Cameron's Reflections on Racism

Being a multiracial family has made all of us more visible and changed each of us in our experience of the world. I know that for myself, but sometimes I forget that Cameron is changed by this, too. And I like what I see.

Some of it makes me sad -- the other day Cameron sought me out at a park to tell me that a group of kids "weren't playing nice." When I questioned him, he said that whenever they saw a black child, they would yell, "Augh! It's a black kid! Keep away from the black kid!" A few minutes later, I happened upon the kids, who were discussing that if a black kid came near them, they'd tell them to go away. "There's one," said one boy, pointing at Matthew. As you might imagine, I was not pleased with this game and marched on over to tell them exactly who "that black kid" was and that they'd better stop their game pronto.

But here's the good part of this: Last night, as I was putting Cameron to bed, he began to rehash the playground scene. "Remember how those kids were being mean?" he asked. "That made me mad. I am NOT the kind of kid who makes fun of other people! I was looking all over the playground to tell them that that game was NOT nice. And then I saw YOU telling them that that wasn't nice! Right? Because we are NOT the kind of people who think it is OK to be mean to other people. And when I see people making fun of black kids, I will go up to those mean kids and say, 'That is not nice,' and then I will say to the black kids, 'Hey, why don't you play with me?'"

That's my boy.