Life Matters

I hope he is brown

By LINDA PETERSEN
Posted 1/30/19

While out with my 4-year-old granddaughter, Rosie, she mentioned that her mom has a new baby. Knowing that her mom wasn't due until March, I, mistakenly, corrected her that there is no new baby yet. There is!" was her indignant response. "He is moving"

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Life Matters

I hope he is brown

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While out with my 4-year-old granddaughter, Rosie, she mentioned that her mom has a new baby. Knowing that her mom wasn’t due until March, I, mistakenly, corrected her that there is no new baby yet. “There is!” was her indignant response. “He is moving around inside mommy’s tummy.” Oh, so she has a new baby but he is still kept under wraps, unseen until he “comes out.” Rosie then declared, “I hope he is brown!” Her response demonstrated the creativity of a young child for whom all possibilities are open. Rosie, herself, is somewhat brown, a cross between the skin of her mom and of her dad, my son, Steven. Of course she is too young to understand that if both her mom and the baby’s father are Caucasian, the baby, most likely will not be brown.

Some families, such as ours, may be a rainbow of skin tones. I remember shopping many years ago with my daughter, Dinora, who is Mayan Indian. She was in the infant seat of the carriage, and the cashier gazed upon her amazing tan colored cuteness and blurted out, “She sure must look like her father!” I laughed and informed the woman that she was adopted. Another time, I was watching Dinora in dance class, and an African American girl with an awesome head of brown curly hair danced next to her. Noticing her Caucasian mom at the end of class, my assumption was this girl had also been adopted. Several months later, her African American dad picked her up, and I giggled to myself that my original conclusion had been wrong.

The discussion about skin color leads naturally to a discussion about race. This brings to mind a study that had amazed me when I was in college, done right after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jane Elliot, a Caucasian teacher, went into her classroom one day and excitedly told her class that they were going to change the way things were done. Citing an untrue “scientific fact” that blue-eyed children were more intelligent, from that moment on, blue-eyed children became privileged. They were able to have longer recess time, second helpings of dessert at lunch, could use the bubbler at school for a drink and sit in the front of the class, encouraged to participate in classroom discussions because of their superiority. Brown-eyed children had to sit in the back of the class, and were reprimanded for the slightest infraction. They were never called on to answer questions, were unable to use the bubbler, had to wear ribbons around their necks so everyone would know that they were inferior and were repeatedly put down.

The results were amazing. By the end of that day, the blue-eyed children viciously put down the brown-eyed children. Some of the quiet, blue-eyed children who previously had trouble academically did great on their classroom assignments, and the normally successful brown-eyed students did not do as well.

The next day, Ms. Elliot reported she had made a mistake and that it was really the brown-eyed children who were superior and the experiment was reversed. Academically, the same results were demonstrated where the brown-eyed children did better than the blue-eyed children, but the brown-eyed children who had experienced racism the day before did not taunt and put down the blue eyed children because they had learned what racism felt like.

Of course, such a study could not be conducted today because of the permanent psychological harm it could have done to the participating students, but the information still remains relevant. Racism is alive and well and very arbitrary. What would the results be today if we were to switch places with another race and feel the pain of prejudice? Would it teach us acceptance and tolerance? Could we possibly project that same acceptance and tolerance without being bonked on the head with such an experience? One would certainly hope so. Bring on that baby who is brown! Let him enter a world free of bigotry and preconception. Just let him just be.

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