Color Blind

So tomorrow I am chaperoning Anaya's class to the International Civil Rights Museum and I can tell you that I definitely dreading the conversation I know will result. Up until this point my child has been color blind, all people while they may appear different all were equal in her eyes. And I actually appreciated and even envied the innocence that she viewed the world with.

However, tomorrow I will have to explain to my black child why people who look just like her white teacher  and white classmates did not treat people who looked like her with the same level of dignity that they treated each other with. How do you explain to a 7 year old "White people used to hate black people, and we built a whole museum because of it.... oh but they don't hate you now so don't change your opinion of your white teacher or your white classmates".

Needless to say I definitely don't think this is an age appropriate field trip because I now have to walk the fine line on educating her about the struggles of our ancestors, without badly tarnishing the innocence she views people with. If I am too passive then she will miss the lesson and our ancestors will have struggled in vain because our next generation will have missed the point of why they struggled and what they stood for. Too aggressive and I turn her into what our ancestors fought so hard to abolish, which is hatred based on skin color. I have to trust my 7 year old to not only learn but fully comprehend a very grown up lesson that I honestly don't know that she is ready to learn.

I am sure many of us remember watching Roots or Rosewood in school and afterwards I distinctly remember a deep sense of hatred for any and all white people, simply because I was given a lesson that my childhood mind wasn't ready to learn. I pray she handles it better than I did.

In case your wondering here is the link for the museum:
http://www.sitinmovement.org/