Are You Teaching Your Child About Racism

Do you see the world in black or white?  If so you’re missing mesmerizing colors.  I created this quote several months ago, and tucked it away. Today I pull it out.  I’ve been watching the coverage on Donald Sterling, owner of the LA Clippers, and I’ve had so many things go through my mine.  I debated whether I should do this post.

I wavered because I have diverse followers and I didn’t want to offend anyone with my thoughts and truths.  However, there are times that we need to put on our big girl pants and face reality.  I am known to give things to you straight and I don’t always offer a chaser.  But lets not be afraid to discuss uncomfortable issues on Mother 2 Mother.  After all, it’s Real Talk for Real Women.

As an African American, I’ve encountered my share of racism.  At times blatant and others not so much.  I was profoundly offended when I was listening to Donald Sterling’s words.  It seems that some people’s focus was on his First Amendment rights and other’s focus was on his racist comments. When I was listening to his words, his First Amendment rights was not an issue for me.  First Amendment rights don’t apply when a person is being disrespected.  If you think you’re bold enough to speak it, you have to be bold enough to suffer the consequences of your words.  I applauded the fact that he has been banned from the NBA for life.  NBA= No Bigots Allowed.

Why should his First Amendments rights override another person’s rights to live, play, work and live freely in this country?  Why should other people have to endure his bigoted comments?  Because he has the right to say whatever he wants?  Do we really?  This is a prime case of be careful what you say.

Let me be clear, I’m not saying that a person is not entitled to their opinions.  However, if your opinions are hurtful to another person maybe you should keep it to yourself.  Do you believe people are born racist?  Do you think racism is learned behavior?  I was called the “N” Word for the first time around 11 or 12.  Needless to say, the person who sprouted that word took an ass-whipping.  Before I could respond, my sister gave her a whipping that she will never forget.  I don’t condone violence, so as an adult I would handle things differently.

But at that point, we weren’t about to walk away without leaving her with a memory.  I grow up in a small community, and we were free to roam and be carefree as children.  We played together, we went to school together and some dated outside of their race.  I am happy to say that most of us have remained friends and follow each other on Facebook.  A few of us even worked for the same agency. To me that says a lot of what we truly thought of each other growing up.  I’m proud of my upbringing.

Since I believe racism is taught, I made sure that I educated my daughter on the importance of loving everyone.  I never limited her on who she could play with, socialize with or date unless I believed that person was harmful in some kind of manner.  She had diverse friends growing up and she still has most of them.  She dated outside of  her race in high school.

We must educate our children to not discriminate against another person based on race, religion, sexual preference, gender etc. It may not be how we choose to live, but so be it.  We must have this conversation with our children, so they will know better.  They are the next generation and our future leaders.

You can think what you want; however, your offensive remarks could become public.  Regardless of whether they were supposed to be private or not, there is a price to pay.   It is imperative that each of us think before we speak, period. Being a hateful person is not natural.  There’s a hole in your heart.  On-line posts are no loner private.  So, what you say in another’s presence may not remain private either.   Lesson learned.  Are you teaching your child about racism or turning the other cheek?