Let me start off with the disclaimer that I adore my mother. Tonight’s dinner was at a small Mexican restaurant around the corner from my house. I arrived about three minutes before my mom and grandmother, just enough time to realize how tired I am.
We talked about what grandma would have for dinner and then set into enjoying the toasted chips and fresh salsa. And then began discussing things, yeah we talk about things like that. Last night Ducky and I’d been watching First Edition, Inside Edition, crap I don’t know the name of it, but he’s hooked. I had to laugh, stop the presses, big headlines from Inside Edition: “Sandra Bullock Drops Two Bombshells!” So I have to ask, “Except for Jessie James, who didn’t see Sandra filing for divorce coming?”
My mother needs to move out of the fifties, “Why is it that Madonna, Jolie, and Sandra Bullock have to adopted black babies, couldn’t they find white? It’s just so sad they’re putting those poor little babies into a bad position. Who’s going to teach them about being black?”
“Mom, maybe Sandra just wanted to adopt a baby that needed love? If she was trying to make a statement she wouldn’t have kept it a secret for three months. That woman needs to open up a school for keeping secrets.”
“But how do they explain their mommy is white?”
“Mom, who cares that Louie’s mommy is white?”
Suddenly the mouth of my grandmother opens (her mind is apparently stuck in the forties) “Children can be so mean, that poor little boy is going to have kids saying, ‘Look at the little nigger.”
And with that in the middle of a cute little Mexican Restaurant around the corner from my house, I was Gobsmacked by the blind rudeness of maturity.
Fuck, I need a drink.
Cele
Thursday, April 29, 2010
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9 comments:
Well, someone who says that is going to say that no matter what color his mother is......
More likely they're going to say, "Look at that lucky little nigger."
And what you should have pointed out to dear little racist great-grandmother is that, for the most part, the only idiots who use the N-word are rude old people and young black people.
Also, I'd like to point out that he'll probably grow up in a neighborhood with neighbors like Jay-Z and Beyonce, The Smith-Pinketts, Halle Berry, Denzel Washington....Or shit, go to school with Angie & Brad's kids. I would imagine the only time he hears the word "nigger" will be on the radio or television.
Oh dear. While I would say on balance I love my family, I have to say a lot of mine make yours look positively progressive and liberal. Sigh.
I will give your grandmother credit for the fact she was trying to say that kids might be mean (and not justifiably) to young Master Bullock. But yeah, sometimes their minds are stuck back in the parlance of the day, if you will.
Psam, I figured Louie will go to a school with high tuition and potentially body guards. I'm sure such behavior wouldn't be excepted.
Fii - Ask Psam to tell you about her Christmas dinner conversation with grandma. It's a dozie.
Hahaha... I believe I blogged it.
I know...I know...I grew up in Springfield - I should know better than to ask questions like this - but indulge my naive mind. ...why would a kid have to learn about "being black"? ...does he have some fundamental difference to "being white"?
Just announce to the kid when he's 10 that his skin is dark, throw confetti at him and call it good - aside from a few medical conditions he's more susceptible to - this seems like the only difference.
(Aside from a slightly larger penis size average - but who's going to complain?!)
OMG, Cele, you slay me!!! (Scott is listening to my giggles and gales of laughter as I type this...)
Hi Cele - I love this post. I'd need a drink too. My mom got really weird the last couple of years before she died, and would have said something like that. She had the excuse of dementia; she was never prejudiced before. I have a black friend in Sacremento CA who talks alot about learning to be black. It's been interesting to be part of her journey since she was adopted by a white Mormon family in Montana and was raised as their housekeeper. Slavery is not dead in the US, it just goes through different legal channels these days.
Sandra, I certainly believe that people need to learn about their heritage, this would include "being black" - I don't believe you have to be of a specific race to teach "being any colour."
Side - you get to take them out next time. *pffft!*
Lynnblossom - so good to see you out and about, you've been missed. I agree slavery isn't dead by a long shot in this country.
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