Tonight, on the evening of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, I am celebrating something that I have learned my kids have no idea about. I am celebrating the fact that they are clueless… please allow me to explain.
The children created these lovely “peace plants” in art class in school this week. The teacher drew a stem and leaves, and the children made handprints in brown, pink and white to make the “flowers.” I asked Mikayla about their significance, and she started to explain what she had learned about Dr. King and his desire for “all of us to be free.” She used the word “us.” But she wasn’t sure why people weren’t free at that time…
I started trying to explain to my 6-year-old that when Dr. King was alive, our world was very different, and especially black people were treated very badly. I was stunned by her next question. “What are black people?” … And her next question after that, “Are we white people, or black people?” She truly had no idea.
My kids attend a school that is roughly 60/40 black/white student population. It has never occurred to her that skin color defines people and it certainly has not factored into how she would befriend someone or treat someone. And I celebrate that.
Eradicating racism in our culture requires us as parents to instill in our kids that hearts and minds make people, not outward appearance. We have to also practice what we preach, every day. I know I am not alone in this intentionality as a parent, and it gives me hope that there will come a day when these words of Dr. Martin Luther King will come true: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”