« A Full Set of Instructions |Home| Blue Skies Smiling at Me »
May the Dream be a Reality
By karen | January 21, 2008
When you are a parent the tough questions always come up, the questions about all of the perplexities and complexities about life, people and the world around us.
I was faced with one of those questions this past week. I think I did okay with the answer but I could see the hurt in my daughters face as I explained it.
She asked me why we celebrate Martin Luther King day. I explained that we celebrate this day because Martin Luther King Jr. was a great man who did some great things but that he had been assassinated.
“What does ‘assassinated’ mean?“
“It means that somebody killed him.”
“Why?”
“Because he was promoting civil rights and some people didn’t agree with his ideas”
“What is “civil rights”?
And this is when I could see the hurt in her eyes, what I told her next was incomprehensible to her.
You see, my daughters best friend is “brown”. If I describe her as “black” I get corrected. My daughter has said many times since she was in kindergarten that “I am a little white girl and C is a little brown girl, and even though we are different, we are still bestest friends forever”.
So how do you explain to an 8 year old that before Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement that her best friend would have had to sit at the back of the bus? How do you explain that there were and still are people who think that her sweet and beautiful best friend in the world is not as good as she is just because of the brown color of her skin?
How do you explain that?
I did my best.
She doesn’t understand how people could think like that. I don’t want her to understand.
I don’t understand myself.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
May his Dream be a Reality.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Topics: Living the Power, Real Life |
January 21st, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Karen,
I too have always wondered why can’t people like you for who you are not how much money you have or the color of your skin.I sometimes wonder why do people choose to like or dislike a person before they have even really met them. I admire your daughter for having the courage to be different from others who would not even consider that someone could be their friend just because they are different. That is a personal quality that she should be proud of no matter what others say. I hope that their friendship will last forever.
My three kids are very similar to yours in the fact that they don’t care whether their friends are rich or poor, brown or white. And I have been faced with many questions of why doesn’t this person or that like me? and it always boils down to the fact that money and looks matter more than what a persons true character does.
maybe someday people will stop and realize that true friendships that last have nothing to do with our looks or money but our character.
I hope everything else is going well for your family.
Audrey
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:47 am
Thanks, Audrey
At the end we’re all connected in this great big Universe…
Money and looks should never be a measure of a human being…
January 29th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Karen:
This touched me. Even though I don’t have children, I certainly feel for them when they don’t understand certain things that happen in our world.
All we can do is do the best we can when explaining things to young children and let them ask us more questions. Trying to explain why MLK was killed to a child is like trying to explain to an adult why God stands by while “evil” things are going on all around us.
January 29th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
That’s a good analogy Stephen!
There are just some things in life that we humans have a hard time adequately explaining!
April 19th, 2008 at 10:07 am
i had a dream that the guy i luv that doesnt love me kissing & HOLDING ME & I FELT GOOD & WERE TOGETHER EVEN THOUGH HE DOESNT LOVE ME IN REALITY .