As a child, my childhood was very full and happy. My family was full of smiles, laughs, hugs, good food and generally all the happiness that is included in every TV show, cartoon and book was there. However, in the world outside of my window, there was PLENTY of racism and the chaos that went along with it. In my lifetime there was racism, marches, a Vietnam war, and riots and crazy speeches and the whole nine. I was a little girl when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, when Malcolm X was killed, when JFK was killed, and when the country was just in a fervor over race and war. I lived in the South on top of all of that.
For many children this country, this kind of fervor had a negative impact, or at least a life-changing impact such as the Little Rock Nine. Books have been written, movies have been made and I am sure that it does not escape anyone how grave growing up in those times were. This does not even mean that persons of White decent did not have some of these experiences. Can you imagine who cant be friends with whom, who cannot love whom and so on. This was a crazy time.
The outcome...I am unscathed. I do not have any abject feelings about White people, our government, Black people, or anyone else. My family was encouraging, let me know that I was loved and special and really did not discuss much what was going on in the outside world. I am not necessarily someone who will pick up a cause and beat down the pavement to make it keep happening but, I am passionate things. I know that things matter and that I must speak on them but this also speaks to why childhood and family building is sooooo very important to me. I was so comfortable and secure in my home that none of the rest of the world mattered. My home was my world.
I see that this is not necessarily so in other parts of the world. Children are bent on violence, hatred, and so many negative things because of their surroundings. I think that it would help to separate things for kids again. we need shows, music, and things for kids again. This will help them to be safe, and feel safe in their world. I think that this will help kids separate the bad from the good and know that bad is not everywhere....this is our job as creators of a better world for our children.
Since you grown up in that era where racism was truely evident, did you feel like you have to be better than your white peer? I know when I was the only black in my classes, I felt like I had to study harder and to prove to my teachers that I belong in those classes. I was taught to love everyone no matter what their ethic was. However I just felt like the teachers did not thought I belong in the high academic classes. I could had been creating more stress on me than necessary.
ReplyDeleteAlso do you feeling like you was hindered because those thing that was going in the world was not being discussed with you? Are we limiting our children growth when we do not talk about what is going on in the world now?