makes an innocent observation that might offend the wrong person? I'd rather him go through life just seeing people as people, but I don't think that's realistic, it's like I mentioned earlier about not knowing "nappy headed" was a racial slur. Opinions would be appreciated :)
Re: Question regarding racial stuff - splitoff from Imus thread
How can you have gone through life mixed with all races and NOT know that "nappy" is an insult to most black women? In my experience, that's a huge thing.
Re: Question regarding racial stuff - splitoff from Imus thread
How old is he? Geez, I don't even remember how I learned about different races... I would definately explain to him that there are certain words and phrases that offend people...
Re: Question regarding racial stuff - splitoff from Imus thread
Well it's not like I have to explain it, I was just stating facts. How I could have "not" known is not the issue.
Bella, he's 7. And I'm sure you're right. I need to go ahead and explain it all to him :)
Re: Question regarding racial stuff - splitoff from Imus thread
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Andygirl
How can you have gone through life mixed with all races and NOT know that "nappy" is an insult to most black women? In my experience, that's a huge thing.
I think she means that she didn't know that it was classified as a racist term, not that calling someone nappy isn't insulting... As I said in another post, I LEARNED that word from my black female friends (and they didn't say it was racist). So... but I found this
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...l=chi-news-hed
Even if it wasn't seen as a racist term by most people... I think that it is NOW! Now that all this controversy has been stirred up due to Imus' comment, I wouldn't recommend anyone go around using that word!
Re: Question regarding racial stuff - splitoff from Imus thread
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Andygirl
How can you have gone through life mixed with all races and NOT know that "nappy" is an insult to most black women? In my experience, that's a huge thing.
Cultural reasons perhaps - I've never heard of it, but maybe that's because I'm a Brit and live in the UK.
I wouldn't have known it was an insult, but conversely I'd be unlikely to use it for the same reason.
Similarly, I'm sure I could come up wth some British insults you'd not heard of.
Phil.