race and the 4 year old

[flea]

Last night Casper and I were watching American Idol when a Barack Obama commercial came on. She watched and the said aloud, "Barack Obama." I said, "He's running for president." She said, "But he's BROWN!" I replied something like, "Yes, so he is." Then a beat while I tried to think of something more affirming to say, and I came out with, "Daddy and I like his ideas and are thinking about voting for him."

I swear, if the kid would ask me about how babies are made, I would be just fine, but nooooo, it's got to be race and gender and class and stuff. I tried to respond to "But he's BROWN!" with the same neutral "there are all kinds of people" tone I use when she says things like, "That man is SO HAIRY!" or "Why does he have woman hair?"

I just feel so unprepared for parenthood sometimes.

Comments

[susanw.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to explain to my 4-year-old what a president is. If Obama wanted to be a pirate, a knight, or a king, I'm sure he'd have Annabel's full support.

Her daycare is unusually multi-ethnic for lily-white North Seattle. Her best friend is biracial, black father, white mother--his birthday party was the same afternoon as the WA caucus, and my tongue-in-cheek comment was, "Before the party we have to go vote on whether Annabel or Eli can dream of being president when she/he grows up."