FacingRacismLR

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I have a step-son, and he’s 20. He’s a very good kid, but he has braids in his hair. I’ll never
forget the neighbor that lived across the street from us when he was younger. She would treat
him like he was a little thug. He was very respectful, but because he had braids in his hair,
she was looking at him like he was something that he’s not. I didn’t appreciate that, because
she didn’t know this young man. She didn’t know his character, what he is really built of, but
because of an outward appearance, she automatically assumed that he was bad. Why does it
have to be that someone’s skin color defines how they’re going to act?
My daughter is light skinned and she has long hair. She goes to school, and she comes
home and she’s like, “Mom, am I mixed? Am I Mexican? People ask me every day what color
I am or why my hair is long.” And I say, “Your grandmother is five shades darker than you
and her hair is just as long as yours. I mean, that’s just the type of hair you have. You got it
from your dad’s side of the family.” Why does this have to be an issue? I don’t agree with
that. It’s disheartening.
I tell my daughter, regardless of what anybody says, you have to love yourself. And nobody
in this world is better than you are. She loves everybody, and we try not to live in a world of
“white people are bad” or anything like that because I don’t necessarily think that’s true. I
don’t think that white people are bad. I don’t think that black people are bad. I think that there
are people who do things that are bad, and there are people who do things that are good.